| Spider Blues | ||||
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| Studio album by "Spider" John Koerner | ||||
| Released | May 1965 | |||
| Genre | Blues | |||
| Label | Elektra EKL-290 (mono) EKS-7290 (stereo) | |||
| "Spider" John Koerner chronology | ||||
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Spider Blues is the debut solo album by blues artist "Spider" John Koerner, released in 1965. He was member of the loose-knit blues trio Koerner, Ray & Glover at the time of its release.
Contents |
As a member of the blues trio Koerner, Ray & Glover, Koerner was recording on the Elektra label. While recording the trio's albums Lots More Blues, Rags and Hollers and The Return of Koerner, Ray & Glover he recorded a number of solo tracks. These tracks were assembled into Koerner's debut solo album. He also appeared at the Newport Folk Festival that same year, accompanied by trio member Tony Glover.[1]
His style would change with his subsequent releases from the blues to more traditional folk music. In a 2000 interview, Koerner said, "I finally decided I was not a blues guy. How could I be? I was too young and too white, all that shit. So I took a year off and when I started playing again, I treated the subject in general as folk music. It's a new culture; it's not music being made on a back porch anymore."[2]
Spider Blues was reissued on CD in 2010 by Wounded Bird Records.
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Jazz Monthly | (no rating)[3] |
In his 1965 Jazz Monthly review, music critic Albert McCarthy excoriated the album and wrote, "This is, without any doubt, one of the worst records I have had to review for many a long day. In a sleeve note notable for the inane quotes from Koerner himself, Paul Nelson of The Little Sandy Review, which I understand is one of the better folk publications, makes the remarkable claim that 'Koerner's art is like Chaplin's, as great and lasting as it is entertaining'. I nominate this as the most absurd remark of the year in the sleeve note field. In fact, Koerner is a passably competent guitarist, a poor harmonica player and a quite dreadful singer. "[3]