Album Review: Jimmy Reed – ‘Jimmy Reed at Carnegie Hall’

By Jeff Swindoll Nov 15, 2007, 16:20 GMT

I guess this goes against “print the legend,” but it comes as a bit of an amusing revelation that this album really wasn’t recorded at the hall in question.  According to the new liner notes by Jerry McCulley, Reed had appeared at a Carnegie Hall blues festival before but this particular album was recorded at Bell Sound in Manhattan and Chicago’s Universal Recording. 

Wherever the album was recorded, Reed still served as an influence to groups like the Rolling Stones.  Two of his songs “Big Boss Man” and “Bright Lights, Big City” were voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame as two of the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” and Reed was inducted into the Hall in 1991 (15 years after his death). 

Those two tunes appear on this album along with his hits “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby” and “Honest I Do.”  A minor complaint is that some songs tend to “fade down” instead of ending properly (but I assume they did that on the original as well) which makes you wonder if that happened to keep the running time in line with the songs of the day (circa 1960s). 

Reed definitely knows how to lay down some great blues no matter where he recorded the album.  Some good stuff here and you should get it if you also want to be influenced by some great blues.