Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues - DS-9612 - Og. 1965 "Friendly Chap" pressing

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Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues - DS-9612 - Og. 1965 "Friendly Chap" pressing! Junior Wells Hoodoo Man Blues DS-9612
Original 1965 US pressing of Junior Wells' "Hoodoo Man Blues" LP on the Delmark label. First pressing as evidenced by the back credits listing Buddy Guy as "Friendly Chap" due to contractual obligations. Subsequent pressings were re-titled, showing the band name on the front cover as "Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band With Buddy Guy"
Grading: Sleeve:  VG   Solid, light shelf-wear, no splits, legible spine Vinyl:  VG   Sounds great, but has a few scattered light background crackles
Notes: Record producer Bob Koester, the founder of Delmark Records who is credited with discovering Junior Wells, recalls that at the time he was considering releasing an album by Wells, he was anxious about both the audience for Wells' music and the expense of studio time and sidemen, but that he liked the music too much to resist. Wells was given the liberty to select his own sidemen and track list, without the usual limitation of songs two or three minutes long, and the album that resulted became Delmark's then best-seller, a distinction that had not been surpassed as of 2003.
Koester remembers particular complications working with guitarist Buddy Guy, who was incorrectly believed to be legally entailed with Leonard Chess of Chess Records. Chess approved Guy's participation on the album, but refused to allow Guy's name to be listed in the credits (until it was realized that his participation was not contractually disallowed). Guy was, at the time of release, credited as "Friendly Chap", a name proposed by Peter Brown, with the explanation that "A buddy is a friend, a guy is a chap". For parts of the session, Guy's guitar amplifier was not working, and his guitar was wired instead through the Leslie speaker of the studio's Hammond organ.
The album, characterized by Little Labels—Big Sound as "blatantly non-commercial", demonstrated to audiences that Chicago Blues could be effectively captured on album. But though it was only the first of many successful albums for Wells, it remains among his most acclaimed. In their 2005 biography of Howlin' Wolf, James Segrest and Mark Hoffman make note that Hoodoo Man Blues is one of the albums usually cited by critics as "one of the greatest blues albums ever released."

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