Indisputably the best Jimmy Nelson compilation, Cry Hard Luck: The RPM And Kent Recordings 1951-61 collects every darned last thing he did for the RPM/Kent/Modern stable of labels in his early career. The 23 tracks, all from 1952-1954 except for four songs cut in 1960, include not just RPM and Kent singles, but also a bunch of outtakes and alternates, some of which didn't surface until the 1980s, a couple of which appear for the first time here. (There's also a previously unissued extended version of his 1952 single "Baby Child.") While Nelson lacked a voice or material as top-notch as those of the best early-'50s R&B singers, this is solid, if characteristic almost to the point of generic, West Coast R&B-blues with a jazzy influence. The thick-voiced Nelson sometimes sounds rather like Big Joe Turner, and had a knack -- hardly unique among R&B singers of the time -- of skirting playfully suggestive themes in his lyrics. Some of the better instances of those are in "Meet Me With Your Black Dress On," his Top Ten R&B hit "T-99 Blues" (presented here in both the hit single version and an originally unissued alternate), and "Fine Little Honey Dripper." And here's an inspirationally oddball lyric from "Unlock the Door": "The way I love you would make a rabbit hug a hound." Although Ace has as usual done the best sonic restoration they could with the source material, inevitably the fidelity is variable, with some distortion and muffle pervading some of the tracks, including the 1960 session, which was plagued by distortion and poor balance.
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