Hip Lankchan

Hip Lankchan - I Am On My Way (Direct From Chicago) - 1977 - MCM

In the 1970s and 1980s, the traditional blues audiences in Chicago's west side blues clubs expected artists to match up to the quality and ability of greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Magic Sarn and Otis Rush. Many of these artists were giants of the post war Chicago Blues boom, and had moved out of Chicago to play to global audiences. There were many new blues artists playing Chicago and other cities around this time, but arguably, they often appealed more to the "middle-class, white audiences" who were part of the late 1960s " blues boom" . This is not to say the blues they played was inferior, but they were moving away from the traditional style blues of the artists already mentioned. This "new" blues style was not always popular with traditional blues lovers in Chicago, and elsewhere. However, Hip Lankchan., with his distinctive guitar sound and harsh vocals, truly belonged in those west side blues clubs, and he retained the affections of this ageing group of the Chicago traditional "Old Guard" blues audiences. Playing with a tight group of west side regulars, Hip plays a set of songs credited to Jimmy Rogers, Magic Sam, Little Walter, B.B. King, Lowel! Fulson and even Chuck Berry, as well as a couple of his own. This album was recorded on the first of November 1976 at Ma Bea's at 3001 West Madison, a stalwart old fashioned blues venue in Chicago. This is .a great Chicago Blues album from an often forgotten "old school" Chicago bluesman. The album was previously released on MCM in 1977 with eight tracks. Four bonus tracks are included here. Try and listen to his "Change My Blues" album.

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 You Left Me With a Broken Heart Lane 5:07
2 I'm on My Way Linkchain 5:16
3 Last Night Little Walter 4:57
4 All Your Love Magic Sam 4:52
5 I Don't Want No Woman Bland 4:20
6 Black Nights Fulson 5:22
7 Reconsider Baby Fulson 5:15
8 Somebody Loan Me a Dime Robinson 5:12
9 Same Old Blues [#] Nix 3:25
10 Why I Sing the Blues [#] King 5:48
11 My Man [#] Linkchain 4:42
12 Johnny B. Goode [#] Berry 4:10

[#] Bonus Tracks on 1996 CD

BAND

Hip Linkchain (Guitar), (Vocals)
Tyrone Centuray (Drums)
Ernest Gatewood (Bass)
Jimmy Miller (Guitar)

BIO

Cancer struck guitarist Hip Linkchain down before he could shed his status as a Chicago blues journeyman. With a fine album on the Dutch Black Magic logo, Airbusters, to his credit shortly before he died, Linkchain might have managed to move up a rung or two in the city's blues pecking order had he lived longer. Born Willie Richard in Mississippi, his odd stage name stemmed from being dubbed "Hipstick" as a lad. (White residents of the area gave his seven-foot-tall dad the name Linkchain because he wore logging chains around his neck). Dad and older brother Jesse both played the blues, and Hip followed in their footsteps. He heard Elmore James, Little Milton, and Sonny Boy Williamson while living in the Delta before relocating to Chicago during the early '50s. Linkchain made inroads on the competitive Chicago circuit during the '50s and '60s, playing with harpists Dusty Brown, Willie Foster, and Lester Davenport. His own band, the Chicago Twisters, was fronted by a very young Tyrone Davis in 1959. Linkchain cut a handful of very obscure 45s for the tiny Lola and Sanns logos prior to the emergence of his debut domestic album for Teardrop Records, Change My Blues, circa 1981. © Bill Dahl, allmusic.com