| Blues from the Apple | |
| Type: | live |
| Artist: | Charles Walker and the New York City Blues Band |
| Cover: | LP cover-Blues from the Apple.jpeg |
| Alt: | INNER SLEEVE Blues from the Apple.jpeg |
| Released: | 1974 |
| Recorded: | April 1973 – May 1974 |
| Genre: | Urban blues |
| Label: | Oblivion Records |
| Producer: | Honest Tom Pomposello & Fred Seibert |
Blues from the Apple, released in 1974 by Oblivion Records, is the only album under the leadership of guitarist and vocalist Charles Walker.[1] Featured players include New York City based musicians Lee Roy Little (piano & vocals), Bill Dicey (harmonica), 'Foxy' Ann Yancey (electric guitar), Larry Johnson (harmonica), Tom Pomposello (bass guitar), Bobby King (rigged snare drum), and Ola Mae Dixon (drums), among others.[2]
The recording of this album began in March 1973 when contemporary country blues musician Larry Johnson was interviewed on Tom Pomposello's WKCR-FM Saturday blues program "Something Inside Me." He introduced Tom—and New York radio listeners—to his friend Charles Walker, and they played a spontaneous acoustic duet. Pomposello sensed a window on a rare breed and immediately made plans to produce an entire album showcasing the New York blues community.[3]
Producers Pomposello and Fred Seibert held over one dozen sessions between April 1973 and May 1974 at Columbia University's WKCR-FM radio in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan, New York.
Recording was done live to stereo two track Scully recorders, using Shure, AKG Acoustics, and Georg Neumann microphones, through a custom designed radio recording board. Editing was done manually in Pomposello's living room on a Teac Corporation "prosumer" stereo machine, and at WKCR.
The final edited 2-track tapes were sequenced by Pomposello and Seibert, then re-recorded with slight equalization and echo added by Kevin Behrman at Echo Sound Studio, a now defunct recording studio in Levittown, New York. LP mastering and pressing were done at Wakefield Pressing, Phoenix, Arizona.[3]
Blues from the Apple was released in late 1974. It was the least successful album in Oblivion's short history. Even blues speciality publications ignored the record, in part, speculated the label's owners, because of the incongruous mix of New York City and blues. The album went out of print after its first pressing of 1000 copies.[3]
Currently, there are free MP3s of the LP at the official Oblivion Records archive blog, and downloads and streaming are available at iTunes, MOG (online music), Rhapsody (online music service), Spotify, and Amazon.com, among others.
Release formats:
On the 1st (and only) pressing of 1000 copies the cover sleeve consisted of very thick cardboard outer sleeve and the 12" vinyl record was protected with a white paper album liner printed with lyrics.
The cover illustration (of an electric guitar playing Statue of Liberty standing on an eaten apple core) and design was by Frank Olinsky,[4] soon to be one of the designers of the MTV logo,[5] and a major label album designer for bands that included The Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth.[6] Photographs are credited to Christine Pomposello, Tom Pomposello, Roy Langbord, John Dunn and Fred Seibert, graphics to "The Oblivionettes" (Seibert)[7] Both sides of the LP labels were printed in the same brown and blue[8] picked up from the album cover.
The liner notes were credited to Oblivion partner Dick Pennington, though the Oblivion blog attributes most of the actual research and writing to producer Pomposello.[2]
All personnel information taken from the Blues from the Apple liner notes unless otherwise noted.[2]
harmonica met Charles Walker in 1950, playing with him on and off in between gigs with Louisiana Red and John Hammond, Jr.
harmonica is a country blues musician from Atlanta, Georgia (born: 1938) who introduced Oblivion to Charles Walker. Primarily known for his acoustic guitar playing and singing on Biograph Records and Blue Goose Records, here he plays acoustic harmonica on Decoration Day.
bass guitar produced Blues from the Apple and played bass guitar on the final recording of Mississippi Fred McDowell, Live in New York.