Track Listing

1. Wild About You Baby
2. Sen-sa-shun
3. She's Gone
4. It Hurts Me Too
5. What'd I Say
6. One More Time
7. Sadie
8. Dog Meets The Wolf
9. Walking The Ceiling
10. Sitting At Home Alone
11. Phillips Screwsdriver
12. Gonna Send You Back To Georgia
13. Things Don't Work Out Right
14. See Me In The Evening/It's Alright
15. Streakin'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95850 in Music
• Released on: 2004-04-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Wild-man slide guitarist Hound Dog Taylor's crude, propulsive sound inspired the Alligator label's "Genuine Houserockin' Music" motto. Recorded between 1971 and 1975, Release the Hound contains a mix of studio and live material that is every bit the equal of Taylor's existing catalogue--and even more raw and primitive. The six-fingered six-stringer explodes through a volatile collection of boogie, blues and good-time shuffles that makes Elmore James sound like Keb' Mo' in comparison. Hound Dog and his riotous bass-free backing duo of guitar and near-tribal drums were not technical perfectionists, but they could sure fire up a party thanks to Taylor's combustive mix of scorching slide playing and magnetic personality. --Hal Horowitz, Amazon.com

CD Description
RELEASE THE HOUND is an Alligator Records compilation of previously unreleased Hound Dog Taylor tracks, featuring a fewsongs in the studio, and a host of live performances from tours and radio broadcasts in the early 1970s. As usual, Taylor is backed by the Houserockers: drummer Ted Harvey (replaced by Levi Warren on a few tracks) and second guitarist Brewer Phillips, whose boogie-oriented lines and fills complement Taylor's perfectly.
Hound Dog Taylor was one of the rawest and most exuberant blues musicians ever put to tape, andthese tracks are no exception. His keening tenor and raucous guitar blister everything from "Wild About You, Baby" to his herky-jerky cover of Ray Charles's "What'd I Say", and his slide work (Taylor's slide was reportedly made from a sawed-off kitchen chair leg with a brass pipe inside) sounds like a cattle prod battling a toaster. Churning rhythmic interplay from Phillips, and loose, rattletrap drums keep the whole thing on the edge of chaos. More primal, powerful, good-time music is hard to come by, house-rockin' music, indeed.

Customer Reviews

Rough!
"Raw, Rough And Reckless" the back cover proudly proclaims, and that's no lie.

Theodore "Hound Dog" Taylor only released two LPs in his lifetime, but several posthumous albums have added to that sparse legacy, and "Release The Hound" is the latest addition to the Hound Dog catalogue. It brings together 11 previously unreleased live recordings and three studio outtakes, and while this is NOT the place for newcomers to start, those who are already in the doghouse will be delighted by this gritty close to one of Chicago's most legendary bluesmen.

Hound Dog Taylor and his extremely loose bass-less trio sound like they're about to lose it at times, but they never do, and while the sound quality is not excactly stellar, nothing is anywhere near unlistenable.
Hound Dog tears through well-known songs ("Sadie", "See Me In The Evening", "It Hurts Me Too", the instrumental "Walking The Ceiling" which has been equipped with a drum solo) and less well-known ones (the studio outtake "Sitting At Home Alone", a live ten-minute "Things Don't Work Out Right", the "Dust My Broom"-ripoff "Wild About You Baby"), and the set ends with a "hidden" track, Hound Dog, Brewer Phillips and Ted Harvey bantering with the audience ("I'm gonna streak tonight", says co-lead guitarist Brewer Phillips, "gonna get buck nekkid!")

We don't know if that particular threat was carried out or not, but it sounds like the audience had a good time either way. Hound Dog fans will, too, once they pick up this worthy addition to the late Hound Dog Taylor's catalogue.