Black Magic follows in the same vein as Magic Sam’s first Delmark LP (and first Hall of Fame album), West Side Soul, combining burning West Side blues with heartfelt touches of soul. Again, most of the songs are covers (Little Milton, Otis Rush, Lowell Fulson, Freddie King, et al, with the more obscure Andrew Brown cut ‘Stop! You’re Hurting Me’ a definite highlight) and there a couple remakes of Sam’s 45s, but again, it all sounds vital and up-to-the-minute, thanks to Sam’s remarkably emotive vocals and incisive guitar and the chemistry of a first-rate Chicago blues band (Mighty Joe Young, Eddie Shaw, Lafayette Leake, Mac Thompson, and Odie Payne, Jr.). Black Magic was a bittersweet triumph, as Magic Sam, only 32, died of a heart attack not long after the release of this album in 1969.
Recorded in Chicago, Oct. 23 and Nov. 6, 1968. Released on LP as Delmark DS-620 in 1969; on CD as DD-620 in 1994.
— Jim O’Neal
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