Released 1993 by Blue Highway Recordings | AAM 060403

The Urban Soul of Bennie Smith. This is Smith guitarist and St. Louis blues legend, who played with stars like Chuck Berry and Ike Turner at his best. A high definition remaster of the original 1993 Blues Highway Music release.

FEATURING
Bennie Smith: Guitar, Vocals
Durious Montgomery: Bass
Rayburn Hayes: Drums, Vocals
Screamin' Joe Neal: Organ
Charles Rogers: Drums

PRODUCTION TEAM
Recording Engineer: Joshua Riggs
Digital Editor: Barry Hufker
Remastering Engineer for Download: Paul Hennerich
Executive Producer: Charlie Riggs

Bennie Smith was a central player in the Blues and R&B scene in Saint Louis, from the 1950s to his death in 2006. Playing and recording with greats such as Ike Turner and Jimmy "Soul" Clark, Aretha Franklin, Little Milton, the Drifters, Albert King and Rufus Thomas. It has been rumored that Bennie even brought an amp for a young BB King to play on.

Bennie wasn't a huge solo recording act, though often turning up on sessions. We are lucky to have this recording. Recorded in the early 1990s, when Bennie was in still in great health.
Charles O Riggs, wrote at the time of the this recording; "I have come to know guitarist Bennie Smith as one of those obscure, hidden musical Treasures who is destined to the status of legend. His best music is performed in his Penrose Avenue basement 'Studio" mainly to the pleasure of his many musician friends who gather there often to jam through the night. That is why these cuts were mixed and recorded live in Bennie's basement- an attempt to capture the ambiance that doesn't always make it even to the smallest neighborhood venues."
AAM Recordings couldn't agree more and is thrilled to make these recordings available to the public again.

AAM 060403