Junior Wells Hoodoo Man Blues Master Quality Reel To Reel Tape (Half Track)

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Hoodoo Man Blues is Delmark's #1 selling album, is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, was chosen by Living Blues magazine as one of the Top Ten Desert Island Blues Discs, and has appeared in many films; most recently, in The Hitman's Bodyguard.

Recorded in September of 1965 Hoodoo Man Blues was recorded in the studio with the idea to present the band on LP the same way they performed live at Theresa's Lounge on Chicago's south side. Prior to Hoodoo Man the blues market was a singles market where songs were limited to 3 minutes each to both fit on a 45rpm record and appeal to radio programmers. Hoodoo Man changed that. Producer Bob Koester said, "I didn't realize that this would be the first time a working Chicago blues band recorded in a studio for LP release with no 45 rpm singles planned and the artists given full freedom as to running time of the tracks."

During the session there was a problem with Buddy Guy's guitar amp. The engineer knew that a moving session shouldn't be interrupted so he wired Buddy into the Hammond B-3 Leslie speaker for several tracks. To this day guitarists are still using this technique as did the Beatles on Let It Be.

The first seven thousand pressings of this album bore the pseudonym Friendly Chap for Buddy because it was thought he was under contract to another recording company. A British kid named Peter Brown worked at Delmark's sister company, Jazz Record Mart, and attended the session. Koester told him he could pick the pseudonym. "Well, a buddy is a friend and a guy is a chap. How about Friendly Chap?" Those early versions of the LP are now collector items selling for over $100 each.

The original analog master tapes were played on a newly refurbished and optimized Otari MTR-10 and copied to a newly refurbished Ampex ATR 102 using NAB settings. The Production masters were then played on and copied to more refurbished and optimized Otari MTR-10s. This copy was made from Production Master SM-900 and is copied to SM-911 tape.

Side A box cover is the later cover where Buddy Guy's name was added. The B box has the original LP album cover when it was thought that Buddy was under contract to Chess Records, and Buddy was identified in the personnel listings as Friendly Chap.

** It is standard practice in all recording studios to keep the tape "tail out". This reduces "pre-echo" and it means that the tape should be placed on the right hand side of the recorder, re-wound and then played.