''Spider'' John Koerner and Willie Murphy - Running Jumping Stan

"Koerner's inspired guitar playing and distinctive singing made the ecstatic album one of the most acclaimed releases of 1969...folk blues and jug-band music blended into a giddy electronic hoedown...its spirit is even more welcome in these decidedly more sober times. Four Stars." - Rolling Stone

An oddly effective, one-off marriage of folk-blues and ragtime piano that kicks, to paraphrase Bob Wills, "like four mules pullin' out of a bog hole." Koerner, Ray & Glover's "Spider" John Koerner provides the playful, what-me-worry, Piedmont-by-way-of-Minnesota blues, and Willie Murphy adds inspired, loose-keyed, ragtime piano. At times, songs like "Red Palace" and "Sometimes I Can't Help Myself" sound like the perfect backdrop for Lilly Langtree in a Dodge City saloon circa 1883. Electric bass crops up here and there for emphasis, but the main vibe is Jesse Fuller meets Big Tiny Little. "Magazine Lady," a wildly in-the-groove tale of photo lust, is not to be missed. Kudos to eclectic producer Frazier Mohawk (Holy Modal Rounders, Kaleidoscope, Nico) for holding this stew together.