Gene Phillips Drinkin' And Stinkin' CD - Import

Contains 18 tracks, including previously unreleased tracks and all of Gene Phillips's Modern Records recordings not featured on SWINGING THE BLUES.

All tracks were transferred from the original Modern Records acetates.

The cream of Phillips' recordings for Modern in the late '40s and early '50s was collected on the previous Ace anthology Swinging the Blues. Inevitably, there's a little bit of a sweep-up-the-leftovers feeling about this subsequent compilation, which combines sides from 1947-1951 singles that didn't make it onto Swinging the Blues with eight previously unissued alternate takes and three tracks from the era that didn't appear until a 1988 Ace reissue. Musically, however, it's about on par with the pieces chosen for Swinging the Blues, again revealing Phillips as one of the ablest just-post-World War II artists performing in the good-humored Louis Jordan style. Sometimes that humor gets a bit of a womanizing and risqué edge, as on "Stinkin' Drunk," "Rear End Blues," and "Women Women Women," but it's subservient to the ebullient boogie and jump blues, with some ballads thrown in for a change of pace. Phillips doesn't show off on guitar often, but when he does solo, as he does briefly on a part of the instrumental "Royal Boogie," he sparkles as an early pioneer of R&B electric guitar. The sound is good, though there's quite a bit of surface noise on some cuts due to the unavailability of pristine source tapes. ~ Richie Unterberger

Singer/guitarist Phillips was a mainstay of Modern Records during the label's formative years, his Louis Jordan-like jumpin' R&B giving the label many of it's earliest best sellers. This collection includes many previously unheard performances. All 19 tracks are remastered from the original Modern acetates. Ace Records. 2003.

Personnel includes: Gene Phillips (vocals, guitar); Lloyd Glenn, Maxwell Davis, Marshall Royal, Jake Porter, Jack McVea, Al "Cake" Wichard.