The second solo album by James Cotton, the one time harp disciple of Sonny Boy Williamson and former Muddy Waters sideman, is a loose, enjoyable mixture of urbane and gutbucket blues styles. Among the former, Cotton phrases like a sax player (but gets a sound like Little Walter) on Percy Mayfield'sclassy ballad "River's Invitation", while on Jimmy Reed's standard "Honest I Do" he goes (appropriately) all country harp squeaky.
Cotton's vocals have all the swagger necessary for the material. The fairly large back-up band here is fluent enough to pull off a slow, jazzy, ballad version of Little Richard's "Slippin' and Slidin'".
Choose the following harps to play along with each song on this album...