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Watch Your Step
Compilation album by Ted Hawkins
Released	1982
Recorded	1971–72
Studio	Eldorado Recording Studios, Los Angeles
Label	Rounder
Producer	Bruce Bromberg Dennis Walker
Ted Hawkins chronology
Watch Your Step (1982) Happy Hour (1986)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Robert Christgau	A−
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
The Line of Best Fit	7/10
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide
Tom Hull – on the Web	B+ ()

Watch Your Step is a 1982 album by Ted Hawkins, a collection of previously recorded songs.

Release

At the time of the album's release, Hawkins was a guest of the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.

Critical reception

The Boston Phoenix called Watch Your Step "a triumph ... much more than the best blues album of the year -- it's an unexpected hybrid, the first folk-soul masterpiece." Trouser Press wrote: "Teaching a mighty acoustic lesson in roots music, Hawkins inhabits that secular place just outside the churchyard where gospel, folk and soul meet." Robert Christgau wrote that "these little dramas of passion, tenderness and betrayal are stamped with the sin-and-redemption of a lived life." The New Rolling Stone Record Guide wrote that "soul and blues fans need to hear this, if only to restore their faith in the dying art of emotional conviction."

Track listing

All songs were written by Theodore Hawkins, Jr. (i.e. Ted Hawkins); who also sang and played guitar on all of them.

1. "Watch Your Step" – Acoustic version
2. "Bring It Home Daddy"
3. "If You Love Me"
4. "Don't Lose Your Cool"
5. "The Lost Ones"
6. "Who Got My Natural Comb?"
7. "Peace & Happiness"
8. "Sweet Baby"
9. "Stop Your Crying"
10. "Put In a Cross"
11. "Sorry You're Sick"
12. "Watch Your Step" – Full band version
13. "TWA"
14. "I Gave Up All I Had"
15. "Stay Close to Me"

Personnel

According to an early vinyl release:

• Ted Hawkins – guitar, vocals
• Elizabeth Hawkins – vocals on "Don't Lose Your Cool" and "I Gave Up All I Had"
• Phillip Walker – lead guitar on 2, 6, 8, 12
• Arthur Woods – piano on 2, 6, 8, 12
• Ollie "Count" Gaines – bass on 2, 8, 12
• Dennis Walker – bass on "Who Got My Natural Comb?"
• Donny Tucker – drums on 2, 6, 8, 12
• David Majal Li – saxophone on 2, 6, 8, 12
• Melvin Moore – trumpet on 2, 6, 8, 12
• Ina Bea Walker and Jimmy Grisby – backing vocals on "Bring It Home Daddy"

References

1. ^ "Ted Hawkins | Biography & History". AllMusic.
2. ^ Wynn, Ron. Ted Hawkins: Watch Your Step at AllMusic. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
3. ^ "Robert Christgau: CG: Ted Hawkins". www.robertchristgau.com.
4. Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 4. MUZE. p. 185.
5. "This Ted Hawkins reissue is a deep dive into a tortured character". The Line of Best Fit.
6. ^ The New Rolling Stone Record Guide. Random House. 1983. p. 220.
7. Hull, Tom (May 10, 2021). "Music Week". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
8. "TED HAWKINS is a singer, a songwriter, and a guitarist who for almost 30 years was a street mu..." NPR.org.
9. Dineen, Donal. "Sunken Treasure: Ted Hawkins' Watch Your Step". The Irish Times.
10. Miles, Milo (3 August 1982). "Blues with a feeling: Ted Hawkins's acoustic soul". The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
11. "Ted Hawkins". Trouser Press. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
12. ^ Liner notes to WOLP 1

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