It’s My Life Baby!–Junior Wells (Vanguard, 1966)
Cut from the same cloth as Wells' classic Hoodoo Man Blues LP from the same period, It's My Life, Baby! captured the Junior Wells-Buddy Guy team in great form, both in the studio and live [...]
The Chess Box — Willie Dixon (Various Artists) (MCA Chess, 1989)
This boxed set bears Willie Dixon’s name and photo on the front, but it is actually a collection of performances by 13 different Chess/Checker artists recorded between 1951 and 1969. The unifying theme is that [...]
Father of the Folk Blues — Son House (Columbia, 1965)
Father of the Folk Blues, one of the key albums of the folk-blues revival, helped introduced the deepest of the Delta blues singers to a new generation of listeners in the 1960s. House had just [...]
Back-Water Blues — Bessie Smith (Columbia, 1927)
Back-Water Blues' was one of the best known works of the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith, recorded for Columbia Records in 1927 with James P. Johnson on piano. Bemoaning the fate of losing a [...]
Key to the Highway — Big Bill Broonzy (OKeh, 1941)
Dozens of artists have recorded the blues standard 'Key to the Highway,' and although Big Bill Broonzy was not the first, he was among the earliest to popularize the song, and has been credited as [...]
Pinetop Perkins
Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins got a late start as a solo artist, after supplying the piano background for the likes of Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2, and Earl Hooker for decades. But his [...]
Paul Butterfield Blues Band – Paul Butterfield Blues Band (Elektra, 1965)
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was formed by Paul Butterfield. He brought in keyboardist Mark Naftalin and guitarist Elvin Bishop, both of whom he met as students at the University of Chicago. Guitarist Mike Bloomfield, [...]
The Land Where the Blues Began, by Alan Lomax
New York: Pantheon Books, 1993. Alan Lomax's well-known skills as a folklorist were complemented by his ability to convey his findings with the kind of evocative prose that makes The Land Where the Blues Began [...]
I Am The Blues — Willie Dixon (Columbia, 1970)
Willie Dixon’s reputation rests primarily with his incomparable catalogue of compositions and secondarily with his outstanding work as a producer. During his early recording career he made some sides as a vocalist, with the Big [...]
Live Wire–Blues Power — Albert King (Stax, 1968)
Live Wire--Blues Power captured a crucial moment in blues history when the music was captivating a new counterculture audience under the spell of a master bluesman who could not only bend the guitar strings beyond [...]