Review Revue: Snooks Eaglin - Baby, You Can Get Your Gun!

While not incredibly well known, especially to the College Radio DJ set, Snooks - known in his hometown of New Orleans as "The Human Jukebox" for his vast repertoire – was a most accomplished blues guitarist and singer. Eaglin's first Black Top Records release, Baby, You Can Get Your Gun!, released almost thirty years after his earliest solo guitar recordings on Folkways, kicked off a string of releases on Black Top and the most productive era of his long career.

There are definitely some design choices I wouldn't have made on the cover of this record, but we would be foolish to dismiss it out of hand based on that alone. Fortunately, it seems only one KCMU DJ made that mistake, while the rest of the crew listened to the album and appreciated it for its many merits.

"Now here's a record!! This is great stuff. Loads of info on the back."

"This is a joke, right?"

"No, fool, this is a pretty damn good + varied collection of blues. This guy may be unknown, but he sure can play the blues guitar!"

"So what! He looks like a geek, and he has a geeky name!" [This is a sarcastic comment.]

"Look who's talking, Geeky Names indeed."

"Meet Snooks. And his Blues Guitar."

"And he rocks."

"Check out the back pictures - secondhand smoke!!!"

"Snooks also played lead guitar for Professor Longhair, for many years, until the Prof. died."

"Geeky name, geeky looking . . . but can he play!"

"OK, so he wears polyester. But you wear polyester blends."