Weldon "Juke Boy"
Bonner worked the Houston bars and sang of street life in the same "down-home" style as
Lightnin' Hopkins, whom he challenges here in "Look Out Lightnin'."
But Bonner was a younger man than
Hopkins when he made these recordings (1960-67), and there is greater urgency in his voice.
Bonner played guitar and harp in a rack, a la
Jimmy Reed, but his swampier sound is more akin to that of Louisiana's Lightnin' Slim/Lazy Lester team. Eight of these 20 tracks are newly issued, coming from home recordings
Bonner made of his raw, wry blues. "I belong to a three-ring circus," he sang, "but I ain't nothin' but a clown."