Johnny Guitar Watson - Hot Just Like TNT '2009

Tracks list

Tracklist
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01. Hot Little Mama
02. I Love To Love You
03. Hot Little Mama
04. Dont Touch Me
05. Too Tired
06. Lonely Girl
07. Aint Gonna Hush
08. Those Lonely, Lonely Nights
09. Oh Baby
10. Someone Cares For Me
11. Ruben
12. Give A Little
13. Love Me Baby
14. She Moves Me
15. Ruben
16. Three Hours Past Midnight
17. Love Bandit (Gangster Of Love)

This generous serving of 28 tracks focuses on Watsons mid-1950s recordings (both
released and unissued) for RPM, throwing in some songs by singers Devonia
Williams, Jeannie Barnes, and Crodella de Milo (on whose songs he was
accompanist); a couple of 1957-58 singles for Keen; and some previously
unavailable tracks he recorded for Johnny Otis, probably dating from the late
1950s and early 1960s. This is worthwhile for fans of Watson in particular as
well as fans of the R&B-blues crossover sound of the 50s in general. Its a
patchy set, however, in which Watson and his associates try on several different
styles for size, but not always with memorable success. Watsons stinging guitar
is satisfying on cuts like Hot Little Mama, and one can tell that it was
probably played at a volume that challenged the limitations of 1950s engineering
technology; but his playing is sometimes less to the fore in the arrangement
than is desirable. For the most part, the material is adequate but not exciting.
Sometimes it follows the lead of Watsons avowed hero Ray Charles, while other
times it is shaded with doo wop and New Orleans R&B. On the Keen tracks he
ventures into Larry Willliams-styled rock; on Gangster of Love (one of the
standouts on the disc), he accomplishes swinging and boasting
first-person-narrative blues. The tunes certainly arent as impressive as the
instrumental skills of Watson and the RPM/Modern house bands overseen by Maxwell
Davis. Among the tracks, one will find the 1956 single Three Hours Past Midnight
- a slow blues that, according to the liner notes, the teenaged Frank Zappa
considered his number one record which had a big influence on his own guitar
playing.

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