Bacon Fat - Juicy Harmonica (1970)

Following the breakup of the Dirty Blues Band in 1968, Rod Piazza and George "Harmonica" Smith formed the Southside Blues Band, touring with Big Mama Thornton and, in 1969, releasing 'George Smith Of The Blues' as George "Harmonica" Smith & His Blues Band. Smith’s 'Juicy Harmonica' from this album is regarded as a chromatic harmonica classic, and the line-up for the album, featuring Smith and "Lightnin'" Rod Piazza on harmonicas, was very unusual at the time. Shortly after the release of '...Of The Blues', British producer Mike Vernon persuaded the band to move to Blue Horizon and to change their name, calling themselves Bacon Fat, after the title of an Andre Williams recording. The line-up of the band at this time, in addition to Smith and Piazza, was Buddy Reed and Gregg Schaefer on guitars, Jerry Smith on bass, Dick Innes on drums, and J. D. Nicholson on piano, and for their first recording Vernon decided to tape an already-scheduled gig opening for, and backing, Pee Wee Crayton. The tracks recorded at the November 1969 gig at the Bar Paradise A Go Go in South-Central L.A. were subsequently released in 1986 by Blue Moon as 'Live at Small’s Paradise'. The following day was spent at the Eldorado Recording Studio in Hollywood, recording tracks for Bacon Fat’s first album 'Grease One For Me', although Smith only appeared on one track as he was also recording a solo album 'No Time For Jive' at the same time, together with Bacon Fat (less Piazza), Pee Wee Crayton and Marshall Hooks. Although Vernon maintains that the segregation of Smith and Piazza on these releases was coincidence, it does mean that the dual-harp format that had made Southside/Bacon Fat successful in the first place was nowhere in evidence on either album. A tour of Europe to promote both albums took the band to the UK in November 1970, and while there Bacon Fat recorded the tracks for their second album, but the sale of the Blue Horizon label to Polydor by CBS delayed the release of 'Tough Dude' until March 1971, allowing the excitement generated by the tour to fade, and ultimately leading to the break-up of the band. They released one single in 1970, but there were also a number of out-takes and live recordings which have only recently surfaced, and so I've collected them all together into one last album by this innovative blues band. 

Track listing

01 Evil (single 1970)
02 Mellow Down Easy (previously unreleased)
03 Ah'w Baby (previously unreleased)
04 Tight Dress (previously unreleased)
05 Blues Feeling (b-side of 'Evil')
06 My Babe (Part 1) (previously unreleased)
07 Hamps' Boogie Woogie (previously unreleased by George Smith)
08 I've Had My Fun (previously unreleased)
09 Help Me (previously unreleased)
10 Off The Wall (previously unreleased)
11 Blues With A Feeling (previously unreleased by George Smith)