Shake Your Moneymaker: The Best of the Fire Sessions
Classicis a word tossed around so frequently and carelessly these days it's hard to recall the time when it accurately described truly stellar songs. Well, this compilation of 16 sides by Chicago slide-guitar master Elmore James, recorded in New Orleans, Chicago, and New York City between 1959 and 1961, includes real, honest-to-god classics such as "The Sky Is Crying," "Done Somebody Wrong," "Shake Your Moneymaker," and "Look Up Yonder Wall." James's grainy vocals and stinging guitar powerfully express pain and regret. His recording studio band, Broomdusters, sometimes with the great drummer Belton Evans present, reveals emphatic feeling in a supporting role. Only "My Bleeding Heart," sullied by noisome horns and a general sluggishness, and "Something Inside Me," on which an unidentified sax player wears out his welcome fast, fail the test of time.--Frank-John Hadley