Little Freddie King - You Don't Know What I Know (2005)

New releases from Little Freddie King are as rare as tours by the Mississippi-by-way-of-New Orleans blues-guitar legend. Signing with the Fat Possum label, the partnership joins King's low-fi but honest juke-joint blues with an imprint that knows how to market this raw sound. Part John Lee Hooker, part Slim Harpo, King's grubby, swampy, backwoods approach won't be mistaken for his unrelated namesake Freddie King's, even at the Texan's most primitive. Joined by right-hand-man drummer and songwriter "Wacko" Wade Wright (who also shot the cover photo), Little Freddie locks onto a riff and rides that groove for an entire song.
Loops on "Looking for My Woman" and a remix of "Chicken Dance" only add to the primal atmosphere, as they did for fellow Fat Possum act R.L. Burnside, who also experimented with the technique. King remains relaxed and connected as he apparently improvises lyrics between jagged guitar licks that make Bo Diddley's seem slick in comparison. With bass, drums, and occasional harp accompaniment creating a thunderous canvas for such a stripped-down affair, King talk-sings these low-down songs with appropriate gruffness. Tough yet tensile, he finds common ground between the sparse backwoods blues of his Delta birthplace and the more urbane but still crude funk-strains of the Crescent City's dark alleys. --Hal Horowitz