⬇️ LITTLE JOE BLUE ⬇️
(Joseph Valery, Jr.)
DISCOGRAPHY 1972-2012 (32EP/CD)
He didn't turn to music as a profession until the late '50s, when he was
well into his twenties, forming his band the Midnighters in Detroit at the
end of the decade. By the early '60s, Valery had moved to Reno, Nevada,
where he began recording as an adjunct to his performances in local clubs
before moving on to Los Angeles.
He recorded for various labels, including Kent and Chess' Checker Records
division during the early to mid-'60s, and never entirely escaped the
criticism that he was a B.B. King imitator, which dogged him right into the
'80s. The style that King popularized also happened to suit Valery, however,
and he gained some credibility in 1966 when he racked up a modest hit in
1966 with the song "Dirty Work Is Going On," which has since become a blues
standard.
He had extended stints with Jewel Records and Chess from the late '60s into
the early '70s, and recorded until the end of the '80s. Valery performed
throughout the south, and later Texas and California, during that decade,
and later toured Europe, including performances as part of the International
Jazz Fest during the '80s.
There is currently one CD of his work in print, the Evejim disc Little Joe
Blue's Greatest Hits, a reissue of two LPs, I'm Doing Alright and Dirty Work
Going On, that he cut in the '80s. His "Standing on the Threshold,"
featuring a powerful vocal performance and some beautifully soaring horns
behind some lean, mean guitar and piano, also appears on Jewel Spotlights
the Blues, Vol.1.
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