*(1957) Meteor ''Tennessee Woman'' (Meteor 5041-A Master) Fenton Robinson with The Dukes

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Description

''Tennessee Woman'' (Meteor 5041-A Master) (Fenton Robinson) (Universal/MCA Music) (2:29)
Recorded March 1957 at Meteor Studio, 1746 Chelsea Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee

Name (No. Or of Instruments)
Fenton Robinson - Vocals & Guitar
Charkes McGowan - Guitar
Robert Williams - Tenor Saxophone
J.W. Hewlett - Drums
More Details Unknown

Producer - Lester Bihari
Recording Engineer - Unknown

Fenton Robinson was born on a cotton and corn plantation near Minter City, Mississippi on September 23, 1935. T-Bone Walker was an early influence. As a teenager Robinson learned to play by listening to songs he heard on jukeboxes and radio shows such as the King Biscuit Show. From 1951 he made trips to Memphis with his Stella acoustic guitar, to take lessons from Charles McGowan, a guitarist in Billy "Red" Love's band, before moving to the city two years later. He soon joined the McGowan Brothers' band, playing behind Bobby Bland, and also a band called the Castle Rockers, touring the Southern juke joint circuit. Their popularity increased as they played on radio station WDIA, before disbanding after about a year. In 1954 he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to play with Eddie Snow and formed his own band, Fenton Robinson and the Castle Rockers the following year. He first entered the recording studio in 1956 backing Rosco Gordon for a Duke Records' session which included a remake of ''No More Doggin". In March 1957, with McGowan supplying second guitar and J.W. Hewlett on drums, he recorded the Meteor session. Robert Williams is on tenor sax and McGowan supplies an inventive bass string intro for 'Tennessee Woman', which retains just a hint of the type of material that Junior Parker had recorded for Sun. At 3 minutes 43 seconds, 'Crying Out Loud' is the masterpiece of the Meteor blues sessions. Fenton puts across an amazingly anguished performance reminiscent of B.B. King's earlier style with superb guitar work and impeccable support from McGowan. The doomy sound and emotional vocal had not been heard to this exlent in B.B.'s work since the Memphis and Houston days. Robinson confirmed that the "Fention" billing was either a typo or a whirn of Lester's which stuck for a number of years.

Later in 1957, Robinson formed a musical partnership with guitarist Larry Davis, playing guitar at the Flamingo Club in Little Rock with Larry predominantly playing bass. lt seems that Earl Forest brought them to the attention of Don Robey who signed them to Duke in May 1958. With James Booker accompanying on piano and David Dean on tenor sax, both artists recorded a number of superb sides together for Duke, resulting in releases under both of their names. By 1959 Don Robey seems to have lost interest but, in his characteristic nianner, likely kept them bound by contracts because many years passed before either recorded under their own names. Moving to Chicago in 1961 Fenton found plenty of work playing as a sideman at recording sessions and playing gigs on the South Side. From this period, Our photo shows him accompanying Junior Wells in 1964 at Pepper's Lounge. A solo recording wouldn't be realised until 1966, when he recorded for the USA label. Finally, late in 1967, Fenton achieved a major Chicago success for Palos with ''Somebody Loan Me A Dime'', which sold 150,000 copies locally, although a planned national push stalled. However, Fenton's enduring popularity was assured. He died on November 25, 1997 in Rockford, Illinois of complications from brain cancer.

Project Supervision by John Broven
Notes and Historical Research by Martin Hawkins
Notes and Masters Research by Dave Sax

Source and more information see: Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

* - Digitally Remastered

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