Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry scored his first – and greatest – hit on Chess in 1956 with Ain’t Got No Home. A re-recorded version of that classic from 1964 opens this fine compilation which gathers a decade of recordings.
By now, Henry was out of his Chess contract and signed to Huey Meaux’s Crazy Cajun empire. This is reflected in the initial recordings that feature Meaux’s distinctive swamp-pop style. As the decade progressed, Henry’s sound loosened up, got into a deeper blues vein – one session had Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland’s band backing him – and he delivers storming renditions of Shake Your Moneymaker and Rock Down In My Shoe. Henry failed to trouble the charts with these recordings, but his lighthearted nature and the fine New Orleans musicians backing him on many tracks here ensure that this album of largely never-before-reissued material is a pleasure.