Son Seals - Deluxe Edition

Son Seals

Son Seals - Deluxe Edition


Over 60 minutes of the best from the Bad Axe. Includes Your Love Is Like A Cancer, Funky Bitch, Bad Axe and Buzzard Luck, plus a previously unreleased track from 1972. All music remastered in 20-bit audio. Packaging includes never-before-seen photos and mini-poster.


Available On CD
Price: $16.98
Add to Cart
1. I Believe To My Soul 4:14
2. Going Home 3:49
3. Bad Axe 3:13
4. Don't Pick Me For Your Fool 5:01
5. Buzzard Luck 5:04
6. Telephone Angel 5:26
7. Life All By Myself 3:44
8. Your Love Is Like A Cancer 4:35
9. Landlord At My Door 4:26
10. Now That I'm Down 6:01
11. I Can't Hold Out 4:18
12. Before The Bullets Fly 3:54
13. Good Woman Bad 4:38
14. Funky Bitch 3:47
15. Hot Sauce 2:54

Son Seals, vocal and lead guitar with:

Rhythm guitar: Steve Plair (1, 6); Lacy Gibson (11, 14, 15); Mark Weaver (5, 9); John Randolph (12, 13); Justin Smith (4)

Bass: Harry "Snapper" Mitchum, except: John Riley (7, 8, 10); Johnny B. Gayden (2, 3, 4); Noel Neal (12, 13)

Drums: Charles L. Caldwell (7, 8, 10); Bert "Top Hat" Robinson (1, 6); Tony Gooden (11, 14, 15); David B. Anderson (5, 9); Willie Hayes (2); Ray "Killer" Allison (3); David Russell (1, 4, 12, 13)

Organ: Johnny "Big Moose" Walker (7, 8, 10); Sidney James Wingfield (2, 3, 4); Tony Zamagni (12, 13)

Piano: Alberto Gianquinto (1, 6); King Solomon (5, 9); Sidney James Wingfield (2)

Trumpet: Kenneth Cooper (1, 6); Paul Howard (5, 9); Dan Rabinovitz (12)

Flugelhorn: Dan Rabinovitz (13)

Flute: Red Groetzinger (13)

Alto Sax: Henri Ford (5, 9)

Tenor Sax: Reggie Allmon (1, 6); A. C. Reed (11, 14, 15); Jerry Wilson (5, 9; solo on 5); Red Groetzinger (12; solo on 12)

Baritone Sax: Henri Ford (5, 9) Red Groetzinger (12)

Trombone: Bill MacFarland (1, 5, 6, 9)

Horns on 5 & 9 arranged by Bill MacFarland

Horns on 12 arranged by Red Groetzinger

Horns on 13 arranged by John Randolph

Tracks 7, 8 & 10 produced by Son Seals and Bruce Iglauer at Sound Studios, Chicago, IL, 1972.

Tracks 1 & 6 produced by Son Seals, Bruce Iglauer and Richard McLeese at Curtom Studios, Chicago, IL, 1976.

Tracks 11, 14 & 15 produced by Son Seals, Bruce Iglauer and Richard McLeese, live at the Wise Fools Pub, Chicago, IL, 1978.

Tracks 5 & 9 produced by Son Seals and Bruce Iglauer at Curtom Studios, Chicago, IL, 1979.

Track 2 produced by Son Seals and Bruce Iglauer at Streeterville Studios, Chicago, IL, 1984.

Track 3 produced by Son Seals and Bruce Iglauer at Streeterville Studios, Chicago, IL, 1991.

Tracks 12 & 13 produced by Son Seals and Bruce Iglauer at Streeterville Studios, Chicago, IL, 1994.

Track 4 produced by Son Seals and Bruce Iglauer, live at Buddy Guy's Legends, Chicago, IL, 1996.

Co-producers: David Axelbaum (12, 13)

Engineers: Stu Black (7, 8, 10), Freddie Breitberg (1, 5, 6, 9), Ken Rasek (11, 14, 15), Justin Niebank (2), David Axelbaum (3, 12, 13), David Brickson (12, 13), Timothy Powell (4)

Mixers: Stu Black (8, 10), Freddie Breitberg (11, 14, 15), Justin Niebank (2), David Axelbaum (3, 4), Jeff Lane (4), Rob Bochnik (7)

Re-mastered for the Deluxe Edition at Studio Chicago, Chicago, IL by Brian Jensen and Bruce Iglauer

Deluxe Edition Series produced by Bob DePugh, Bruce Iglauer & David Forte
Design by David Forte
Cover photo by Steve Kagan
Back cover photo by Paul Natkin
Back inlay photo by Randi Anglin
Inside inlay photo by David Gahr

For pure passion, grit and "deep blues" feeling, no Chicago bluesman equals the Bad Axe, Son Seals. From his first Alligator album, recorded almost 30 years ago, to the searing live performances that he still delivers as he nears the age of 60, Son has never let up on the intensity of his blues.

Son was literally born into the blues. He was raised in the back room of his father's juke joint, The Dipsy Doodle Club, in Osceola, Arkansas, and tutored by his father on both drums and guitar. He was leading his own band as a teenager before hitting the road as a sideman with Earl Hooker and Albert King, two of the greatest blues guitarists of their generation.

Son moved to Chicago's South Side in 1971 and began making a name for himself. He jammed with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Magic Slim and with Alligator's first artist, Hound Dog Taylor. When Hound Dog started touring after the release of his debut album, he asked Son to fill in at his regular weekend gig at the tiny Expressway Lounge on 55th Street. That's where I first saw Son, playing on a borrowed guitar, singing through his amp, fronting a ragged trio. Even though he was performing standard blues tunes, t here was a fire in his music in the sheets of distorted guitar notes, in his ultra-hard attack, in the waves of speed picking followed by "take your time" bending, and above all in the total commitment of his singing that marked a blues master in the rough.

The Son Seals Blues Band, released in 1973, was the third Alligator album ever. Recorded in two nights, totally live, it was full of rough edges (heightened by the crude sound of his ultra-cheap Montgomery Ward's Norma guitar). The sound was raw, but his passion poured onto the recording.

Son began honing his music and his commanding, man-of-few words stage presence on the road. By the time he cut Midnight Son in 1976 he had totally matured as a bluesman, counterpointing his searing guitar (this time a Sears Roebuck Silvertone) and gruff vocals with inventive, strutting horns. Midnight Son was hailed by Rolling Stone and The New York Times as one of the great blues records of the decade, and marked the emergence of Son as a national and international blues icon. Since then, he's gone from strength to strength, touring worldwide, cutting eight Alligator albums (two of them live) filled with his own originals and his inventive reworkings of other tunes. Though he's faced a series of health problems in recent years, the Son Seals passion and fire and the uncompromising, in-your-face quality of his blues remains as strong as it was 30 years ago. He doesn't just play and sing the blues. He is the blues.

 --Bruce Iglauer