Arlean Brown ‎– Sings The Blues In The Loop

“If you wandered into a smoky South Side club in Chicago during the early ’70s, there’s a good chance you’d have been met by the raw, unvarnished truth of Arelean Brown’s voice cutting through the haze — fierce, funky, and steeped in blues grit. Born in Tchula, Mississippi in 1924, Brown carried the delta dust on her heels all the way to the Windy City, where she laid claim to a sound that was unmistakably her own. Her roots were rural, but her soul was urban — a blues singer in the grand Chicago tradition, but one who carved a bold new lane with every word she growled and every note she bent. A commanding vocalist, Arelean had the power to sound both tough and tender, often within a single line. She wasn’t singing about the blues — she was living them, twisting everyday heartaches and hard-won wisdom into songs that shimmered with personality and pain. Her delivery was theatrical yet sincere, humorous yet harrowing. And like all great blueswomen before her — think Big Mama Thornton, Koko Taylor, and Bessie Smith — she didn’t just perform, she testified. This album, her one full-length LP originally issued in 1977 on the ultra-rare Black Magic label, captures a singular moment in time — ‘The Loop’ was not just a place in downtown Chicago but a state of mind. It speaks of a place where grit met groove. Where soul bled into blues. Backed by the tough rhythm section of The Outhouse Band, and laced with touches of funk and soul, these recordings blur genre lines in a way that only 1970s Chicago could produce. Tracks like “I’m a Streaker Baby” and “Chicken Man” groove with irreverent energy, while “I Love My Man” and “I’m So Blue” dig into the deepest wells of emotional truth. It’s an album of both social sass and soulful sorrow, where punchlines rub shoulders with pathos, and Brown struts across every track like she owns the place — because, in many ways, she did. This record comes to us here at Red Lightnin’ by way of the legendary Bea & Baby Records — one of Chicago’s most fiercely independent labels, and a cornerstone of postwar blues history. Run by the enigmatic Narvel “Cadillac Baby” Eatmon and his wife Bea, the label opened its doors in 1959 and, for three decades, gave voice to the overlooked, the raw, and the ready. Their catalog is a treasure trove of electric blues, gospel, street corner soul, and proto-funk — the real sounds of the city, unfiltered and unpolished. Arelean Brown made several sides for Bea & Baby, including “I Love My Man” and the stomping “Hello Baby” backed by Scotty & The Rib-Tips — records that have long since become cult classics, traded like gold among collectors and DJs. She was a perfect match for Cadillac Baby’s fiercely independent aesthetic: defiant, soulful, and bursting with personality. Though it slipped under the radar on its initial release, Sings the Blues in the Loop has since become a prized rarity among deep blues collectors, with original vinyls selling for hundreds of dollars if you’re lucky. Lovingly remastered for a whole new generation of blues lovers in 2025, Red Lightnin’ is proud to reissue this true artifact of a bygone era. Available for the first time on CD, this long-lost gem returns from the vaults not as a museum piece, but as a living, breathing document of a woman who sang it like she meant it — and meant it every single time. Arelean Brown didn’t just sing the blues. She was the blues. And now, thanks to this release, she always will be.” – notes from 2025 Red Lightnin’ reissue

Label: Black Magic – SR-1313

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album

Country: US

Released: 1977

VG/VG. Many light marks on b-side, a-side is VG+