Long John Baldry Farmhouse Blues

Up Above My Head- Long John Baldry MP3


beeradvocate.com- B+

Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale- Whole Foods Houston St., NYC- 22oz. Bottle into Belgian Beer Glass- 9.3% ABV- My first Farmhouse Ale/Saison and this beer was bottle conditioned in 2010. I think I have only had one bottle conditioned beer before but in theory I am already a fan of the style. Bottle conditioning, simply put, is when the beer is bottled without a filtering process. This leaves yeast sediment in the bottle which continues the fermentation process of the beer or ale while it is in the bottle. As you can see, with this bottle in the photo I included, the ale appears very cloudy which is the result of the yeast sediment left in the bottle.


A Farmhouse Ale/ Saison style,according to Wikipedia, was first brewed in a french speaking part of Belgium and were typically low alcohol, pale ales brewed in the winter to be enjoyed in the summer and could often have some type of fruity component. The idea of a "Saison" never appealed to me but when I went beer shopping this week I just decided to try one. Though it is a bit early for a summer style brew today is the first day in months I have been able to go outside in only a sweatshirt and be comfortable. This beer poured with about a fingers worth of fluffy head. The head receded pretty quickly and has barely left a bit of lacing on the glass. The ale itself is a lovely pale orange color. The aroma has a lemony quality. Light bodied in the mouth. This ale has a bitter, sour taste to it but not in an unpleasant way. I could see this as a really nice ale for a summer day. Lively, small bubbles of carbonation. This beer measures in at 9.3% ABV but you wouldn't know it! Barely any alcohol in the taste or smell, which could be dangerous if you weren't aware of the ABV to begin with. This is a damn smooth beer. Not silky smooth, but goes down easy. I expected something hoppier, with more citrus but this is a good ale I would like to try again . Although I'm not an expert this might be a good beer to try from a cask rather than a keg.

On the turntable is Long John's Blues- Long John Baldry and the Hoochie Coochie Men- Mono LP Reissue on United Artists 1971- Originally recorded in 1964 and 1966 at I.B.C. Studios in London, England- This one of the records I bought last weekend on a road trip to the Princeton Record Exchange. It was a good trip with two friends and yielded some pretty good records. The only drawback was the cost of the train ticket which almost equaled what I spent in the store. Additionally I found that the price tags they use were really hard to remove and damaged a couple of the LP covers which was disappointing. I hate price tags on my records and they should think about using another type of sticker but I guess no one complains. Its a small gripe on an overall good experience but its like their branding their records...not cool. This LP turned up in the bins beneath the "good stuff" and I have always been curious about LJB and this seemed like a good opportunity to take a chance on him. As an original singer associated with the British blues movement in the early sixties he had an huge influence over younger musicians. Unfortunately you don't really hear to much about him these days. LJP had a major impact on the British music both musically and as an openly gay male when it was completely socially unacceptable. This is a good LP although a bit different than I expected. I was initially expecting something more in the vein of the Yardbirds or early Rolling Stones. But this has a way more boogie-woogie/ jump blues feel to it, which wasn't an unpleasant suprise. The musicians are pretty accomplished and arrangements on some of the songs are fairly sophisticated for the time. After I listened to the LP I decided LJB's voice actually reminded me of David Lee Roth's a la "Just A Gigolo". I mentioned this to my friend who went to the record store with me and he actually agreed with me. There are some spirited renditions of Muddy Waters, Johnny Lee Hooker and Joe Turner tunes. There are also two original Baldry compositions which are nice but fairly unremarkable blues knock-offs. The stand out track for me is a duet with a young Rod Stewart on a Sister Rosetta Tharpe song called Up Above My Head. I have included a MP3 file above of this track.. This song is really great and goes far in illustrating Rod Stewart's affinity for Sam Cooke. Not only that but the pairing of both LJB and Rod Stewart, in a duo setting, display an uncanny resemblance to an imaginary pairing of Sam Cooke and Ray Charles.