Jimmy Reed’s seventh full-length for the Vee-Jay label—and arguably his most thrillingly propulsive Vee-Jay outing—T’aint No Big Thing fairly leaps to life with the opener, “Shame, Shame, Shame," in which Reed emerges from his usual drowsy stupor to deliver one of the most insistently danceable hits of his entire career. Like the majority of Reed’s Vee-Jay outings from this period, T’aint No Big Thing is short and to the point, and its 12 rocking sides are incontestably brilliant examples of Reed’s strutting, cock-eyed urban blues. Reed’s technique is sometimes criticized as overly simplistic, but his uncomplicated songwriting and woozy, matter-of-fact delivery is precisely what makes songs like “Mixed Up," “Mary, Mary," and “Upside the Wall” so instantly memorable. These songs are positively steeped in the twilight atmosphere of the smoke-filled juke joints in which Reed honed his craft. Yet they also gained remarkable popularity among young British blues fanatics like Keith Richards and Brian Jones, who borrowed much from the distinctively relaxed guitar interplay heard on Reed’s Vee-Jay outings.