Blowing the Fuse 1954

 And back to the magnificent Blowing the Fuse series from Bear Family.

1954's set demonstrates a radical turn in what is rocking the jukeboxes, the vocal groups are taking over. If you look back through the earlier sets, from 1945 through 1950 there is only one vocal group represented in each year on the 28 or 29 tracks. In 1949 & 1950 the tracks are dominated by LA club blues, southern/Chicago bar blues, Jump/band jazzy blues, New Orleans R&B, and country blues with only the Ravens and the Orioles representing a different concept. In 1951 the number of vocal groups swells to 6 and holds there thru 52 and 53 but in 1954 the number explodes to 11!

In this set the road to Rock n' Roll is becoming plainly evident. The set begins, appropriately enough, with one of the many vocal groups seeking to emulate the Orioles with a bird name (the list is endless), the Crows. The move towards music directed to the teen market is on and this bouncy, super clean, testimony of teen angst is clear evidence. Little Walter follows with his uniquely sophisticated take on Chicago Blues; at this point in time Walter's own records actually far outsell his employer, Muddy Waters'. Johnny Ace is at the peak of his popularity featuring a style somewhere in between the L.A. Club Blues of Charles Brown and the Band Blues of his Beale Street brother Bobby Bland. Faye Adams comes in with a Jump Band piece complete with wailing sax and then the Spiders with Chuck 'The Barber' Carbo singing lead show that the New Orleans version of the new vocal groups  was still loaded with plenty of Bartholomew/Domino style R&B. 

Throughout the rest of the compilation, groups like the Harptones, the 5 Royales, the Clovers, Hank Ballard's Midnighters, The Chords, The Cadillacs and the Charms all take their shots at simple teen-age ballads with similar results, only The Robins 'Riot in Cell Block 9' and The Drifters latin beat driven Honey Love featuring dynamic vocalist Clyde McPhatter show any imagination.

More interesting is what still exists here side by side with the ballad crooning groups; Buddy and Ella Johnson offer a great Jump Jazz piece, Guitar Slim follows with his epic 'Things I Used to Do', Ray Charles and B.B. King both establish what will be a steady presence for many years to come, Muddy and the Wolf are growling out some of their finest raw bar blues. Big Joe Turner has not only jumped into the R&B world with both feet but is pointing the way to Rock N' Roll with his classic 'Shake Rattle and Roll'. Chuck Willis begins his meteoric rise as does Ruth Brown hers. Sugar Boy Crawford and Dave Bartholomew demonstrate that New Orleans hasn't lost it's appeal despite the unusual lack of a Fats hit this year, Shirley Gunter & The Queens give us our first example of a girl group but they are still far more adventurous than their white counterparts like The Andrews Sisters. The set closes with a strong Jump Blues instrumental ala Bull Moose Jackson or Earl Bostic from Joe Houston.