Etta James Rocks the House, recorded live at the New Era Club in Nashville on September 27 and 28, 1963, is only the fifth live album elected to the Blues Hall of Fame. It joins B.B. King Live at the Regal, B.B. King Live in Cook County Jail, Albert King’s Live Wire Blues Power, and Robert Nighthawk Live on Maxwell Street. This is Etta James at her raunchy best as a blueswoman bumping, grinding, growling, and wailing songs like Baby, What You Want Me to Do, What’d I Say, Money, and Woke Up This Morning at one of the top clubs on the black Southern chittlin circuit of the 1960s. (Nashville has long had a vibrant rhythm & blues scene despite its one-dimensional reputation as the capital of country music.) Janis Joplin must have heard this or if she didn’t, she should have. CD bonus tracks added in 1994 to the original 1964 LP include Ain’t That Lovin You Baby and I Just Want to Make Love to You.
