Rating:
Genre:
Blues
Release Date: 11/06/2007
Founded in 1945 in Nashville by
Jim Bulliet,
Wally Fowler, and
C.V. Hitchcock,
Bullet Records was one of the most successful independent record labels in the immediate post-World War II era. The label had an initial plan to release records across a broad range of styles that included
pop,
gospel,
country,
R&B, and
blues, but by the time
Bulliet departed the label in 1948, the company's releases were largely for the
country (then called hillbilly) and
blues markets only.
Bulliet was replaced by
Overton Ganong in 1949, who stayed around just long enough to hand the reins over to
W.C. "Red" Wortham a year or so later. By 1952,
Bullet Records was dead in the water, which certainly wasn't
Wortham's doing, since he had essentially inherited a sinking ship.
Wortham and
Bulliet revived the label toward the end of the decade, and when
Bulliet again backed out,
Wortham steered things through into the '70s, by which time
Bullet had descended to being a custom label for hire, putting out anything anyone would pay to have released. This set features 25
jazz-flavored
R&B sides from
Bullet's late-'40s and early-'50s run. Much of the label's catalog (the masters were kept on aluminum discs -- tape was not yet the dominant recording medium at the time) was foolishly discarded or sold as scrap, so what's here is here by fortune. As a rule,
Bulliet's
jump blues material was often horn heavy and tied closely to the
jazz side of things, but there was a certain looseness in the production style that gives many of these sides an endearing tone that somehow suggests both elegance and ragged abandon all in one swoop. Among the highlights are
Wynonie Harris' wry
"Lightning Struck the Poorhouse" (the rumor is that
Harris actually played drums on this cut),
Tuff Green's only slightly ironic
"Let's Go to the Liquor Store," and
Tucker Coles' easy, crisp
"TC Blues," which appears to be the only recording
Coles ever made. The final track here is another rarity, an
Ink Spots-influenced version of
"I'm All Dressed Up with a Broken Heart" by
the Five Bars, a mystery group who only released four songs across two singles, all of them recorded in one session. There are no big chart-busting hits included here, and it is probably best approached as an archival and historical set, but there are enough gems scattered throughout this collection to give it some appeal to the casual listener as well.
~Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
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