That overnight success came in 1952, when Willie Mae was 26. By then, she had moved far beyond the gospel songs she learned in the churches of Montgomery, Alabama, where her father was a minister and her mother sang in the choir. Now she was living in Houston, performing in clubs, learning to play drums and harmonica, drinking gin and milk, and doing advanced study in the kind of male-female dealings that lead to a deep understanding of the blues.

Of the 16 songs on this CD, recorded when she was in her early 40s, two were huge hits --- for others. One was "Hound Dog," which she first recorded three years before Elvis got to it. And then there is "Ball N' Chain," which Big Mama wrote and owned until Janis Joplin started using it as her show-stopper.

But the amazing thing about "Ball 'N Chain" is that these two classics are matched by almost every other song on this CD. In part, that's because the musicians playing with her are world-class. On the first few songs, her band features Buddy Guy (guitar), Walter Horton (harmonica) and the great Fred Below (drums). On two cuts, her only accompaniment is Fred McDowell's slide guitar. And for six glorious songs, she's backed by a band that includes Muddy Waters (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica) and the incomparable Otis Spann (piano).

Mostly, though, what transports you is Big Mama. Her range astonishes. One moment, she's a crude shouter, loud enough to hush belligerent drunks; the next moment, she's the repository of all the heartache in the world. You'll listen carefully to "Sweet Little Angel" because no one's done it better. And you'll want to get up and dance to "Wade in the Water," because she's singing flat-out gospel against a pounding tambourine and a scorching guitar. But on the twentieth hearing, or thereabouts, you will listen to Otis Spann's hushed piano against her forlorn voice in "Life Goes On" and feel something like awe.

Big Mama never knew real success. She got royalties of $500 for "Hound Dog," her first and only commercial hit. She lived hard. She drank more than was good for her. When she died in l984, aged 62, she left behind only a handful of records. No matter: "Ball N' Chain" guarantees Big Mama immortality.

-- by Jesse Kornbluth, for HeadButler.com

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Copyright 2004 by Head Butler Inc.