A case of simple serendipity brings this 20 year old album to my attention this month. Perhaps a little explanation might be in order.

The year was 1996 and I was having dinner at the famous South Bay blues hang out The Café Boogaloo in Hermosa Beach. In the front door blasts Kim Wilson. He wasn’t on the bill, but no doubt would be taking the stage at some point in the evening. He was darting his head around as if he was looking for a time bomb to diffuse that was set to go off at any second. I had seen this before, so I wasn’t alarmed.

He came up to my table with his hair on fire. OK, bad metaphor, but let's move on. With a tremendous amount of urgency and purpose he started talking about, '…how they used to make great blues records and that nobody does that anymore and he is going to make records the right way. The way they used to do it.' I offered him a chair and he began to tell me that he had started a new blues record label. He was talking a mile minute and his hands were doing pretty good at trying to catch up. It’s as if he was trying to swat flies that weren’t there.

“We are going to record at Joe Bellamy’s Peace in the Valley Studios. He is going to do the mastering. Junior (Watson) knows a guy in Newport Beach at the Lyon’s Studio...you know the place, it’s behind the Crab Cooker. His name is Marvin McNeil. Everything will mix down in hi-fi mono on a special Ampex two-track tape machine.” 

He went on to say, “We are going to record the best artists with the best bands and make the best records anywhere.”

That’s Kim Wilson, a model of focused energy. He was at that time, and still is perhaps, the most celebrated blues musician of his generation. In my view this has as much to do with his hard work ethic, dogged determination and the sheer love and enthusiasm he has for this music. You can’t fake that and Wilson doesn’t even try.

What he would call Blue Collar Music was the perfect name for the company that would make his dream come true. It was the next logical step in an already very successful career. The dream did in fact come true, but it didn’t last long. He made a grand total of three albums under the Blue Collar banner and all three were true to form and turned out just like he described them to me that evening.

Each of these three releases are masterpieces and essential entries into any blues library. They were all released simultaneously in 1997.  They are My Blues by Kim Wilson, hands down the best solo album he has ever made, Signifyn’, an all instrumental, piano trio album by Fred Kaplan which is a masterpiece and Mr. Blake’s Blues by Big Al Blake & The Hollywood Fats Band.

All three albums had the greatest rhythm section in modern blues, Richard Innes on drums and Larry Taylor on bass, both from the Hollywood Fats Band.

On Mr. Blake’s Blues, Big Al is reunited with Innes and Taylor as well as the Fats Band pianist Kaplan. They are also joined by guitarists Junior Watson and Kid Ramos on various tracks.

It had been ten years since Hollywood Fats had taken a lethal dose of heroin. Blake thought of Fats as having the potential to be a true blues Messiah and the one that could lead this music out of bondage and into the Garden of Eden. Despite screwing up at least two or three Old Testament metaphors I think you get the picture and we will move on. However, it is with all seriousness when I tell you that the loss of this literal and figurative blues giant left Blake in such a state that he left his beloved blues behind for a decade to pursue other interests.

One of these involved his fascination with Native American art and culture which led to the opening of his own gallery in the artist colony of Laguna Beach, California. Also, interestingly enough, this experience led him back to the blues.

Back in 2012, I asked Blake what connection or influence, if any, his fascination with Native American art had on his music. He said, “There is a timeless quality to Native American art. You can, for instance, take a piece of European art or music and pretty much pin it down to a specific time period. Through the centuries, Native Americans made art in many cases that can’t be traced to any specific period. Its importance was not tied to any fashion or any particular trend. We attach value to music based on status. Status is often based on passing trends and fads. Native American art is completely liberated from these artificial restraints.

One day I realized that’s why I love blues music so much. When played properly, it is timeless. The music has a freedom that doesn’t have to be connected to or attached to a particular trend or fad yet still has value in and of itself.

When African–Americans first made this music, they made it for themselves. They spoke in the language of music that wasn’t tied to any European tradition. That is the ultimate ‘fuck you’. It is sophisticated anarchy if you will. This music is freedom in a real sense.”

With years of wood shedding and songwriting behind the scenes and out of the public eye combined with the platform Wilson provided via his Blue Collar Music, Blake was ready for some very serious sophisticated anarchy.

While the singer, principal songwriter and harmonica player for The Hollywood Fats Band was operating The Sun Stone Gallery he became a kind of underground cult figure in the blues world.

The self-titled album entitled The Hollywood Fats Band was picked up by the hot label of the day, New Orleans based Black Top Records, and re-titled, Rock This House. It has been re-pressed, re-mastered and re-issued several times through the years, eventually coming out as a two disc box set with additional tracks.

In the meantime a whole new generation of players and fans began to seek out the music of Blake and the Fats Band.

After ten years Mr. Blake’s Blues, as it turns out, was the grand opening of a terrific second act. This late 90’s release would become a precursor to The Hollywood Blue Flames.

Blue Collar Music and Al Blake were absolutely made for each other. However, the excitement and enthusiasm that Wilson had for Blue Collar Music was sadly, short lived.  I won’t take the time or trouble to speculate what caused the demise of this label, but suffice it to say it was a damn shame. The tiny catalogue wasn’t picked up by any other label and Mr. Blake’s Blues has since long gone out of print. As the years go rolling by this album and the label became just a small footnote to history.

Earlier this month, Kim Wilson was cleaning out a storage space and stumbled upon two boxes of Mr. Blake’s Blues. He picked up the phone and called Charlie Lange of Bluebeat Music and now Mr. Blake’s Blues is available again. This isn’t so much a re-issue than it is a simple case of lost and found, but for a public thirsty for some serious, deeply soulful, original blues, what’s the difference?

Lange puts it this way, “The songs are well written and the band is perfect. The sound quality is exceptional and the whole release is stunning. It may be the best thing Big Al ever did and that’s saying a lot. It may also be the best West Coast blues album of the 90’s”  

So twenty years ago Wilson’s Blue Collar Music as well as the comeback of Big Al Blake was a true godsend. Yet, it came and then went with so little fanfare, that I thought I’d give it some today.

- David Mac

Dedicated to the memory of Michael "Hollywood Fats" Mann, Nick Curran & Richard Innes

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