Herbie Goins - Thinking Of You (2016)

Herbie Goins is an African-American blues and R&B singer who has spent most of his career in England. He was born in Florida, and his mother was a gospel singer who had a strong influence on him. He began singing at a young age at his local church, and in his mid-teens, he formed his first performing group, the Teen Kings, who soon began performing throughout Florida and other parts of the south, with a repertory that was mostly R&B. He moved to New York City and, with that as his base, began extending his own experience of the music, in acts opening for B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and Sam Cooke.

It was the military draft that brought Goins to Europe: he served in Germany, and then headed to England in the company of the band led by Eric Delayne. Jazz was the dominant form of alternative music in England at the time, and Goins joined Chris Barber's band for a time, which was primarily a Dixieland-based outfit. But by the mid-'60s, he'd decided to return to the blues, and the time was just right: England finally had a first-rate, home-grown blues outfit that was starting to make some noise, in the record business and the media, in the form of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. The latter had gone through several lead singers, including Long John Baldry, before Goins became part of the band in 1965. He spent the next couple of years working alongside of Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Danny Thompson, and Phil Seaman, to name just a few of the luminaries who passed through that lineup across numerous live gigs and a pair of LPs, Live at the Cavern and Red Hot from Alex

Goins resumed performing on a regular basis in the late '80s, not only in Europe but also the United States, doing blues and gospel, leading the Herbie Goins Band. His work with Alexis Korner remains perhaps the best known of his recordings on an international level, thanks not only to their periodic reissue and Korner's familiarity to British blues fans, but also the addition of bonus tracks (mostly from the radio) that have vastly expanded the range of music that they left behind. During the '90s, he could also still be found working occasionally with his ex-employer Chris Barber and one-time stablemate Dick Heckstall-Smith. In 2009, Goins' classic Night-Timers sides were re-released on a compilation CD in England on the revived Regal Zonophone label.

TRACKLIST

01. Evil (Feat. Guido Toffoletti's Blues Society)
02. What's Wrong With You (Feat. Guido Toffoletti's Blues Society)
03. Lonely Is My Name (Feat. The Soultimers)
04. Born To Loose (Feat. Jona's Blues Band)
05. Please, Please, Please (Feat. Alexis Korner Blues Incorporated)
06. Searching (Feat. The Soultimers)
07. Love Sick (Feat. The Soultimers)
08. I Don't Mind (Feat. The Soultimers)
09. We Got To Work It Out (Feat. The Soultimers)
10. I Can't Stand To Live Without You (Feat. The Hardboilers)
11. Take Me Higher (Feat. The Soultimers)
12. I'm Ready (Feat. Guido Toffoletti's Blues Society)
13. Thinking And Drinking (Feat. Guido Toffoletti's Blues Society)
14. Not Trust Worthy (Feat. Guido Toffoletti's Blues Society)