Floyd Lee's Blues On 30th Street album gets recirculated

Produced by guitarist Elliott Sharp in 1996, Floyd Lee's enjoyably raw Blues On 30th Street album is now available on Bandcamp.

Here's the scoop from Elliott Sharp...

Floyd Lee, aka Ted Williams was born in 1933 near Clarksdale, Mississippi but raised by his aunt with Guitar Floyd in Memphis. As a child he picked cotton and was able to attend school only a few months of the year. He began playing guitar at 11 on a homemade box and was shown his first licks by Guitar Slim whom he followed along with Sonny Boy Williamson as they performed on the street, at rent parties, and in jukes. He later obtained his first guitar when it was left behind in the cellar at a rent party. After Guitar Slim taught him his first song, he was playing it on his porch and a little girl came over to him and gave him a kiss. He then decided to learn two songs. Floyd Lee moved to Cleveland during the 1940's where he attended high school and won a contest which gave him the opportunity to serve as a batboy for the Cleveland Indians. During the fifties he sometimes played second guitar for Jimmy Reed. He moved to NYC in 1973 and played with Wilson Pickett and other blues and R'nB musicians but mostly worked as a cook and doorman. After retiring he devoted himself to his music and could be found mostly performing in the Times Square and Penn subway stations where I first heard him. Wendy Oxenhorn asked me to record him and so this session came to be. As a guitarist, Floyd could play classic country blues but he loved his Strat plugged into an auto-wah and delay to provide a heavily vocalized counterpoint to his voice on electric tracks. We set up quickly one wintry day and cut some tracks, all first takes - raw and unpolished, sitting in a circle in the live room when Studio zOaR shared a recording suite in midtown. 

Drummer Walter Williams was an old-time Harlem hipster who played with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Hot Lips Page and many others. Bassist Kenny Aaronson now holds down the bass chair in The Yardbirds with extensive credits including Bob Dylan and Billy Idol. Director of the Jazz Foundation, Wendy Oxenhorn also blows a mean harmonica on a couple of tracks. 

Get a copy of Floyd Lee's Blues On 30th Street via Bandcamp right here. Listen to "Bright Lights, Big City" below.