Junior Brooks

about

Introducing our major series on the Modern Records downhome blues sessions, these vibrant and historic juke joint recordings were made by Joe Bihari and Ike Turner in deep South locations between late 1951 and early 1952. by John Broven If the Coen brothers are looking for a follow-up to their phenomenally successful film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? then they need look no further than the story behind Modern Downhome blues field sessions of the early 1950s. The location would still be the Deep South, and so would the allusion to Homer's epic, 'The Odyssey'. A vivid opening snapshot to our new series is given by notewriter Jim O'Neal, the founding editor of Living Blues magazine: "The tale of their [the Bihari brothers] exploits in the land of cotton has all the elements of a Dixie docu-drama, complete with an indignant Southern heroine [Lillian McMurry of Trumpet Records], a double-dealing native talent scout [Ike Turner], small town sheriffs and police, subterfuge, disguise, raiders, traitors, spies, and clandestine operations. But no shots were fired in these skirmishes, and the only casualties were in lost record sales revenue, broken contracts, violated trusts, and one unfortunate blues artist's shattered career. The Biharis' battle wagon was a flashy new Cadillac, their artillery a four-channel Magnecord tape recorder, and their ammunition reels of magnetic tape and rolls of cash." Ace Records is packaging these historic - and musically great - recordings into The

top songs

albums

similar artists