Reviewed by Tom Mott
Released: January 1980 Doug Sahm Hell Of A Spell Genre: Rootsy-Rocky Austin Blues Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Highlights: Tunnel Vision Just Can't Fake It I'll Take Care Of You tl;dr: This is Doug Sahm's blues album, dedicated to Guitar Slim. It's got Sahm's trademark easy-going vibes and there are bright spots. If you're a blues enthusiast -- especially slow blues -- give it a listen. Otherwise, put on "Doug Sahm and His Band" (1972) and listen to it two or three times in a row. ========= Doug Sahm was a force of nature who excelled at an easy-going, good-natured, ramshackle hybrid of rock, country, R&B, blues, tejano, cajun, and western swing. Equal parts San Francisco and Austin. He had this shit figured out years before Paul Simon realized it's all different facets of the same thing.[1] All of Sahm's albums--starting with the Sir Douglas Quintet ("She's About a Mover") in the 60s continuing up through the Texas Tornadoes in the 90s--sound like Sahm made a bunch of phone calls, pulled together a bunch of like-minded musician frields who warmed up together by running through a few old songs, and then they cut an album. Whether the songs were covers or originals, they always sound like Doug Sahm material. Reminds of how jazz albums were cut in the 50s and 60s: Hey, lets get Cannonball Adderly for this session with Coltrane. Elvin Jones isn't available? Call Jimmy Cobb. We'll record a bunch of standards. Half the time--and I'm speaking in general, not this specific album--Sahm blends the strands together into a seamless mix, what Gram Parsons called "Cosmic American Music." A country cover rocked-up and bluesed-out, with an accordian in the mix along with Memphis-style horns? And--wait, is that Bob Dylan singing harmony? Is that Dr. John on piano? Is that Freddie Fender? Is that Doug Clifford of CCR in the control both? Why yes, yes it is. Do they all sound like they're relaxed and having fun? Yes, yes they do. (That's not this album.) Half the time, Sahm pushes one ingredient to the foreground: Hey fellas, let's do a blues number! Hey Flaco, grab your accordian and we'll run through Cacahuetes together! Hey let's do that old Guitar Slim classic! Sometimes Sahm and friends jump around between styles on the same album, but sometimes they end up putting out a western swing album, or an album of oldies covers, or a country-rock album, or a Tejano album. This latter approach seems to have been at the insistence of record companies."Sahm! We need a country album if we're gonna get airplay!" For much of his career, Sahm had strong reviews and poor sales. He bounced around among record labels who all tried to figure out how to sell him to the masses. How much did he bounce? Well ... Sir Douglas Quintet was on Mercury in the 60s and early 70s. Then Jerry Wexler lured Sahm to Atlantic for a fantastic 1973 album. That's the one with the all-star cast of rotating musicians: Bob Dylan, Dr. John, David "Fathead" Newman, Flaco Jimenez, David Bromberg. It's got that relaxed Bonnie and Delaney, Derek and the Dominoes, Bob Dylan and the Band vibe running through it. Imagine a follow-up to Sweetheart of the Rodeo, with horns and accordian and a bunch of pals sitting in. It didn't sell, so Doug Clifford lured Sahm to Warner Records in 1974 for "Groover's Paradise," another classic, considered by many to be the quintissential mid-70s hippy, alt-country, Austin album. Keep Austin weird! But that didn't sell either, so Sahm ended up on ABC-Dot in 1976 for "Texas Rock for Country Rollers" which Robert Christgau complimentarily dubbed "redneck hoohah." After that, Sahm ended up on John Fahey's Takoma Records in January 1980, with Don Healey, the Grateful Dead's engineer behind the controls. Takoma's owner wanted a blues album. And that's this album. All blues, but Doug Sahm blues. My highlights: Tunnel Vision -- a fun, chugglin' Texas boogie with horns I'll Take Care Of You -- sounds like it could've been an Etta James slow jam, and has a great 60s organ sound Just Can't Fake It[2] -- sounds the most like a quintissential Doug Sahm song. Boy, it sure sounds like The Krayolas. Is this a great album? Naah Is it good enough? Always ====================== 1. That melange of rock, country, R&B, folk, cajun, soul, gospel, bluegrass and Americana sure was strong in the 70s. The Grateful Dead's "American Beauty," The Band, Bob Dylan, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Elvis Presley's 70s Las Vegas band, Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen, The Grease Band, Bonnie & Delaney, et cetera and so forth. Heck, "Sticky Fingers" effortlessly jumps around between hard rock, old timey blues, country rock, Memphis R&B, and jazzy Latin-tinged excursions. Exile on Main Street even more so. Then again, Ray Charles was genre-jumping ten years earlier, mixing up country, gospel, and R&B. Elvis was equally at home singing rock and roll, country, rockabilly, and gospel. Chuck Berry combined the blues, R&B, and Nat King Cole standards. Further back there's Stephane Grapelli and Django Reinhardt's all-string jazz and Bob Will's western swing. Add a dash of this, a swig of that, a handful of those, and voila -- something both new and timeless. 2. Hell of a Spell isn't streaming, so we pieced it together as best we could as a YouTube playlist. One song is missing, one song is a live version, and "Just Can't Fake It" is a later re-recording by Sahm's later Tejano supergroup, the Texas Tornados.
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