Dirty Work

         

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The album reached Number 2 on the Roots Music Report UK Album Airplay Chart - Also Number 13 on their Blues Rock Chart, and Number 48 on their main Blues Chart - at the time the only British artist in their Top 50.



Mick writes:

Here's my album for 2024 - 12 tracks of rockin' blues. Most have already been released through the year, but the title track is brand new.

The album is available online on Friday 13th September.

And yes, I know the Stones released an album called Dirty Work - but that was back the 1980s so no wonder I'd forgotten about it. And anyway it's not all that - the best track was 'Harlem Shuffle' and even that wasn't a patch on the Bob and Earl original.

So this is a collection of recordings from 2024, all recorded here at Fabulous Rockfold Studio deep in the Badlands of Surrey, England. I took the cover photo in Rockfold's 'Green Room' sometime last Autumn. I'm 74 now..(but, as Ronnie Scott would have said, with the body of a man of 73).

Gnasher, of course, remains eternally youthful.

1. Dirty Work

Well I just liked the title so I wrote the song and set it to a funky Willie Mitchell type groove. The guitar solos are from the very first time I ran through the song .. I was playing fingerstyle on the riff so I just carried on and did the same for the solos. I think they work fine.

2. Walking Dental Bill (aka Walking Doctor Bill)

is, of course, (for those who know) a variation on BB King's 'Walking Doctor Bill'.. confusingly spelt on the original album cover as 'Walking Dr. Bill' so it took me a while to work out that it wasn't actually about Doctor Bill who walks a lot.

Anyway my song is based on reality.. I currently sport just one front tooth.. not a pretty sight but fortunately you don't have to see it. An expensive bridge is on its way - as I say in the lyric 'a bridge too far'..

To keep everything legal I've released the track under it's original title 'Walking Doctor Bill' and put BB as the sole writer. But for all other purposes, radio etc, please use its real title 'Walking Dental Bill'.

3. Just Dropped In

Back in January I released my version of Mickey Newberry's song 'Just Dropped In' - a cult track which was featured in the Coen Brother's film 'The Big Lebowski'. Pleasingly the track did really well on the American platform Pandora, and so far has chalked up over a third of a million streams.

Basically a drugs song but I think the lyric can apply to other psychiatric conditions. I released the single in mono, but here for the first time is the stereo mix. I think it sounds pretty good.

4. Gonna Miss You Like The Devil

A favourite track is Slim Harpo's song which features Bill Thorndycraft on acoustic harp. We formed the band Killing Floor together back in 1968 and are still the best of friends through many years of life changes. Bill's still the only guy I know who plays Slim Harpo style harp! And very well too - thanks Bill.

5. Strongo

A Freddie King style instrumental dedicated to an imaginary circus strongman.. why not? I'd forgotten about this track until I received an encouraging and supportive email from a blues guitar fan over in Austin. So I thought yes.. just what the album needs.. Strongo.

6. Do Me Right

A rocking shuffle, originally by Lowell Fulson. I went see him at the 100 Club in London back in the 60s / 70s, and BB King got up to jam. One of those nights! Anyway I think it's a funky little song which I wasn't really aware of until recently. thanks Lowell.

7.Digging This Trench

My friend Mac, the bass player with Killing Floor, came up with this phrase -'I've been digging this trench for a long time'. He does that kind of thing. So here's the song.

8. Don't Wanna Boogie

I believe this could be described as 'balls out full tilt bad asse boogie', but I wouldn't be so crude. A conversation with The Devil - remixed and slightly longer than the original single release.

9. Ain't That A Pity

And I felt that I owed myself a straight ahead rocking 12 bar shuffle.. the stuff I was brought up on. So here it is.

10. Ragged but Right

I've really liked the original of this, or at least the version by the 1930s country singer Riley Puckett, since I discovered it a year or so back. And I fancied trying to create my own version with a nice mess of acoustic instruments as backing.

I ended up using a combination of most of my small collection of acoustic guitars - the 1930s Harmony for the slide mixed in with my ex music school classical guitar for the solos. Rhythm on my Cort acoustic which sounds OK and stays amazingly in tune whatever chord shapes you give it! Drums on the back of the classical. I like it a lot.

11. Red Sails in the Sunset

I've always loved the Fats Domino record, and recently noticed what a bluesy little tune it is. It was actually written in the 1930s by an Austrian, Wilhelm Grosz, with lyrics supplied by a guy from Northern Ireland, one Jimmy Kennedy. The red sails in the lyric are those of a local yacht, the 'Kitty of Coleraine' which frequented his local port.

I think my version works nicely, with slide guitar on my 1930s Harmony archtop - only a few years younger than the song itself.

12. Got To Find My Baby

A Chuck Berry song from an album that I still remember buying back in the early 60s. Fuzzy guitar with my 1963 Danelectro through a little Danelectro pre-amp.

I think this album is a good mix of blues, rock and a few tangents, reflecting where I'm at going into my 75th year on the planet. And here I am enjoying the freedom and possibilities of the internet age, while looking back to walking home from Wimbledon Broadway clutching my brand new Chuck Berry LP all those years ago. Keep rockin' that blues!



1.Dirty Work 04:15
Writer: Mick Clarke

2. Walking Dental Bill (aka Walking Doctor Bill) 03:06
Writer: BB King

3. Just Dropped In 04:12
Writer: Mickey Newberry

4. Gonna Miss You Like The Devil 02:59
Writer: James Moore

5. Strongo 02:43
Writer: Mick Clarke

6. Do Me Right 02:57
Writer: Lowell Fulson

7. Digging This Trench 04:05
Writer: Mick Clarke

8. Don't Wanna Boogie 02:34
Writer: Mick Clarke

9. Ain't That A Pity 03:39
Writer: Mick Clarke

10. Ragged But Right! 03:04
Writer: Public Domain Arr: Mick Clarke

11. Red Sails in the Sunset 03:08
Writer: Wilhelm Grosz, Jimmy Kennedy

12. Got to Find My Baby 03:13
Writer: Chuck Berry