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From Joe's Blues Blog February 2023
Blues Song(s) And Artist(s) For February 2023: The song is "Rough Dried Woman", and the artist is "Big Mac", believed to be Willie McNeal, b 1901, d 7/18/1972, a truck driver by profession, out of Arkansas. The base for this was one of four instrumentals by Howlin' Wolf's band members in '63, featuring Hubert Sumlin on lead guitar, Eddie "Playboy" Taylor on guitar, Little Johnny Jones on piano, and Willie Williams on drums. The Big Mac vocal was over- dubbed later by Don Clay, a Chicago record man, who owned the Dawn label. If you see a copy of it on vinyl, you'll notice that the writing credit is by (B.)Earle,(Don) Clay, (Willie) Williams. Yes, it's the drummer on the record. If you listen to it, you might want to lower your volume a bit -- this is not a "blues shouter", it's a "blues screamer". The recording was leased to Stan Lewis, owner of the Jewel, Paula, and Ronn labels, out of Shreveport, Louisiana, who released it there, and it was a hit in the area, before it went national. The flip side of both releases following is the original instrumental version by Wolf's band members. The Ronn records version is # R-8. It was also released on the Dawn label, # 102, both in '66 (other sources say '67). Yes, it's been covered by others, including Magic Slim and Charlie Musselwhite. Whatever, just hang on & listen ! Enjoy !
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