Various Artists Light: On The South Side Vinyl LP 2026
Tracklist:
1. I'm a Streaker Baby - Arelean Brown
2. Bowlegged Woman, Knock-kneed Man - Bobby Rush
3. No Better Time Than Now - Ricky Allen
4. The Same One - Little Mac Simmons
5. This Is My Prayer (To Find Someone of My Own) - Lady Margo
6. You Made Me Suffer - Andrew Brown
7. Gimmie Some of Yours (I'll Give You Some of Mine) - Artie White
8. Woman's Lib - Lucille Spann
9. Bring It Down Front - Hugh Hawkins
10. I Sayed That - Slim Willis Band
11. It's a Dream - Little Ed & The Soundmasters Band
12. Is It Because I'm Black (Instrumental) - Syl Johnson
13. Baby (Wacha Doin' to Me) - Walter 'Butterball' Davis
14. Detroit Blues - Willie Williams
15. Goose Walk - Little Mac Simmons
16. Young Blood - Detroit Jr.
17. I Learned My Lesson - Willie Davis
18. California Lady - James Kinds & Stack
Between 1975-77, Chicago’s southside nightclubs were experiencing dark times. The after-hours routine may have been on the up, but the sound of urban blues was on its way down, getting funkier, heavier, picking up a Zeppelin echo from the British rock scene that had raided its larder. Thankfully, lightening came by way of a lanky white guy skulking from club to club with a camera and strobe light. Chicago photographer Michael Abramson hit Perv’s House, Pepper’s Hideout, The High Chaparral, The Patio Lounge, and The Showcase Lounge nightly, not to capture the artists on stage but instead popping off a half-dozen rolls every night exclusively on the seldom photographed crowd. Light: On The South Side gathers more than 100 beautiful black and white Abramson images, as Numero shines its own light on yet another dark corner of the musical past. The 132-page hardback book features not just these photos, but an extended and wildly colorful ephemera section, plus an essay by British novelist and Numero fan Nick Hornby. Housed in a gorgeous slipcase with the 12X12 monograph is the 2LP set Pepper’s Jukebox, a 17-track compilation of Chicago blues in transition, as heard from both the stage and the Wurlitzer.