Thursday, December 15, 2005

I Can Finally Get With It!

Jimmy McCracklin - I Had to Get With It

Jimmy McCracklin, along with Jimmy Holiday and Jimmy Lewis, is better known as a songwriter, having penned the blues and soul hits "Tramp," "Think" and many others. As a solo artist, however, he has put forth nearly 60 years of blues, rock 'n' roll, soul and funk for a wide range of labels including Peacock, Modern, Chess, Imperial, Minit and Stax. McCracklin's soul sides of the '60s for Imperial and Minit are very good and showcase McCracklin's bluesy vocals and wordy lyrics to great effect. Today's selection is one of his late '60s Minit recordings and cleverly incorporates the name of every state in the country (and Washington, D.C.) in his explanation of why he's in a funky soul bag as opposed to his original blues thing.

I encourage you to check out the EMI/Stateside CD, "I Had to Get With It" to hear the wide range of his work from the Imperial/Minit years. It's one of my favorite CDs!

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