Morris Pejoe/Arthur "Big Boy" Spires - Wrapped in My Baby (CD)

All Music Guide

These are the famous basement rehearsal tapes that producer Al Smith conducted for United Records in 1954. The Pejoe sides feature a dead-on rocking "Let's Get High" (heard here in two takes) with a droning sax section and his own distorted guitar work fueling originals like "May Bea," "You Messed Up," "Baby, You Know That's Wrong," "Move It on Out and Go" and "Treat Me the Same." A later, two-song session for Atomic H from late 1959-1960 is also included. The Spires sides find him working in the same gutbucket territory as his two singles for Chess and Chance in the early '50s with "Moody This Morning," "Dark and Stormy Night," "You Can't Tell" and the title track (the latter two featuring vocals by pianist Willie "Long Time" Smith) all being well worthy of reissuance. Excellent updated liner notes by Bill Dahl make this a Chicago blues rarity that's well worth tracking down.

- Cub Koda, All Music Guide