Jelly Roll Kings - Rockin' the Juke Joint Down (Earwig)

February is Black History month here in the States, and the more conspiracy-minded among my friends are always fond of reminding me that it’s also the shortest month of the year. I thought I’d mark the passing with a shout out to a blues record that always manages to slip back into my regular rotation, one representative of a tiny sliver of African American tradition that now sadly teeters on extinction. Under the nominal leadership of Frank Frost on harmonica, piano and pawnshop Farfisa, the Jelly Roll Kings, were a fixture on the Seventies Mississippi juke joint scene, though Frost’s first associations with guitarist Jack Johnson and drummer Sam Carr date to a full decade earlier. The title of their debut Earwig album encapsulates their performance mantra while their chosen moniker hints euphemistically at off-stage preoccupations. Musically the trio folds in songs and styles from the four points of the blues compass. “Mighty Long Time” mimics the slowdrag Excello swamp sound. Instrumentals like “Honeydrippin’ Boogie” and “Cleo’s Back” find Johnson channeling the fret mannerisms of Long John Hunter through ferrous reverb and long snaking solos. The folksy “Slop Jar Blues” taps the stage mien of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in Johnson and Frost’s unision vocal turns while Big Jay McNeely’s “Something on Your Mind” features Johnson crooning in a nicotine dusted croak atop more chintzy organ, twangy guitar and a broom-dusting snare beat. Elsewhere, Johnson unplugs for a version “Catfish Blues” where the three trade earlier jocularity for a backwoods gravitas. Variety and informality abound and the whole thing has a gloriously low rent, cheap eats feel to it, equivalent to the carbonized edibles named in the raunchy closer “Burnt Biscuits.” The cover shot is priceless: Johnson with his mussed process, Bootsy shades and salmon-colored leisure suit and the homemade PR placard balanced in front of Fender amp being just a few of the facets that make it suitable for framing.