NY Night Train just started uploading an original 45rpm vinyl record every day on YouTube – the NYNT Daily Party Platter Playlist Hit up NYNT YouTube channel every day to see what’s cookin’…

“The Hawg, Pt.1,” the “Warm Leatherette” of the blues, may be my favorite track of all time and I also tacked on the flip side, Pt. 2 as an added bonus. I can’t think of anyone that expresses my aesthetic more than Eddie Kirk (AKA Eddie Kirkland) and this track says everything that needs to be said!

Eddie Kirkland was born in Jamaica in 1923, raised in rural Alabama, and ran away with Sugar Girls Medicine Show as a teen. After a discharge from the army in World War II, he moved to Detroit where he worked at the Ford Rouge Plant and played blues house parties at night. Around 1948 he hooked up with the immortal John Lee Hooker and started playing second guitar and roadying for the Boogie Man – and you can hear him on a number of The Hook’s records for the next decade or so. He also made a smattering of standout (but obscure) solo recordings for some of the most iconic record labels ever: Modern (as Little Eddie Kirkland with Hooker backing!) King, Fortune (“I Must’ve Done Something Wrong” which was ripped off and made a blues hit and standard by Elmore James) LuPine, Tru-Sound, and Prestige during this period.

In 1962 “the gypsy of the blues” wound up planting himself in the fertile music soil of Macon, Georgia where he joined Otis Redding’s band. Like James Brown who billed members of his band as individual acts and presented it all as a big show, Otis Redding brought members of his review into Stax to make records to help increase the review’s draw. In 1963 he brought Eddie Kirk to the legendary Memphis studio with members of the house band/Booker T. and the MG’s, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, and perhaps LewieSteinberg (some credit Donald “Duck” Dunn but its unlikely because he didn’t join the band until later).

The result was this masterpiece and the “Them Bones”/”I Found A New Love” 45. The star of this show, Al Jackson, is one of the best drummers of all time and this is one of the finest of his many finest hours… Check out how he establishes the beat against the syncopated grunting and rolls his way into the groove and relentlessly pounds his way through this rollercoaster of tension and release. Kirkland shouts through the harmonica mic for a super-distorted sound and the guitar strikes sharp angles against the rhythm like a no wave or post-punk guitarist. And every time the breakdowns accelerate into the fire the harmonica snakes and squeals all over and around everything. The racket here is at once down-home, raw, and old-fashioned and on another minimal, abstract, and beyond modern – anticipating all kinds of angular, abrasive, noisy music of the future and being one of the most unique moments on record.

Despite its brilliance, this may be the rarest of all Stax/Volt 45s and its really too bad its so hard to find because the remastered version on the complete singles box set was so castrated that a fan told me he didn’t know “The Hawg” was so supreme until he heard the 45. I’m not certain whether its a good idea but instead of letting Part 1 fade out and then doing Part 2 I lined them up so you could hear “The Hawg” in its entirety. Part 2 gets so wild and I think the juxtaposition makes it make more sense attached.

This was Kirkland’s lone Stax/Volt session but he would record the first sequel, the wild “Hawg Killin Time” and another supreme single, the subtle minor-key masterpiece that highlights his vocal depth and versatility “Monkey Tonight” for King Records in 1964 (with Wayne Cochran on bass y’all!). After a few years busy on the road with Joe Tex, Mabel John, and Otis Redding, Kirkland returned to Detroit’s Fortune Records in 1968 to cut the third installment of the pork trilogy “The Grunt” – the rawest of the bunch and another one of the most passionate and intense sides ever carved in wax.

Eddie Kirkland remained on the road all the way up until his death – hit by a Greyhound bus while making a U-Turn on Florida’s U.S. 98 while on tour in 2011 – ending a run of over 70 years on tour. A true road warrior ’til the end!

Finally, Eddie Kirkland was apparently one the best performers ever and one can only imagine what Otis Redding was like live with him in the review (along with another immortal – Bobby Marchan – who he also brought to record at Stax in the same period). Here’s an amazing video of Eddie Kirkland in the late 1970s jamming with Foghat that will give you a little hint as to what kind of showmanship the chitlin circuit was accustomed to experiencing from this unreal artist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Y_hKjkM48).

Also there are a few great links to Eddie Kirkland biographical materials online:
http://thehoundblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/eddie-kirkland.html
http://www.thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2011/march2011/eddie-kirkland-obit.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Kirkland

graphics by AVI SPIVAK (http://www.avispivak.com)!

You’re listening to my daily addition to the New York Night Train Party Platter playlist. Each track here is recorded directly from the original 45 (no bootlegs, reproductions, etc) to give you an idea of what the real deal authentic vinyl sounds like. COME BACK EVERY DAY FOR A NEW FIX! Because the records pass so quickly at my dance parties, this channel is an attempt to stop and focus on one record at a time in hopes that it’ll turn you on to the artists, tracks, labels, etc. I’m just hipping myself to a lot of these records for the first time as well – so you can view this as a part of our journey to learning more about cool old records together! But mostly I hope this music moves you as much as it moves me.

Get your enjoys,
Jonathan Toubin
Soul Proprietor, New York Night Train
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