Koko Taylor
Say you were inclined to pitch a 'Wang Dang Doodle' or 'Let The Good Times Roll.' What might be your preferred choices for musical accompaniment? Most likely somewhere in the mix would be the music [...]
Bruce Iglauer
1996 marked the 25th anniversary of Chicago-based Alligator Records. Bruce Iglauer founded the label in 1971 with a $2,500 inheritance fueled with a huge dose of youthful enthusiasm and a strong dose of sheer determination. [...]
Match Box Blues — Blind Lemon Jefferson (OKeh and Paramount, 1927)
Blind Lemon Jefferson, one of the most influential and prolific of the early blues giants, left a massive recorded legacy of lyrics that became permanent elements of the blues lexicon. One of the most enduring [...]
Jimmy Rogers
Although never quite a stage-stopping headliner on a Chicago blues scene loaded with more aggressive personalities, Jimmy Rogers nonetheless played an integral role in the development of the city's electric postwar blues sound. A key [...]
Born Under a Bad Sign — Albert King (Stax, 1967)
Few bodies of blues recordings have been as influential as Albert King's 1966-67 output at Stax Records, on singles and on the Born Under a Bad sign album. The LP collected songs from his first [...]
The Original Flair & Meteor Sides — Elmore James (Ace, 1984)
Elmore James' incomparable blues recordings continue to be endlessly recycled, and any number of his albums on a myriad of labels could be considered of Blues Hall of Fame quality. But the British compilation The [...]
King of the Delta Blues Singers Vol. II — Robert Johnson (Columbia, 1970)
Columbia's first King of the Delta Blues Singers compilation was a vehicle for the discovery of Robert Johnson by a new audience in 1961. By the time the second volume was released in 1970, Johnson [...]
Drifting Blues — Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers (Charles Brown, vocal) (Philo, 1945)
One of the records that helped define the burgeoning postwar West Coast style of smooth “lounge blues,” “Drifting Blues” stayed on the Billboard “Race Records” chart in 1946. Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers consisted of Moore [...]
King of the Delta Blues Singers–Robert Johnson (Columbia, 1961)
Columbia's 1961 compilation of Robert Johnson's 1936-37 recordings was not a best seller, unlike the boxed set that created a frenzy nearly 30 years later, but it was arguably the single most important blues reissue [...]
The Complete 1931 Session — Skip James (Yazoo, 1986)
While many of the great blues recordings have been commercial hits, there are others that sank almost without a trace. Skip James' Paramount singles, for instance -- nine of them, all recorded in 1931, after [...]