Lonnie [Bonus Tracks Edition]

This expanded version of Lonnie Donegan's second album (a 10" LP) from September 1958 reaches all the way to late 1957 and forward to the spring of 1959 for singles and B-sides to add on, and it is also augmented by several outtakes -- Leadbelly's "Shorty George" and two alternate versions of the Woody Guthrie-associated number "Hard Travellin'," plus the rebel song "My Only Son Was Killed in Dublin (The Dying Rebel)." The original album contained what was probably the best single blues number of Donegan's career, the five and a half minute long "I've Got Rocks in My Bed." It is still the major track on this CD, but the mix of sounds -- particularly folk and gospel -- makes this a very diverse album, and the additional singles only enhance its value. The husband-and-wife folk duo Miki and Griff are present on five songs, singing and playing behind Donegan on blues-influenced folk numbers like "Sally Don't You Grieve" and cheerful ballads like "Nobody Loves Like an Irishman." We're also treated to the B-side "Grand Coulee Dam," which was featured in a live performance clip in the 1957 movie The Six-Five Special; bluesy outings like "Ham 'n' Eggs" and "Hard Travellin'" (which appears in three completely difference versions, each better than the last) on which Donegan is near his best, bracing and exciting; and he gives us a sample of his skills as a jazz interpreter on "Baby Don't You Know That's Love." His singing range is more than a little impressive, and the only flaw in this album, as opposed to its predecessor, is that Jimmy Currie simply isn't as aggressive or inventive a guitarist as his two predecessors, Dickie Bishop and Denny Wright. ~ Bruce Eder