Snooks Eaglin

by Bill DahlWhen they refer to consistently amazing guitarist Snooks Eaglin as a human jukebox in his New Orleans hometown, theyre not dissing him in the slightest. The blind Eaglin is a beloved figure in the Crescent City, not only for his gritty, Ray Charles-inspired vocal delivery and wholly imaginative approach to the guitar, but for the seemingly infinite storehouse of oldies that hes liable to pull out on-stage at any second — often confounding his bemused band in the process! His earliest recordings in 1958 for Folkways presented Eaglin as a solo acoustic folk-blues artist with an extremely eclectic repertoire. His dazzling fingerpicking was nothing short of astonishing, but he really wanted to be making R&B with a band. Imperial Records producer Dave Bartholomew granted him the opportunity in 1960, and the results were sensational. Eaglins fluid, twisting lead guitar on the utterly infectious Yours Truly (a Bartholomew composition first waxed by Pee Wee Crayton) and its sequel, Cover Girl, was unique on the New Orleans R&B front, while his brokenhearted cries on Dont Slam That Door and That Certain Door were positively mesmerizing. Eaglin stuck with Imperial through 1963, when the firm closed up shop in New Orleans, without ever gaining national exposure. Eaglin found a home with Black Top Records in the 1980s, releasing four albums with the label, including 1988s Out of Nowhere (re-released on CD by P-Vine in 2007) and 1995s Souls Edge. In 2002 he released The Way It Is. A year later P-Vine put out Soul Train from Nawlins, an album drawn from a live set Eaglin did at 1995s Park Tower Blues Festival. A collection of Eaglins earliest recordings, all done on acoustic guitar, was released in 2005 by Smithsonian Folkways as New Orleans Street Singer.