Very Best of Frank Frost

Liner Note Author: Bill Dahl.
Guitarist and harmonica player Frank Frost was essentially an Arkansas version of Jimmy Reed when he hooked up with drummer Sam Carr in the early '50s. Carr, the son of bluesman Robert Nighthawk, and Frost worked in Nighthawk's band for several years before striking out as a duo in the early '60s, and when they added guitar player and bassist Jack Johnson in 1962, they became the Jelly Roll Kings (although they wouldn't use the name for a couple of years yet). Working the Reed side of the street with a distinct Mississippi juke-joint feel, the Kings recorded for the Sun, Jewel, and Earwig labels before Johnson left in the late '80s (the original trio reunited in 1997 for Fat Possum's Off Yonder's Wall). The Sun sides are probably the best and most explosive of these early recordings, but the Jewel sides, which make up this 13-track collection, are only a hair behind. ~ Steve Leggett