Fred Sanders
Long Time Comin'
I55 Productions |
Way back in May of 2001, when life was simple and I
could still fit into my clothes I wore in college, I
found a marvelous CD from a Memphis musician named
Fred Sanders. Sanders served as house
guitarist for Memphis’ Club Paradise for many years,
backing anybody who was anybody that happened to
play through town. He also served as guitarist for
the Memphis Blues Caravan, and was a regular playing
in Handy Park.
The CD I reviewed back in ’01 was called Long
Time Comin’, and was on the Mempho label. At the
time, I wrote, “This is an outstanding CD with a lot
to offer for fans of blues, R&B, and soul,” and it
was …. I still pull it out and listen to it
occasionally. Unfortunately, Mempho closed shop a
few years ago and the CD went out of print. Sanders
recorded one final CD, I Believe, before he
passed away early in 2011 from lung cancer.
Now I55 Productions has reissued Long Time Comin’
in all its glory. The only difference is the cover
…. the original oddly pictured Sanders sitting on a
bench with an acoustic guitar, which is nowhere to
be heard on the album. Everything else is still
firmly in place, including the 12 solid tracks of
urban blues. Sanders wrote all but two of the
tracks, the lone covers from the Kings of the Blues
(Albert’s “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” and
B.B.’s “Who Are You”).
Sanders mixes funk (“I Got A Feeling” and the
instrumental, “Big Bad Wolf”) with touches of
Memphis soul and blues (“House Is Not A Home”) and
even a little bit of Texas (where he spent years
honing his craft before moving back to Memphis) with
”Hello Baby.” His gravelly vocal style is ideal for
this material and his guitar work is lean and mean
old school style, with a modern touch here and
there.
Some 10 or 11 years later, Long Time Comin’
is still a great set of urban blues, done Memphis
style. If you missed it the first time around, you
have the opportunity to make up for lost time.
--- Graham Clarke
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