Everyone needs a little Mathis James Reed in their lives, and this reissue of the 1958 Vee Jay disc is a great place to rectify any omission. Not just a guitar genius but a true giant of rock’n’roll vocalese, Reed’s repertoire informed the white boy R&B and pop school as surely as did Chuck Berry’s. Plug in here for “Go On To School”, “You Got Me Crying” and welcome finds like “High And Lonesome” and the countrified and funky “She Don’t Want Me No More”. Vital sounds.
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