Description
**THIS IS A VINYL LP**
Release Date: 2025
Label: Newvelle Records
Track Listing
Side A
- Hobo Man
- Smokestack Lightning
- Three O’Clock Blues
- Cat Squirrel
- Up Above My Head
- The Things I Used to Do
Side B
- I Got My Eyes on You
- Honey Bee
- I Wonder
- Mojo Hand
- Bring It On Home
- Rock Me Mama
Notes
180-gram vinyl
The legendary Little Freddie King returns to Newvelle Records with a stripped down – and decidedly different – sound. The blues titan appears here just a few years following his acclaimed release Going Upstairs but now in raw, unadorned form. Paul DeFiglia on upright bass and Bobby Lewis on harp give a little structure for Little Freddie to expound from. Like a private conversation with a legend. A front porch record.
Here, Little Freddie plays classic works, many of which he first learned as an eight-yeard-old on a jury-rigged cigar box guitar in Mississippi. These are the songs he loves – from Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon,and Sister Rosetta Tharpe – and transformed in hands shaped by eight decades of living.
Little Freddie King is surely a legend in New Orleans. True royalty. You can see his face on multiple murals, and when he steps foot onto his front porch or takes his “two-wheel Cadillac” out for a spin, everyone knows him and pays their respects. He’s almost as well known for his storytelling as for his music. A born raconteur, Freddie’s songs are stories too, and his lyrics tell you about his remarkable life. However, for this record I asked Freddie if he would play the songs he loves the best, starting with the songs he first learned in 1940’s Mississippi when he jury-rigged a guitar out of a cigar box at eight years old.
Classic works by Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe are completely transformed in his hands. Take an iconic work like Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning.” Somehow, Freddie makes it his.
We made this record to be as unadorned as possible. Paul DeFiglia holding down the upright bass and Bobby Lewis joining on harp, adding a little structure for Little Freddie to expound from. That’s the idea with this one. Like a private conversation with a legend. A front porch record. – Elan Mehler
Little Freddie King – Guitar and Vocals
Paul DeFiglia – Acoustic Bass
Robert DiTullio – Harmonica
Recording – Jesse Snider, Esplanade Studios New Orleans, Louisiana USA
