Big Belly Mama: Listener's Circle Vol. 51, by Albert Smith

Big Belly Mama: Listener's Circle Vol. 51

by Albert Smith

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1.	Tell Me Mama 02:14	buy track
2.	Walk on Walker 01:41	buy track
3.	Biscuit Roller 02:09	buy track
4.	Hen House 01:51	buy track
5.	Monkey Man 03:00	buy track
6.	Big Leg Woman 02:38	buy track
7.	Big Belly Mama 02:20	buy track
8.	Down in Burningham 01:33	buy track
9.	Give Me Back My Wig 03:48	buy track
10.	Little Boy Blue 01:57	buy track
11.	NNP 01:12	buy track
12.	Roll Is Gonna Be Called 01:00	buy track
13.	You Are My Sunshine 02:30	buy track
14.	Albert's Rap'n Boogie 01:06	buy track

about

Without your support, this Albert Smith record would never be heard. And what an artist Albert was. I was introduced to him by the Columbia, South Carolina, blues artist Drink Small. Drink took me deep into rural South Carolina to meet his neighborhood music instructor Albert Smith. Albert lived in the same small house where he grew up. He still had the old piano his parents had bought him when he was a young man, from Sears, Roebuck & Co. For his entire life, Albert had never left his home county! He made his living playing in churches and teaching piano lessons.

In this recording, you hear a glimpse of a forgotten America — Albert’s take on barrelhouse piano applied to blues and spirituals. I recorded this music in the 1990s and made a few trips down to visit him. I even bought him a new piano when he asked for one, though I treasure these recordings with his, old out-of-tune upright: they are otherworldly.

A few tracks of Albert's have been issued on compilations, but I had so many recordings, I could not figure out how to issue this work. In comes my old friend Ardie Dean. Ardie spent dozens of hours listening to all of Albert's recordings, and painstakingly sequenced what I believe is a true masterpiece.

As Ardie puts it, “Listen to what joy, pain and God sounds like from 81 years of sanctified piano and anointed singing.”

“Some of the prettiest blues you wanna hear,” Albert Smith proclaims on this recording.

Rarely will you hear piano that stomps the boogie-woogie so hard or that sounds so ethereal. Stunningly deep tracks from a vast landscape of timeless musical styles. Here are 15th century nursery rhymes to Tin Pan Alley to 1930s blues and 1940s jumps to otherworldly spirituals, all delivered in bare-naked honesty. What an amazing record, what an amazing man ... if you ever wondered what Bob Dylan or John Lennon might have listened to on their ‘off’ time, this is it."

You could scour the whole world of recordings and never discover another Albert Smith!

credits

released February 1, 2022

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Music Maker Recordings Hillsborough, North Carolina

Music Maker Foundation tends the roots of traditional American music by meeting the day-to-day needs of the artists who create it, ensuring their voices are heard, and giving all people access to our nation’s hidden musical treasures.

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