Shady Little Baby http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Music/Shady-Little-Baby-Duster-Bennett/0766126412621

Unreleased & Rare Recordings, Vol. 3

Artist: Duster Bennett

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• Personnel: Duster Bennett (vocals, guitar, harmonica, kazoo, percussion); Top Topham (guitar); Neil Wyatt (harmonica); Peter Moody (e flat clarinet); Nicky Hopkins (piano).
  
• Recording information: 1965-1974.
  
• Arranger: Bennett.
  
• Shady Little Baby is the third and, apparently, final volume in Indigo's lovingly compiled series of unreleased and rare recordings documenting Duster Bennett's mercurial career, rounding up ten years worth of material that did not fit on, or has been discovered since, the more chronological I Choose to Sing the Blues and Comin' Home collections. As with its predecessors, its contents spread from rough home recordings to full-blown sessions. But all portray Bennett as one of the great talents of the entire British blues scene and, while some of the material on display is scrappy, such moments, however, are rare, and are more than balanced by the sheer history on display. The earliest tracks, including a jaunty "San Francisco Bay Blues" and a halting "Georgina," date from Bennett's art college days, and a living room session recorded shortly before Christmas 1965. Another song, the harmonica holocaust "Blow," was recorded in a "make your own record" sound booth located on London's Waterloo Station in 1967, and so on. At the other end of the sonic scale, however, you find "Take Care," a 1974 recording featuring Bennett backed by Peter Frampton, Nicky Hopkins, Rick Wills, and Terry Stannard -- other sidemen on display here include Top Topham, Pete Winfield, Hughie Burns, and Morris Pert. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, the most effective numbers are those that feature Bennett alone -- a haunted harmonica version of Gershwin's "Summertime," an alternate version of "Cold Chills (from the Jumpin' at Shadows album), and the 1968 acetate "Shady Little Baby" that titles this collection. There is also a short narration of the hymn "Rock of Ages," familiar from Bennett's Blue Horizon days, but still closing the album -- and, sadly, the series -- in suitably moving form. ~ Dave Thompson