Buying the albums sampled on “Picnic”.
Every track on this record is utterly brilliant. The only thing which really makes any of them any better than any other is the extent to which the wonderful Liz Hanns contributes to the vocals. The more she does, the more splendid the song.
In style there is not much difference at all on the record; the album is one of Louisiana style jug band blues from start to finish, but ther’s nothing at all wrong with that.
Track 1 is “38 plug”, an up tempo thing with lots of Swanee whistle, where Liz Hanns takes the lead. This is a brilliant opener.
Track 2 is “going to germany”, where liz Hanns is limited to mini responses on a sort of mini call and response thing. The song has much mouth organ, and the title line is sung as “goana german”.
Track 3 is “canned heat” which has a sparse guitar accompaniment, and Liz Hanns is again in the background. There was of course an excellent band with this name, that I first heard doing “On The Road Again”, and who appeared at Woodstock.
Track 4 is the famous “viola lee”, which I first heard as the classic Grateful Dead version. Here, thank God, Liz Hanns has a solo vocal; this one is a masterpiece.
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