Roy Brown

• Hard Times [BluesWay, 1973] A-

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Hard Times [BluesWay, 1973]
It took these five-year-old sessions, a good portion of what he's recorded since semiretiring in 1956, to open me up to the blues shouter whose crying, gospel-based style makes him a direct forerunner of both Little Richard and B.B. King. Most pre-rock 'n' roll bluesmen flounder through soulish uptempo arrangements, but Brown is so fluid he rolls along exultantly on top, proud to hold trouble to a stand-off. Side one is startlingly intense, and he wrote all the songs, too--man should go on retainer with Kenny Gamble. A-