Gus Cannon reissue

Subject: Gus Cannon reissue on CD
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 07 Apr 00 - 05:26 AM

Cut 'n'pasted this from today's London Times. One I'll be looking out for.

RtS Another comeback of sorts was made in the 1960s by Gus Cannon, a Missisippi banjo player who during the 1920s had led one of the great jug bands, Cannon's Jug Stompers. By 1963 he was living in Memphis, forgotten and destitute, when one of his old songs, Walk Right In, suddenly became a No 1 hit for the folk group, the Rooftop Singers.

Hauled into the studio by the fledgling Stax label, he cut an LP. Because of distribution difficulties only 500 copies of the album were made, but now its reissue on CD, Walk Right In (Stax SCD8603-2), means that everyone can get to hear the 79-year-old Gus tackle some jug band favourites including Salty Dog and Crawdad Hole. Not essential, perhaps, and not really blues, but worth hearing as the last gasp of a dying tradition.

JOHN CLARKE