BLUE FLAMES "LARGER THAN LIFE" Liner Notes by Scott Dirks

The influence of Michael “Hollywood Fats” Mann on the generations of blues guitarists that followed him is almost incalculable. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when many black blues bands were leaning towards the funky boogaloo , and white bands were rocking things up (or watering them down, depending on your point of view) by adding a myriad of disparate elements into the blues mix, Fats was going in the other direction, digging deeper into the traditional sounds from the ‘40s and ‘50s. It’s a common approach today, but at the time it was revolutionary, almost completely unheard of. Thanks to his prodigious mastery of traditional blues idioms, he was recruited by both Albert King (Fats can be seen playing with King in the 1972 “Wattstax” film”) and Muddy Waters (Fats was in Muddy’s band on their 1973 “Midnight Special” TV appearance) while still a teenager.

Which is not to say that he achieved any star status outside of a small circle of blues fans and knowledgeable musicians. On the contrary, the 1970s were a tough time for blues players of all stripes, from the legendary names on down. Still, Fats forged ahead, joined forces with a group of like-minded individuals to form The Hollywood Fats Band, and began working the California club circuit like true road warriors, winning fans one gig at a time. In 1979 the Hollywood Fats Band LP was released, and although it was pressed in limited quantities and only sparsely distributed, it set the benchmark for blues bands playing traditional styles, and achieved legendary status over the years – one blues fan could judge the seriousness of another’s fanaticism by whether or not he had a copy (or a tape dub) of the Hollywood Fats Band LP. With the untimely death of Fats in 1986, the legend only grew, and in the years since, the LP has been reissued on CD at least twice. But with the exception of a few scattered appearances on the recordings of others – Fats can be heard lending his guitar skills to Canned Heat, The James Harman Band, and a few others – that’s all that’s been heard, and all that was expected to be heard, of the late great Hollywood Fats.

Thankfully, the well-traveled rumors that the band’s frontman Al Blake had the foresight to record a series of the band’s live performances on cassette tapes which he’d been sitting on for the last 25 years proved to be true. So now, for the first time ever, Delta Groove Productions presents the official release of the second Hollywood Fats Band album, “Larger Than Life.”

The program starts with “Fats Fries One”, a guitar instrumental that will keep the NEXT generation of aspiring blues guitarists busy for quite a while; an amazing showcase of Fats’ creativity, it’s made even more incredible by the fact that it was improvised on the spot, backed by unidentified backing musicians he happened to be sitting in with. “Baby Let’s Play House” is a tribute to Arthur Gunter’s original, not Elvis’ cover, and “Sidetracked” is an amazing turn on the Freddie King instrumental; these were all recorded at a club called The White House in Laguna Beach, CA . Next up, a thoroughly satisfying collaboration with Eddie “Clean Head” Vinson, recorded at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1979; Vinson sounds perfect with the small, guitar-led combo, even though this is possibly the only time he ever recorded without a horn section backing him. Then it’s back to The White House for a few tunes off the band’s regular set list, “Shake Rattle & Roll” featuring an astounding solo from Fats, “ Rockinitis ” and “This Little Voice” showcasing Blake’s insinuating vocals and understated but perfectly realized harp work. “Nasty Boogie Woogie ” is a thundering Fred Kaplan piano boogie featuring Fats’ original lyrics (inspired by film director Roman Polanski’s legal troubles, which were in the news at the time) and also the only Fats vocal performance to be released. The collection is wrapped up by three historic tracks, recordings of the last public performance ever by pioneering blues shouter Roy Brown, who was retired from music and living in Pomona, CA at the time. After some initial skepticism, Brown was finally persuaded to sit on one of the band’s gigs, and proved he had not lost a single step in his time away from music; the recorded evidence is proof that he had a blast that night, even though these are the only known recordings of him performing with a guitar-led small band. Sadly, he died shortly after this gig.

This CD is the musical equivalent of stumbling across a buried treasure. Outstanding, historic recordings of a great band at the prime of their powers, featuring several long-gone geniuses of the blues genre we never expected to hear from again. Through it all they’re backed by some of the swingin’-est, most deeply rooted musicians of their generation, each one of them now legends in their own fields: drummer Richard Innes, bassist Larry Taylor, pianist Fred Kaplan, and singer/songwriter/harmonica man Al Blake, who is also the man we now can thank for bringing it all to light.