A taste of Post-War blues tonight from Roosevelt Sykes and His Honeydrippers. Sykes was a huge influence on the piano blues scene, having been a fixture since the 1930's. He can certainly lay claim to the title of the original Honeydripper. As Blues was changing from its rural roots to the more urban Jump-Blues idiom, Sykes struck a middle ground with his trademark Boogie piano backed with a small combo brass and reed section. The result was a melding of Jazz and Blues that maintained popularity all the way to the mid-1950's and then experienced a resurgence in the mid-1960's.
Tonight it's a track Sykes cut for RCA Victor on November 18, 1947. An unofficial anthem for a Friday night, High As A Georgia Pine.
Not that it's a signal to go out and get loaded or anything . . . .
