I Can Tell

by John Hammond

Product Description:

Contains all of I CAN TELL and 4 tracks from SOUTHERN FRIED.

John Hammond's 1967 debut for Atlantic, I CAN TELL, comes after a five-year stint at the blues and folk purist label Vanguard, where he was never a comfortable fit. Hammond knows the blues inside out, but he's always been aware that he is a record producer's son from New York City and not a Mississippi sharecropper, and therefore claims of "authenticity" are entirely beside the point. I CAN TELL, featuring Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman, Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson of the Band, and journeyman drummer Roger Hawkins, is akin to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's EAST/WEST or John Mayall's BLUESBREAKERS--first-generation blues-rock, when the term meant taking Chicago-style electric blues and adding the wallop of a first-rate rock rhythm section behind it. The 12 tracks are all covers, with a heavy emphasis on the Chess Records catalogue, and the performances are uniformly ripping even if none are definitive.