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Shotgun

Having found this 1965 LP at the local charity shop I was pleased to find a commenter at Discogs had written: "If you can only have one Jr Walker, this is it, because no collection but this contains all these essentials: 'Roadrunner', 'Shotgun', 'Cleo's Mood' and 'Cleo's Back'". It's a terrific album, - the All Stars' first - and it has been too long since I put it on (I'll remedy that later).

I was already acquainted with the title track, and with 'Roadrunner', but the rest was all new to me. The opener, 'Cleo's Mood', is a slinky instrumental. 'Do the Boomerang' raises the tempo and introduces some vocals, which provide instruction & encouragement for those doing the titular dance. Then comes the knockout combination of 'Shotgun' and 'Road Runner', and so on.

The LP's only flaw, which isn't really much of a weakness, is that it feels more like a set of singles than a album per se. The cover design is bold, eye-catching and very much appropriate to the music: Bernard Yeszin is credited with designing it. The band photo on the back cover shows Walker in a white tuxedo with a black collar, and his All Stars in fabulous floral print jackets - it's too bad the image isn't in colour.

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