Hoodoo Lady

1	Jockey Man Blues 3:03
2	Me and My Chauffeur Blues 2:46
3	In My Girlish Days 2:34
4	Hoodoo Lady 3:03
5	I'm a Bad Luck Woman 3:02
6	Can't Afford to Lose My Man 2:43
7	My Gage Is Going Up 2:39
8	When the Levee Breaks 3:10
9	Three Times Seven Blues 3:04
10	Shout the Boogie 2:49
11	Please Set a Date 2:34
12	Killer Diller Blues 2:27
13	Pickin' the Blues 3:03
14	I'm So Glad 2:42
15	Chickasaw Train Blues 3:17
16	Moaning the Blues 3:05
17	New Bumble Bee 2:52
18	Looking the World Over 2:37
19	Squat It 2:49
20	My Butcher Man 2:59
21	Doctor Doctor Blues 3:19
22	Moonshine 2:48

Barnes & Noble

Although not a Classic Blues singer, Memphis Minnie was arguably a peer of Bessie Smith -- if not her superior. From her first country blues recordings in 1929 to her death in 1959, Minnie constantly evolved. HOODOO LADY catches her at the top of her versatile game in the late '30s. The selections straddle her earlier, more fleeting light swing on "My Butcher Man" and the heavier strums and piano stomps of "Please Don't Stop Him," more suitable to then-current dance styles. Yet her throaty vocals and moans and tightly controlled vibrato remain unchanged as she delivers the trademark salacious double entendres of "Black Cat Blues" (where everybody wants to buy her kitty), "Down In the Alley," and "Good Biscuits", replete with food and gaming references and a hint of irony. It was that sense of humor which helped a number of her songs become blues standards, including two covers by Led Zeppelin. Don Palmer

All Music Guide

Born in Algiers, LA, in 1897, Lizzie Douglas forged a reputation as Memphis Minnie during the late '20s and throughout the '30s by singing topical blues tunes in a powerful voice while strumming the guitar, sometimes with piano, mandolin, and additional guitar accompaniment. Although her career extended well into the 1940s and she was still active in the '50s, Minnie is mainly remembered for her sanguine contribution to the developing Midwestern urban blues scene of the 1930s. In 2008 the U.K.'s Snapper label came out with a 22-track Memphis Minnie collection and chose to call it Hoodoo Lady, instantly generating confusion between their product and the identically titled benchmark Columbia Roots & Blues collection of 1991. Of that disc's 18 titles, only three are included in the Snapper edition, and for this reason the two complement each other beautifully. It's worth having the Columbia disc just to be able to savor her rendition of "If You See My Rooster," during which she anticipates the howling of Howlin' Wolf (who revived this tune many years later) by crowing gently like a chanticleer. Snapper's Hoodoo Lady is equally fine, and includes a rowdy singalong number called "Shout the Boogie." Owning one or both of these excellent samplers will enable the listener to decide whether or not to pursue Memphis Minnie's complete early recordings as released in chronological order by the Document and Wolf labels, or to shop around and piece together a unified history of her entire recording career. Arwulf Arwulf