Amazon.com essential recording

In a brief interview that precedes this CD's four bonus tracks--all unreleased gems from the original 1984 sessions--Stevie Ray Vaughan makes the point that "music used to be more based on common everyday occurrences like a train's sound going down the track ... a horse walking." Then he comes on with a version of Freddie King's "Hideaway" that chugs like a locomotive. There's also a heretofore unheard slide-guitar-powered "Give Me Back My Wig" and a blueprint of what became Soul to Soul's radio hit "Look at Little Sister." All those follow the improved mixes of the original CD, which include Vaughan's heartbreak chronicles "Couldn't Stand the Weather" and "Cold Shot"; his first jazzer, "Stang's Swang"; and his initial Hendrix outing, "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)." It's the sound of the guitar hero growing as an artist on his own terms--sidestepping the irony that poisoned '90s rock to stay true to the real-life aesthetic of the blues. --Ted Drozdowski ... Read more

Reviews (32)

His best studio work
This CD is a window into a breif period in SRV's career. A time when his guitar playing was flawless, but before his drug and alchohol addiction began to drag him and his bandmates down. The album kicks off with the ultra fast and rockin' instrumental "skuttle buttin'." Next comes "Couldn't stand the weather" which quite honestly is one of my least favorite SRV tracks. The funkiness and weird time changes just make it seem like a song that doesn't fit SRV's tastes. "Voodoo Chile (slight return)" is a great Hendrix remake. On bootleg versions of this song, SRV quotes "The Power of Soul" off Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsies album, however this is sadly excluded. It is an impressive version nonetheless. "Cold Shot" is a good, but not great blues with the standard SRV flair. "Tin Pan Alley" is a looooooong and sloooow blues with amazing guitar. My only complaint: why couldn't SRV hit a chord at the end of the song instead of just letting Layton pick up the slack? This is really nitpicking, the song is a great one with superb performances all around. "Honey Bee" is a great piece of rolling blues which is a rather underrated song in SRV's catalogue. "Stang's Swang" is a nice short piece of Jazz which seems a little out of place, but definatley establishes SRV as a fan and player of the Jazz genre. Half of the bonus tracks are great, and the other half are rather weak. The weak ones are "Look at Little Sister" and "Gimme Back My Wig" which are just about dumb subjects that nobody really wants to hear about. The great ones are Freddie King's "Hideaway" and Earl King's "Come on Pt.3." Hideaway's rythem and structure allow SRV to go into basic and freewheeling blues licks. A catchy tune and a great one at that. Finally "Come On" is just a killer closer. With its incredibly fast tempo and drenchs of wah-wah, this is the definition of hard-nosed blues rock. This CD is perhaps a little inconsistent, but the music is good 'ol blues, a staple most SRV fans have come to enjoy and will only want more of after they hear this album.

Not so great as Texas Flood
Compared to Texas Flood which is probably the best blues-rock album ever, Stevie Ray's second album is a less impressive recording. This doesn't has so much of Stevie's original stuff. Perhaps his work was already suffering from narcotics-related problems (that he later resolved).

Honey Bee, Things That I Used to Do (Guitar Slim cover), Cold Shot and Stan's Swang are OK but not so special. Couldn't Stand the Weather is Stevie's rock song. Stevie's not an extraordinary composer but he performs that song well. Tin Pan Alley has a plenty of great blues picking. The first track is a great blues-rock instrumental. So album sure has its good moments.

However, Voodoo Child -cover is no good. Stevie's singing has not much passion and his way to handle electric guitar is not so magical as Jimi's (you can see this clearly also if you listen to their versions of Earl King's "Come On"). He tries to compensate that by adding more speed to his picking but that of course helps none. People who somehow try to compare Stevie and Jimi are nuts. Stevie was an extraordinary blues-rock guitarist and singer while Jimi was the creator of different guitar playing techniques, the creator of new sonic palettes and the creator of the new musical styles and the writer of amazing rock-songs. Both figures have their place in the history of pop-music but their places are very different. Just think comparing Electric Ladyland and Texas Flood and you realize immediately how different they were.

A must-buy for Stevie-fans, others should borrow this from library or friend.

Best guitar album to me
I`ve always loved this album. The guitar sounds so stunning that made my hair bristle from the first listening.
Everything on the right spot: the timbre, the anger and the passion.
To me, it`s Stevie BEST album. The sound is much stronger than his first album - it doesn't get any better.
He DID improve Vodoo Chile, even though the original was already a killing song. His version is longer and more polished, though the anger and sparks are still there (with new colours).
The bonus tracks are the best among the ones available on the new remastering series. Ther`re fun and HIDE AWAY and GIVE ME BACK MY WIG are "new" to people that(like me)already owned all of Stevie`s albums before buying this remastered one.
I'm listening to CSTW right now (Honey Bee). The man was THE BOSS of the guitar and, despite some previous reviews, I think he could also sing very well his blues.
HAVE FUN!

Thee Guitar Album....
No this isn't the best or my favorite album of all time (Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon owns that position), this is my 3rd favorite. This is thee guitar album. Stevie Ray Vaughan is quite possibly the best guitar player of our time. The album is cholk-full of licks that are enough to make Steve Vai jealous. Scuttle Buttin's blues boogy, Couldn't Stand the Weather's blistering blues solo's, Cold Shots smooth, in-the-pocket feel, everything is great about this album. I honestly think Stevie could do no wrong. Because all of his albums are great. But I beleive this to be his best album. And, to state a radical opinion - I think Stevie's version of the legendary Jimi Hendrix's 'Voodoo Chile' is better than Jimi's original version. Stevie added so much more depth. But all in all, this is thee guitar album. Greatness in guitar is in abundance here, and there is no way you could stop Stevie. Rest In Peace Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Couldn't Stand the Weather {EXTRA TRACKS}
Stevie Ray Vaughan was a genius when he went into the studio he gave it his all 100%. If you have heard of Stevie Ray Vaughan and dont have this one then buy it because if you dont then your missing out. The new version of this CD is remastered with the best sound quality anyone could imagine. To me this was Stevie's turning point after TEXAS FLOOD. He had to give it more to prove his fame and he did with Couldn't Stand The Weather. My favorite songs on this CD are Couldn't Stand the Weather, Voodoo Chile(slight return), and Cold Shot. I also love the bonus tracks my favorite bonus track is Come On Pt3 it is rocking. Anyone will enjoy this CD rather you like Stevie or not you will love this CD 100%. Stevie gave it his all on this one know give it your all please buy this and Enjoy! ... Read more

Amazon.com

The producers of The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans claim it to be the first box set to cover the full range of music from the Crescent City--from R&B to jazz, from zydeco to funk. Indeed, this handsome four-disc collection ranges through the decades and the neighborhoods of America's first city of music, which has both pluses and minuses. Yes, it's a joy to bask in the diversity of the New Orleans sound. From Louis Armstrong to the Meters, Little Richard to Pete Fountain, Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens scrambles to include a little something from a whole lot of native sons and daughters among its 85 selections. Problems, however, do arise. At times the sequencing can be jarring, as when Troy Andrews's raucous take on "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" gives way to the modern blues-rock ofSonny Landreth's "South of I-10." The obscurities here are great fun, but, given the city's rich history, they skew too heavily toward more recent releases. Still, there's much to be enjoyed here, from the photo-packed 82-page booklet to the mix of classics and hidden treasures that populate the discs. Not definitive, perhaps, but definitely delightful. --Steven Stolder ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Sexy, Romantic and Stirring!!!!
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You Mr. Earl for returning to our long awaiting hearts, mind and souls!!! It has been WAY TOO LONG, please don't wait so long next time! How can you describe a guitar virtuoso, it's simply not possible....so I'm telling you and everybody I know...JUST BUY THIS ONE NOW!!!!! Destined to be a top notch classic. Sexy, romantic and stirring, starting with Feel Like Goin On with soulful Greg Piccolo singing this one with his entire being!
Kim Wilson who is always incredible singing and on harmonica, joins Ronnie on most of the CD providing total compliment, "Abandoned" is as gutt wrenching as you're gonna hear anywhwere! This is a great blues CD, but let's not classify just in the blues genre, it's ROCKIN', sassy and jazzy, even Hallelujah Gospel.... because Ronnie knows no Bounds! So glad to finally add another of your CD's to my collection! And bring back reissues of "Test of Time" PLEASE!!

Scary good!
There is a shiver I get when good music hits me and really takes hold. Ronnie Earl's music has me shaking all over. The man gives you everything he has, heart and soul. Why he is not recognized as the greatest guitarist working today and among the best to ever picked up a guitar is beyond me. This is not as much of an instrumental album as last time. The great Kim Wilson and his smokin harp make numerous appearances on the album. The combination of the two men is dynamite! Show Ronnie Earl some love and pick this one up. You'll be glad you did.

On form
Reading the liner notes and listening to the heartfelt spoken message Ronnie places on this cd as a bonus track, one gets the feeling that Mr. Earl speaks as a man who knows his time is near. As a longtime fan, of course I hope this isn't the case, but Ronnie's playing on this album makes every note count, as if each were the last he'll ever play.

Now my Soul features Ronnie's trademark sound, but his playing reaches a higher level than before with fresh nuances on Blues for J and Double Trouble, among others. There's a new urgency to some of his phrasing; the kind made by a man pouring his entire soul into his music.

Kim Wilson's guest singing and playing are as good as ever. I wish these two would collaborate even more.

Inspiring music from an inspired man.

Mr. Earl Strike again!
Ronnie Earl is one of the best blues guitarists alive. This is a fact. With his new realise I believe he has gained a place in the short list of the greatest of all time. After many all-instrumental albums, on this one half of the tunes feature a singer. With the help of his all time friends Kim Wilson and Greg Piccolo, sharing vocals duty, and the former Broadcaster bass player Rod Carey, Ronnie delivers a very strong album that should definitively place him at the very top of the list of the greatest blues artists of our time. This is a straight blues album with just few concessions to other styles. His playing has never been so sharp and focused, so clean and crispy, he makes every single note counts and his playing throughout the album is just unbelievable. His version of the Otis Rush' classic Double Trouble worth by itself the price of admission. It is however the whole album that stands out from the crowd, not a bad tune to be found, no a weakness to be spotted. On the CD's notes Mr. Earl thanks and blesses lots of friends, I would just like to thank him with all my heart for all the fantastic sensations and the unbelievable feelings I always experience listening to his music. Thanks Ronnie, please carry on!

Everyone needs Ronnie Music in their life!
As a devotee of the man I regard as the finest living blues guitarist, his latest CD, "Now My Soul", doesn't disappoint, with the unique mix of jazz, blues and gospel that was christened "Ronnie Music" by the original Broadcasters still to my mind the most exciting music to be heard.

There are no weaknesses and therefore, relatively, no standouts but if pushed for a favourite I'd have to nominate "Double Trouble", an Otis Rush song covered by many (often badly - notably Eric Clapton's tepid rendering),is breathtaking.

If like me you know and love "Ronnie Music", you'll know in the nicest possible way what to expect, but if you're unlucky enough not to have come across Ronnie Earl before, welcome him warmly into your life and your CD player, you'll never regret it. He hasn't made a bad record in his career, everything he plays is not only technically phenomenal but is imbued with the soul of a man who has known the hardest of times but retains both his passion and compassion.

I first discovered Ronnie Music in 1997, having seen him play a devastating set at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in July that year - he even achieved the rare feast of making the headlining Robben Ford seem like an anticlimax. The above was shortly after I lost my my much-loved mother, and it's no exaggeration to say that the wonderful "Color of Love" album lifted my flagging spirits during the darkest period of my life, and also encouraged me to pick up my own guitar again having not played a note for fifteen years.

Enjoy!

Jonathan ... Read more

Amazon.com

These days, only a handful of living artists can make ragtime music sound truly exciting. Chicago's Reginald R. Robinson is one of them. On Euphonic Sounds, he performs "Joplin Song Fragment"--a never-before-recorded composition that he discovered in a photo of Scott Joplin's piano. From that intriguing opener, Robinson launches into great rags by Joplin, Louis Chauvin, Joseph Lamb, Joe Jordan, and James Scott. His technique is impeccable, his tempos are quick, and he attacks the piano with gusto. In a handful of his original compositions, we can hear just how far Robinson has taken ragtime. His "Space Coaster Ride" is quick-tempoed and gorgeous, with hints of blues; "Truly Yours" is a lovely sentimental number; and "The Daredevil's Gallop" is a rollicking good time. Great recorded sound captures it all. For rag lovers, this is a must-have disc. --Jason Verlinde ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Sheer delight from beginning to end!
Reginald Robinson has a passion for ragtime music, and it shows. This CD is sheer delight from beginning to end! He performs works by his major inspirations (Scott Joplin, Louis Chauvin) and also his own original works. I especially enjoyed "Lift Every Voice and Sing" which is performed in a very singable key, and which probably sounds much as the song would have been performed back in 1900. You can learn more about black composers at my website CreativeFolk.com

Instant Euphoria
Mr.Robinson has taken classics of Ragtime, plus his own contemporary gems and incorporated them into a single CD that will revive Ragtime for many years to come. A truly outstanding production. ... Read more

Reviews (33)

A great soundtrack
I got the CD (from Amazon) without knowing the songs I liked most (Nowhere fast & TIWIMTBY) were from Steinman (Air Supply, Meatloaf, Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dyon). Tho only one heard on radio was I can dream about you.

I don't recall other songs by Fire Inc. but the 2 in this CD are awesome pieces of art, the rest (besides I can dream about you) is merely filling stuff. Jim Steinman is a great composer, other songs from him I like a lot are I would do anything for love, Rock'n'roll dreams, Total eclypse of the heart, Coming all back to me, Making love out of nothing at all. All lyrics give the feeling it comes from deep inside and seems the heart is eager to tell them out loud, lead voice in Fire Inc. does that very good.

It's a must have CD (not to mention the movie).

One of the best you've never heard of
The music on this CD is incredible. It boggles my mind that someone hasn't turned this into a Broadway musical yet (if it ever happens, you heard it here first). It would run for years! I just don't know who they'd find to match the power and range of Laurie Sergeant.

But back to the CD - The order of the tracks is not the same as the movie and the alternate version of "Countdown To Love" is somewhat lacking compared to the movie version. Also, "Deeper and Deeper" by the Fixx is good, but seems out of place. These minor quibbles aside, this atypical classic 80's rock soundtrack should be in every music lover's collection.

Jim Steniman, Ry Cooder, Tom Petty, Bob Seeger... the array of telent on this disc is outstanding. Most notable are the Jim Steniman compositions ("Nowhere Fast" and "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young") - pure GENIUS. If TIWIMTBY doesn't send chills up your spine, you're dead or ought to be.

Often overlooked are two numbers performed by the Blasters ("One Bad Stud" and "Blue Shadows"). These tunes HOT. "Sorcerer " (penned by Stevie Nicks) is a haunting lament that really suits the mood of the movie (as do mosst of the songs on the disc).

Fire, Inc. does an incredible job (who were these studio musicians and where are they now) and Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You" was a huge single that played on the radio for months during the mid 80's. It's a shame much of the CD got little air play.

Anyway, do yourself a favor, buy the CD if you don't own it. Buy the DVD too. Hearing the music is one thing, but hearing it in context is another. You'll love it!

STREETS OF FIRE [ SOUNDTRACK ]
Good movie! Great soundtrack! Best song on this cd is
Blue Shadows by:The Blasters also Hold That Snake by:Ry Cooder.
Overall,I don't think there is a bad song on the whole cd...

fire Inc. !!!
the fire inc. songs alone are a reson to buy this cd

Steinman blesses us with his songs once again!
Here's my advice: Buy this CD. Put this CD into your CD player. Skip to track 6. Turn off the lights. Experience "Tonight is What it Means to Young". (It's best if you have surround sound as well). It's the kind of song you don't merely listen to, you "experience". I am a hardcore Jim Steinman fan and this was one I bought solely to add to my collection. I now don't know how I lived without "Tonight is What it Means to be Young". I would have to say it has become one of my favorite songs. I can't fall asleep at night without having listened to it. Steinman is a genius, he truly is. I have to admit I bought this soundtrack, as I mentioned, because I am a Steinman fan. I actually bought the soundtrack to a movie I've never seen or heard of! But I have to say, after listening to it, I presume the DVD will be arriving in my mailbox soon! Both Steinman songs are awesome, I also like "Never Be You", but they're all great. As another reviewer said, this is the kind of CD you can put on loop mode and listen to over and over again. Don't hestitate, you won't be disappointed! ... Read more

Reviews (14)

"So You See Why I Stuck With Blues."
This BB King quote, stated to David Ritz, was his conclusion to why he chose to play and sing blues over his other love, gospel music. "A gospel song would get me a pat on the head," he said. "But a blues would get me a dime." The blues earned King not only more than his share of dimes, but a spot among music's seminal performers and teachers. Despite Ritz properly mentioning that King's music was too blue for rock and roll or soul during his early career, he has become as much a caretaker of rock's traditions as of the blues themselves.

This one-disc collection, even at 16 songs, seems too little space for BB King's prolific, quality output, especially after 1992's expansive "King Of The Blues" box. But "Greatest Hits" timed to King's most recent rock-oriented successes: his "How Blue Can You Get?" sampled on a pop hit, his U2 collaboration, his Robert Cray duet on "Playing With My Friends" (from "Blues Summit," among the 90s best blues releases), even "Paying The Cost To Be The Boss" covered by Pat Benatar! With remarkable liner notes and references to original ABC/MCA LPs (nearly all in print), "Greatest Hits" is a sampler tour through BB King's immense, classic blues catalogue.

It's also another chance to hear King with much better sound, courtesy of compiler Andy McKaie (who handled MCA's exceptional Chess blues compilations) and Erick Labson's remastering. It freshly paints Johnny Pate's production on 1964's seminal "Live At The Regal" tracks, King's 1969-70 string of of rockin' blues hits ("Why I Sing The Blues," the original "Thrill Is Gone"), even overlooked gems like Doc Pomus/Dr. John's tailor-made "There Must Be A Better World Somewhere."

What "Greatest Hits" shows most is King's guitar playing and vocal economy; no melismatic vocal trills or guitar hyperspace, even live where crowds needed pleasing. Instead, King's solos in "I Like To Live The Love" and "Don't Answer The Door" press the melody forward, and his underrated vocals show occassional collaborator Bobby Bland's strong "Sinatra Of The Blues" influence. King shared (or at least impressed) these traits on his most recent collaborator, Eric Clapton, and here does with just-enough help from friends like Joe Walsh and Leon Russell (on Russell's "Hummingbird") and Stevie Wonder (on "To Know You Is To Love You..")

"Greatest Hits" is THE King album for casual fans or those who enjoy his rare spins on classic rock or oldies radio. Blues fans wanting to dig deeper should pick up any of the original LPs, including "Live At The Regal," "There Must Be A Better World Somewhere," "Indianola Mississippi Seeds, " or the Bobby Bland collaborations. "Greatest Hits" covers quality ground quickly, and thus remains an essential one-stop blues shop.

Too focused on mediocre latter-day material
This certainly isn't everything you could ever want from the Beale Street Blues Boy, but it does give the first-time listener a pretty accurate idea about what to expect from B.B. King. For better or worse.

His excellent and highly influential 50s singles are missing, which is a shame, especially since some of those were actually sizable hits and this compilation has the audacity to call itself "Greatest Hits".
Still, there are lot of great moments here anyway...the swinging "Paying The Cost To Be The Boss", the epic "Why I Sing The Blues", and the slow burner "How Blue Can You Get" among them, and they sit next to two cuts from King's highly succesful "Live At The Regal" album, an excellent "Sweet Little Angel" and a hideous "Every Day I Have The Blues" which falls miles short of Memphis Slim's potent original ("Nobody Loves Me").

But there are too many mediocrities on this album...King experimented with some sort of pop-blues fusion in the 70s and 80s, and the compilers have included "To Know You Is to Love You", "I Like To Live The Love" and "Hummingbird" from that unfortunate era. The duets with Robert Cray on "Playin' With My Friends" and rock group U2 on "When Love Comes To Town" are not much more uplifting, and too much of this material was recorded well after King's prime.

If you like B.B. King at his most pop-friendly, you will probably enjoy this compilation. If you like him at his grittiest, you will certainly be disappointed. May I suggest the double-disc "Anthology" instead, along with "Do The Boogie: B.B. King's Early '50s Classics" instead.

Ohhh, man, ain't nuttin' like the blues by way'a the King...
I like to think that my musical tastes run very deep an' very broad; I also like 'ta think that I can jus' pick up any album by any artist of any genre an' feel it at any given time. But, there are those days, yep, there ARE those days when I need me some blues music. Some straight-forward, no apologies, no variations, an' no deeper meaning to any of it, than jus' bein' the BLUES. I've got a few different selections by B.B. King (not enough to call myself a die-hard or anything), but I think I get the MOST outta this hits collection. Is' got ALL the classics that e'ybody knows; so much so that there's no need for me to liste 'em. Every song on here is equally good; in other words, THERE IS NOT ONE BAD SONG ON THIS DISC! You better believe it, too. An' I really can't get enough of it.

Here's a situation: This morning I said my prayers, I watched a lil' tube, I smoked my first cigarette in two weeks an' decided that my attempt to quit jus' isn't gonna take jus' yet, I hadda argument with my ex (we were doin' so good the past week too), so what that all amounts to is that tonight I'm'a sit back, drink a few beers, smoke some cigarettes, an' listen to this CD, blues at it's best. Then I'm'a say my nighttime prayers, lay my head down, an' hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Thas' what it all means to me.

I'll definitely explore some more'a the King's work in the near-future, but for now, I'm good with this. It keeps me toned down enough to not get lost in my pain, but it allows me to not give in to the "look on the bright side" bullcrap an' jus' wallow for the time being. I love me some blues music. 'Specially when is' done right. An' the King ALWAYS did it right.

His Bluesy Best
A nice compilation of this blues legend. Some catchy lyrics and strong guitar solos exist throughout this collection. The first seven songs are strictly three chord blues progressions which can be a bit tiresome for some audiences. However, the catchy lyrics make you pay attention to such gems as Paying The Cost To Be The Boss, How Blue Can You Get?, and The Thrill Is Gone.

The next few tracks have a more varied arrangement and get away from the standard three chord progression. BB King gets funky in spots and the use of strings and horns in the background add a nice touch. The duets with Bono and Robert Cray are quite good. A nice intro to this legend, indeed.

Teriffic Blues music
BB King: Greatest Hits is a tremendously wonderful Blues CD. It has all the music you could expect. It's too bad my family has only one BB King CD. But now knowing how good BB King is, I'm going to collect more. So if you like BB King, you'll LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Marion "Little Walter" Jacobs is perhaps the most influential harmonica player on contemporary blues, and his collection is a great place to start. He was trained by Muddy Waters, but brought a more swinging feel to blues. Muddy and his band accompany Little Walter on many hits, as do Robert "Jr." Lockwood, the Aces, and other Chicago greats. In the 1950s, Little Walter's popularity eclipsed even Waters', his style a little more relaxed and pop-oriented. Walter's versions of many songs are the standards: "Blues with a Feeling," "You're So Fine," "Juke." Great stuff. --Robert Gordon ... Read more

Reviews (17)

****½. Almost perfect
This is the best available single-disc overview of Little Walter Jacobs' career.

The highly renowned blues harmonica player was not a singer of the caliber of Muddy Waters, or a songwriter to rival Sonny Boy Williamson (II), but his recording career spanned some 20 years, and there are more than enough gems in his catalogue to fill this disc to the point of overflowing.

"His Best" has the best sound currently available, and excellent liner notes, and while the double-disc "The Essential Little Walter" is more thorough, this is all that most listeners will need. A couple of great songs are missing, most notably Walter's gritty rendition of Willie Dixon's "Dead Presidents", but that's a minor quibble...almost all of Walter's best is here.

1997's "His Best" takes the place of MCA/Chess' original 12-track LP "The Best Of Little Walter", a landmark blues album which had remained in print for over three decades. Here is his first hit single, the instrumental hit "Juke", as well as Walter's versions of Big Bill Broonzy's "Key To The Highway", Dixon's "My Babe", and T-Bone Walker's "Mean Old World" (shamelessly credited to Jacobs himself). And virtually all of Walter's best self-penned songs are here..."Blues With A Feeling", "Boom Boom, Out Goes The Light", "Tell Me Mama", and numerous often masterful instrumentals.

This is certainly the place to start, the finest single-disc Little Walter-compilation on the market.

Little Walter: His Best
Beginning his career performing his masterful harmonica playing in Muddy Waters' band, Little Walter broke out on his own with his 1952 hit "Juke." From there Walter's amplified sound (which he originated) became a common entity of Chicago blues. This best-of collection selects the cream of the crop from mostly Walters 1950's sessions recorded for the Chess label; revealing him not only as a divine harmonica player, but as a skilled songwriter as well.

Included on the album are classic numbers such as the bouncing rhythm of the aforementioned "Juke", the wailing harmonica of "Blues With A Feeling", and the hopping "My Babe", a song penned by the great Willie Dixon, becoming the biggest hit of Walter's career in early 1955.

In addition, three photographs and six pages of insightful,well written notes by Billy Altman are included. Although a few noteworthy numbers are absent, this collection remains a fine testament of one of the founding fathers of Chicago Blues.

sure, he's the king of the harp players, but...
...don't forget the singing - little walter is one of the greatest singers ever. and also the unique, immediately recognizable band concept, with a two-guitar sound that is a world unto itself, clearly distinct from the muddy/jimmy and wolf/hubert two-guitar deals. but really; come for the singing too - it is otherworldly sweet.

Blues harp at it's best!
If you're into blues harp there's no better.

Unsurpassed
Marion Walter Jacobs (b. May 1, 1930 in Alexandria, Louisiana), and influenced by the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson (No. 1) and Louis Jordan and his jump saxophone arrangements, quite simply revolutionized the blues harmonica technique when he showed up at Chicago's famed Maxwell Street market in 1947.

Among the hundreds of artists plying their trade in that environment he stood out to the point where he attracted the interest of the small Chicago labels Ora Nelle and Regal where he cut several sides. His big break came in 1951 when the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, hired him to back Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers, and it was as much his amplified harmonica that made hits out of Mannish Boy, I'm Ready, and Standing Around Crying [by Waters), and That's All Right and The World Is In A Tangle (Rogers).

By 1952 he was assigned to the Checker subsidiary, and by that September he literally burst into prominence when the instrumental Juke streaked to # 1 R&B and remained there for eight solid weeks [the flip was Can't Hold On Much Longer and is erroneously listed in this compilation as "Can't Hold Out ..."). This single was billed to Little Walter and His Night Cats.

The follow-up Sad Hours (instrumental) didn't quite repeat that success, settling for # 2 early in 1953, while the vocal flipside, Mean Old World, reached # 6 as by Little Walter and His Night Caps. Fittingly, Muddy Waters played guitar on each of these first three hits.

When his next hit reached the charts later that spring (Off The Wall, # 8 as an instrumental, and Tell Me Mama, # 10 as a vocal, he was billed as Little Walter and His Jukes in order to capitalize on his debut smash hit. The Jukes consisted of Chess sessionmen Louis and David Myers on guitar and Fred Belows on drums.

From there to 1959 he would add 10 more hit singles to his credit, his last coming in 1959 when Everything Gonna Be Alright (erroneously listed as "Everything's") reached # 25 (his lowest charter) as simply by Little Walter. These included the seminal My Babe, written by Willie Dixon and based upon the old spiritual This Train, which became his only other # 1 hit, staying at that position for five weeks early in 1955.

It would have been nice if, in putting this tribute together, producer Andy McKaie had found room for the three hits omitted - Oh Baby which made it to # 8 in May 1954 b/w Rocker, You'd Better Watch Yourself which reached the same position that September b/w Blue Light, and Who, which reached # 7 in April 1956 b/w It Ain't Right. You can find You'd Better Watch Yourself on The Best Of Little Walter from MCA/Chess, also listed by Amazon.

Adding to this CD's worth are the six pages of liner notes written by Billy Altman, which includes a wonderful story behind Juke, several nice photographs, and a complete discography of the contents. To quote from Mr. Altman "By 1968 he was gone, leaving behind a legacy that harmonica players everywhere regard as, quite simply, the holy grail."

Just a superb collection. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential recording

Heralded as one of the greatest live blues albums ever recorded, this set catches the singer-guitarist as his star was in ascent: in 1964 playing Chicago's answer to Harlem's Apollo Theater--the Regal. King's performance is visceral. He sings so hard that gravel flies even in his clearest high notes. And his trademark single-note guitar lines are sharp and steely, matching his voice with trembling vigor. He offers early hits like "How Blue Can You Get," "Worry, Worry," and "You Upset Me Baby" to what's essentially his adopted hometown crowd (by his own account, King had already played the theater hundreds of times). They give him a hero's welcome. In fact, the audience's screaming enthusiasm is distracting. But rarely has a love-fest of this magnitude between a performer and fans been documented. --Ted Drozdowski ... Read more

Reviews (28)

blues workout
B.B. King with his dearest, Lucille in action at the club The Regal. It is an absolutely incredible album in which you get drawn into further and further after each track. B.B.'s playing is top shelf and his audience surely lets him know. It is the raucous crowd that is audible during the whole show that seems to rub its excitement onto the listener. Anyway, this is a fantastic album that truly exemplifies how good a live blues album can really be. It is an album that is essential listening for any blues fan of any genre.

the definitive
From the opening introduction to the last note, this CD is simply amazing. Kings voice resonates clearly and moves your soul. An economical guitar players every note he hits floods your body with emotion. With the live crowd in a frenzy you feel like you are at the Regal that night. This is the King of the Blues at the height of his powers and this is the best live record ever.

Superlative live performance
It must have been a truly amazing night at the Regal Theater. I saw BB King perform at a stadium show a couple years ago, and he was still a fine performer even then, but this recording is the man in his prime in an intimate venue. The audience response complements the music rather than distracting from it. King clearly had these people in the palm of his hand. Judging from the clarity and power of his guitar playing and nuanced singing, it is not hard to understand why.

Simply put, marvelous.
This cd is one of the all time great vlues albums, and I am thankful that it has been restored onto cd, for further generations of bleus fans. This is classic BB in fine voice, and playing jazz riffs on his guitar.

Blues People & Riley King
As has been noted, this is one of the essential albums, one of the records that everyone is supposed to have like John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, like Robert Johnson, like the music Billie Holiday made with Lester Young for Columbia, like Louis's Hot 5s and Hot 7s, like Elvis's Sun Sessions.

Beyond that, this is something that has become increasingly rare, a live blues recording where the music is played for blues people, African American working class and middle class blues people in an urban center. This all about singing and swinging and jiving and talking to the audience and the audience talking back.

When I was in Mississippi in the mid 1960s doing civil rights work, I met Blues People who loved BB King who didn't know that he played the guitar. The expression always was and still is 'BLUES SINGER," not blues guitarist. He sang the blues the way they needed to listen to and in a Blues People venue the folks will talk back to him too.

My favorite, classic moment of the blues dialog here is in "It's my own fault baby" where Riley sings "I gave you seven children, and now you want to give 'em back." All the sistas in the audience scream. Gruffer sounds came from the men.

What is essential to blues performance for BLUES PEOPLE is the constant dialog between the singer and the audience that is the heart of the native blues experience. The dialog isn't about the impeccable guitar playing on this record, or the totally righteous playing of the band, or even the fine voice of Riley B. King here, but it is about what the words the lyrics speak to the lives of the audience, and what the audience responds to the singer. That's the center of blues, not heavy guitar licks that the post-folk-post rock blues fan thinks is the essence of heavy blues.

It's a shame the audience for the blues has almost disappeared, that blues stars no longer play in big "Chitlin' Circuit" theaters like the Regal, the Apollo, the Howard, the old non hippie Fillmore, or that you can't see Riley or Bobby Blue Bland in smoky little night clubs in the ghetto.

Perhaps, I am showing my age here, because time has to roll on. I am sure that night at the Regal there was someone who could remember when the sistas and their men would be shouting back at things Bessie Smith, or Big Maceo and Tampa Read, Lonnie Johnson, or Memphis Minnie had sung to them from that same stage without the electric instruments.

The real Black blues when it was based among us, was about singing, about commentary. For even the greatest guitarists like Riley, Lonnie Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Johnny Lee Hooker, Guitar Slim, the guitar playing and the band were just ways to emphasize how the to talk to audience. This brings to mind that great Betty Carter Album, "The Audience and Betty Carter." This is the Blues People and Riley King talking to each other. That's priceless, get it, and listen to it. ... Read more

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Few artists in recent memory have been able to wring more from less than Lucinda Williams. The hauntingly beautiful, wistful, and often breathtaking Essence is another case in point of how far raw emotion and honesty can carry an artist. Williams's singing is at its paralyzing best throughout 11 bare originals, an incredibly affecting vocal performance by a woman who was not blessed with exceptional tone, range, or pitch. Throughout, her voice is incredibly naked, vulnerable, and wrought with feeling. "Blue" and "Broken Butterflies" are gorgeous anti-lullabies whose simple melodies belie their poignant ruminations. The title track is a sultry and susceptible sex-as-drug come-on while "Reason to Cry" has all the hallmarks of a classic country lament. The only departure from the subdued mood is "Get Right with God," a rousing gospel tune that practically begs for salvation through punishment and is the rare acknowledgement of a world beyond Williams's own fears and desires. More meditative than the personal narratives found on Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Essence is ultimately more powerful. Williams wallows in sorrow and weakness, and the result is moving and disarming. --Marc Greilsamer ... Read more

Reviews (162)

WOW
I really liked Sweet Old World and loved Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, but I was totally unprepared for this CD which literally just ripped my heart completely out. From these reviews I guess some Lucinda fans see the simple lyrics and spare arrangements as dull or lazy, to me they're clearly deliberate and integral to the raw yet poetic tone of the entire recording, which often ventures beyond her country/folk roots to a more elemental mode of musical expression. While very simple, when taken in context with the mood and delivery (what delivery!) of each song, these stripped-down lyrics have incredible strength by virtue of their powerful and emotionally charged imagery. I found myself ready to cry halfway through my first listen to "Lonely Girls" and was pretty much a helpless wreck through the remainder of the CD. It's still incredibly powerful about two dozen listenings later. Some tracks are of course stronger than others (and the live loop effects do get a little tiresome), but on the whole this is the most intimate, unaffected, sensual and heartbreaking music I've heard in a very long time. It's been haunting me day and night since I first heard it.

More Excellent Songs by Lucinda
If you like good songwriting and are familiar with Lucinda Williams sound, you can't go wrong with this album. I had only heard "Car Wheels" and some older material prior to purchasing this CD, and after listening to it about 10 times, I can tell you it is a great CD. The only issues I have is that the first four songs, while pleasant enough, just don't contain the "umph" that drew me so close to "Car Wheels" which is one of my top three all time favorite albums. That all changes when the CD hits track #5, "Out of Touch". Lucinda jumps from simple repetitive (ex. "Lonely Girls" - Sweet Sad Songs x3, Heavy Blankets x3, I should know x3) verses into more personal observations and stories on this song. Sure you get more of the repetitive style on the title track, but the honey dripping off the song will gum up your CD player! By far, "Essence" is probably one of the most lusty songs ever written. "Bus to Baton Rouge", "Get Right With God" - everything from track 5 on is easily as good, if not better, than "Car Wheels", but with just a slightly different feel. Overall, though, a four-star album by Lucinda Williams is probably about 10 times better than a five-star album by a lot of other artists.

My favorite Lucinda Williams CD yet
Lucinda Williams is a very talented songwriter and performer. She varies a bit from CD to CD in style, moving between a country-cajun and blues sound.

The sad, almost mournful sound of this work really appeals to me. I liked every song, especially Blue, I Envy The Wind, and Lonely Girls.

If you are looking for a mellow sorrowful Lucinda, this is your CD. Or maybe you're just depressed.

Mike

Did You Miss This One?
Well, you shouldn't have. The much-anticipated follow-up to Car Wheels suffered at the time of its release for not delivering what many expected. It got reviewed not for what it is, an intimate take on being a woman with and without love, but for what it is not -- Car Wheels, Part Two. I still haven't figured out what Get Right With God, a revival gospel number, is doing here. And Bus to Baton Rouge, while a musical fit with the rest of the CD, recounts a different theme, an adult visit with mixed emotions to the childhood home. Everywhere else on the remaining nine cuts Lucinda is all about love -- or the lack of it. Among other takes, she's a lonely girl under heavy blankets, a thief after love, a jukebox-playing seeker of solace, and a betrayed broken butterfly. But better than all these, she absolutely nails what it feels like to be obsessed in love, when she envies the wind, rain and sun touching her lover every moment of the day and in the refrain from the title cut -- I am waiting here for more, I am waiting by your door, I am waiting on your back steps...

Lucinda's latest CD is a falloff from her peak, but don't believe that of Essence. Three years after its release, it deserves to be seen finally for what it is -- a quietly breathtaking CD every bit as strong as, and distinct from, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.

if Neil Young was a woman...
If Neil Young was a woman, he'd probably be Lucinda Williams; both have that world-weary angst, both have rather thin voices that are decidely not pretty, but that carry a lot of power and emotion. Both are totally unique and brilliant, and write with an honesty that is rare these days.
In this collection of mellow songs, Lucinda explores God, lust and loneliness, and in very simple phrases captures a world of human emotions.

The musicianship is superb, and among the deluxe performers that play along with Lucinda on acoustic guitar are: Jim Keltner on drums; Tony Garnier on bass; Bo Ramsey on electric guitar; David Mansfield on violin and viola; Reese Wynans on Hammond B3 organ, and Charlie Sexton on a myriad of instruments
Favorites for me are "I Envy the Wind", with lyrics that every woman can identify with at one time or another in her life, "Are You Down", with such great work from Bo Ramsey and Reese Wynans, the hungry for love title song, and the fabulous "Get Right with God", which is the only up-tempo number on the CD.

The daughter of poet Miller Williams, Lucinda's songs have been covered by singers like Patty Loveless ("Night's Too Long") and Mary Chapin Carpenter ("Passonate Kisses"), and have earned her the coveted Grammy Award. Gutsy and gritty, this CD shows an artist that has character, and the strength to stand alone in a world full of copycats. The booklet insert contains all the lyrics, and total playing time is 51'03. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

I swear I can almost smell his cigar!
This is the most fun I've ever had with a compact disc. Joe Bussard spent his entire life searching shotgun shacks for dusty old 78s. Now he lives to share them with anyone with an ear or two. I'm telling you, there should be a Saint category for this (Remind me to email John Paul II after I'm done here).

The music is completely joyous. The well-designed booklet holds many great tales of Bussard's record-hunting expeditions. Listening to the CD and reading his stories makes me feel like I'm in his damn basement, digging Stack-O-Lee right along with Joe and his cat.

If you want to hear some real honest-to-gosh beautiful roots music that you won't find anywhere else, go Down in the Basement; it's among the best the twentieth century had to offer.

Thanks Joe! And let's have a second volume soon!

Ed Kaz 1.20.04

Down in the Groove
This record is a complete blast, from the track selection to the packaging. Joe Broussard owns 50,000 78s of gospel, old country, blues, cajun, etc and 24 of them made it on this disc. The sound is sparkling and the only clunker track is "Give the World a Smile" by the Corley Family. Good to hear some obscurities alongside Rev Gary Davis and Big Bill Broonzy and I'm glad the world has at least a couple of pale record freaks who like to sit in their basements sniffing shellac and collecting pristine old-time music. Makes me want to go steal a Victrola!

Two dozen time machines that work
Joe Bussard has one of the coolest record collections on earth.
He started his own pirate radios station in his parent's basement when he was a teen in the later 40s. He later did real radio shows and still does. He started collecting records when he was 12 years old and he still does. He started his own record label called Fonotone and John Fahey recorded his first records in Joe's basement. This comes with a 74 page incredible illustrated an informative book. Too bad there's only ONE disc considering the size of Joe's collection, but we can all hope and pray for this to be the first in a loooooooong series of such anthologies. This set of 24 old-time songs, hillbilly whoops, jazz, country blues, gospel, jug bands, and more, feels as alive today as the moment it was created. This is so great, get it and you'll be rewarded with some incredible music and a cool visit with Joe Bussard by way of the extensive liner notes and images.

The Legendary Joe Bussard
Bussard is a legend among old record collectors and this opening of his vaults promises musical bliss. For the complete story on Bussard go to http://www.bluesworld.com/Bussard.html -- and after reading it you'll have to agree with the previous reviwer that one CD is not enough. Maybe there will be future volumes....

Why oh why only one CD?! Buy it anyways!
The only problem with this CD is we get nice big fancy packaging and only one CD. Joe Bussard has 25,000+ 78's in his collection and we only get 24 of 'em?! This should have at least been a two disc set, at least. But who cares, the music is amazing and the booklet is entertaining. If your a diehard old time music freak you probably already have everthing on this disc, but if you're like me and are just now discovering this music, buy it, along with all the other Old Hat CD's and everything on Yazoo Records. ... Read more

Amazon.com

With his chocolaty cool, soulful Memphis croon and sure sense of melody, Robert Cray has never been considered a straightahead bluesman. His often interchangeable albums have instead stayed closer to R&B, adding compact, stinging lead guitar to songs about matters of the heart. That formula remains, with minor variations, on Cray's 14th release, rather confusingly named Twenty. The title track, a gripping, emotional anti-war ballad of the experience of a GI in Iraq (that, incidentally, doesn't contain the word "twenty") shows the singer/songwriter shifting his emotionally charged storytelling lyrics to the political arena. It's a brief but confident detour from his usual M.O. of relationships on the brink of collapse or in general disrepair, typically related in the first person. Subtle yet effective forays into loungey jazz on "My Last Regret" and even reggae on the opening "Poor Johnny" indicate a healthy tendency to push his established envelope, if only gently, into other genres.

But Cray sticks to his established bread and butter for the majority of this sturdy album, effortlessly churning out shoulder-swaying, foot-tapping R&B accompanied by a clean, clear tenor voice and a road-hardened band that finesses these songs with the perfect combination of fire and ice. Old fans won't be disappointed, and newcomers can start here and work backwards. --Hal Horowitz ... Read more

Reviews (4)

His Best CD Yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Robert Cray gets better with each new CD.His writing is top notch, check out Poor Johnny, Fading Away and That Ain't Love. His guitar work is unbelievable, I'm Walking, Two Songs from the End, I Know you Will. Check out the tastiest guitar playing on the cover song I Forgot to be Your Lover. All in all not a bad song on the CD. Blues, Rock, Jazz, Soul it's all here. Great listening, especially thru headphones.If you love good, well played music pick up Twenty. Make sure you see this band live, when they come to your town. As good as their albums are, the band is even better live. Don't miss them.

Smooth Riding Robert Cray
Robert Cray hails from the BB King school of guitar playing.. and I have every single release from RC ..and they are restrained glory in every sense of the word.Then, suddenly in a song, he busts out with some very good guitar playing that catches you off guard.

This particular recording is very complete, and very gospel sounding, in a lot of places.. but yet RC's voice is very gospel sounding in itself.. so I really think that is where a lot of the gospel comparisons come into the mix... and lets face it... a lot of guitar players play guitar and will sing as well.. but in RC's case.. his singing is as every bit of (dare I say even better) than his fantastic guitar ability.This can make for a very pleasureable experience.

This cd does cut fray into the political arena, but robert sings like someone who means what he has to say and is not really trying to paint an overtly political statements... very heartfelt song.

The guitar playing on this CD... there is as much guitar playing on this CD as one would like to hear.RC uses the guitar so much in phrases, and catches so much melody.. and when he does break out in solos, they mean something.

I must admit, this RC cd is a lot better than his past couple... and they were good too, but this one is better.

Enjoy, Have fun.

Twenty
I just listened to Robert Cray Band, album, "Twenty," for the first time.I quite by accident stumbled over it.I have not even heard any of the other songs but this particular one, so real and contemplative- a song/story about a US soldier in IRAQ and his emotional journal about his frustrations there. The lyrics are so appropriate for this day and circumstances of all veteran soldiers, present and past, andso hauntingly wonderful, that I will buy the CD just for this one song.If any of the other songs are as near as good, it will be a bonus! I just can't stop playing it from my computer. It really made me think of this war and what it is doing to the world and the men & women fighting and dying for all of us.I highly recommend it.Highly.Robert Cray is a ture storyteller.And to think that I never heard of him until tonight!

Yes
It is wonderful to a musician taking a political voice as they did in the Vietnam era. Powerful in a subtle way. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Where The First Blues Revival Really Began
It's only too easy to overrate the original Butterfield Blues Band, who kick-started the original mid-1960s blues revival and, as it happens, sent the folk "revival" of the earlier part of the decade all but packing as a mass phenomenon, both with their own electrifying workshop performances at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival and with a few of them (guitarist extraordinaire Mike Bloomfield, drummer Sam Lay, and bassist Jerry Arnold) limbering up behind Bob Dylan for the latter's long-legendary electric set. But there's no overrating the Butterfield gang's music or debut album - almost forty years after the sextet first laid it out, it's riveting, elemental, and demands to be heard all through each layer of the thrustingly sensitive sound.

They may have anchored themselves with Howlin' Wolf's rhythm section (Lay and Arnold), but Butterfield's heart seemed more to belong to Little Walter, both in the preponderance of Walter's material covered (and with reverence but not redundancy) here and in elements of his own harmonica style. (As it happened, Butterfield, Bloomfield, and second guitarist Elvin Bishop had each known, played with, and learned from the Chicago electric blues masters previously, and never lost the old masters' respect.) Bloomfield, of course, was already an outsized talent in his own right - he's not quite the sleek, polished old pro who would go from drop-dead to existentially expressive (by way of his luminous work with first the Electric Flag and, later, the Al Kooper "Super Session" projects), but he's exuberant, committed, and passionate, and he's already figuring out how to temper his chops and subordinate them to taste and to melodiousness in his solos by the time the set begins to wind down. Not that it's so bad when he just lets fly - in fact, he's the main instigator behind "Screamin'," possibly the wildest instrumental to spring up from any of the decade's blues revivalists, both as its co-composer and its prime cattle prod, dropping off a solo here and there to deliver little sharp stings to either Butterfield (with some choice harmonica sweeps and cries), Bishop (an occasional spiky lick here and there and effectively), and keyboard ace Mark Naftalin while letting the rhythm section whomp it up shamelessly.

Still, the band was wholly accessible, from the romping "Shake Your Moneymaker" to the strolling "Last Night"; from the rocking "Born in Chicago" to the galloping "Thank You, Mr. Poobah"; from the dripping "Our Love Is Drifting" to the bristling boogie joyousness of Sam Lay taking the vocal for "Got My Mojo Workin'." Butterfield was a passable vocalist with perhaps more feeling than voice, but he proved himself a legitimate comer as a blues harp specialist and bandleader. That the elders from whom he and his merry men learnt their blues directly accepted them as one of their own testifies even more potently to how powerful this album was then...and now. But even without its time-and-place importance, it's just good music.

Blues for Big John's
From November 1964 until September 1966, I had the good luck to work at Big John's, the legendary Chicago blues club in the city's Old Town area a couple of miles north of the Loop. The Paul Butterield Blues Band really took off during its many engagements at Big John's.

This is the band's first album. The cover art shows Mike Bloomfield (left), Paul Butterfield, Sammy Lay, Elvin Bishop, and Jerome Arnold. The photo was taken on Chicago's Maxwell Street.

This is the band that opened the doors at Big John's to all of the great black blues bands on the South and West Sides: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, and others. This is the band that inspired other young white blues musicians who appeared at Big John's: Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall, Barry Goldberg and Steve Miller. This is the band that turned heads at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival when it backed Bob Dylan. This is the band that paved the way for the blues revolution in the 1960s and beyond.

Some of the songs on this album are blues classics, while others were written by South Side native Nick "The Greek" Gravenites and have since become blues classics. Nick is a blues legend himself and was a close friend of Butterfield and Bloomfield.

All of us at Big John's were excited by this album when Elektra released it. We felt we were riding the crest of a wave. Hearing this album always evokes warm memories of a wonderful time in my life, when I couldn't wait to go to work each night to hear more of this great music. And I was able to so for almost two years, until Big John's was closed by the powers that be in Chicago. The club was gone forever. But not the music.

You may read more of my memories of those great days on my jazz and big band web site...

the start of it all
Although the real roots lie with the black artists who inspired these guys, the PBBB is where the hippy generation,(this is a couple years pre-San Francisco, and before the Stones and Beatles began stretching their arrangements out on record),learned to JUST PLAY. Their next record was more representative of what they were actually doing live at time time, and is the single greatest influence on what became the San Francisco sound of the late 60's and early 70's, (REALLY long and experimental jamming), so this is in fact the "roots of the roots of the roots" of todays jam bands and guitar-heavy blues bands, mixed-race bands, and, for all practical purposes, the white-blues-man in todays' world.

A Milestone In Music
In the early Sixties, the prevailing wisdom was that the blues was a music based on the shared experience of African Americans and that any attempt by a "Caucasian" to play the blues would..er, uh...pale in comparison to the authentic renditions of the blues by African Americans. In 1965, Paul Butterfield broke that color barrier, not by successfuly "imitating" black blues musicians, but by developing his own signature playing and singing style that demanded that audiences and critics accept Butterfield on his own terms. Butterfield's passion and intensity transcended any formulamatic notions of authenticity simply because of Butterfield's refusal to be evaluated as an imitator. His playing and singing were so uniquely stylized and original that when Butterfield played "Look Over Yonder's Wall" nobody used the Elmore James original as a litmus test of authenticity. I've heard enough bad imatators of B.B.King, both black and white, to know that racial authenticy is not a very reliable benchmark to evaluate good blues. Mediocrity is color blind, as is brilliance and any argument to the contrary is simply, as they say, academic.

Butterfield's band was bi-racial with rythym section consisting of Howlin' Wolf Band veterans Jerome Green on bass and the mighty Sam Lay on drums. Elvin Bishop, a University of Chicago student from Oklahoma learned guitar under the tutelage of another Howlin' Wolf veteran, Smokey Smothers. From 1963 until 1965 Bishop and Butterfield played together at Little John's a smokey blues joint on Chicago's northside. Near the time of this recording, Mark Naftalin was added to the band. Naftalin, a former University of Chicago student, played understated but tasty solos on Hammond organ. Naftalin was a nuanced jazz player having received a year of formal training at Mannes College of Music, where he was recruited by Butterfield for the band.

Many of the tracks from this album were originally recorded without Michael Bloomfield's guitar, but Butterfield reluctantly added Bloomfield, an out of work session player under contract to Columbia Records, at the urging of Paul Rothschild, the brilliant producer at the budding Elektra record label. Bloomfield was a young guitar savant whose signture guitar style contained elements of Albert King's tension, release and sustained feedback; Wes Montgomery's cascading flurries of jazz notes; Elmore James' electrifying bottle neck; and even unconvential modalities like atonal Indian ragas and swaying samba rythyms. The diffence of the in the master tapes with and without Bloomfield is startling. The addition of Bloomfield's explosive guitar playing appears to have ignited the entire band

On the opening cut, "Born In Chicago" Butterfield wastes no time in dispelling the white blues efficacy argument with his take no prisoners approach to blues shouting. The hard edged lyrics to Nick Gravenites's song,"...I was born in Chicago in 1941, and my father told me, son you had better get a gun", seemed to be issuing a challenge to the Doubting Thomases with staid intellectual theories of black authenticity. Butterfield's haromica playing is so uniquely sculpted that comparisons to either Little Walter or Sonny Boy Williamson are futile. The approach of the Butterfield Blues Band raises the ante to new sonic levels. The decibel level is so high and the playing is so intense that it appears that the band can generate enough electricity to light up the Chicago skyline. Butterfield and his guitarist Bloomfield appear to be circling each other like caged lions in the crossfire between the harmonica and guitar solos. Elvin Bishop's rippling and bracing guitar solos are almost an afterthought because Butterfield and Bloomfield remained locked in a tense struggle for sonic domination of the band that rages like a prarie fire until the last note of the final song, "Look Over Yonder's Wall."

Such was the legendary mutual ambivalence between Paul Butterfield and Michael Bloomfield...the twin towers of the Butterfield Blues Band. Both men were so endowed with rare musical talent that only an act of serendipity placed them on the same stage together. They were linked forever by this hellaciously good band, but each seemed to be saying to the other the equivalent of, "This band ain't big enough for the both of us." It was this brinksmanship between Butter and Bloom that often pushed the band into uncharted territory.

I saw this edition of the Butterfield Band twice in concert and their approach to both jazz and blues was so intense that they appeared to be tearing a hole in the fabric of the cosmos itself, armed with the sword of Damocles. The brilliance of Paul Rothchild's production was that he captured this raw intensity and seamless playing skill on vinyl. One can take a snapshot of the eye of a hurricane, but few photos capture the fury of storm, itself. Rothchild seemed to have bottled a raging force of nature, using some form of trickery at the studio mixing console. Bloomfield was partially responsible because he was the rare musician could play on a both a concert stage, or the clinical setting of a studio booth with the same pulse stopping immediacy.

For better or for worse, Butterfield's first album was an early statement of a generation of musicians who were unwilling to accept the arbitrary limits of conventional wisdom. It was 1965; and the musical revolution that about to change everyone's lives so dramatically was just budding forth. As the Sixties unfolded a hundreds of self-styled musicians bloomed into musical maturity and like Butterfield and Bloomfield, they challenged conventional wisdom and often their creativity crossed the divide between the sacred and the profane, but we are all better people for it.

El mejor grupo de blues de los 60.
Mientras los grupos Ingleses de mediados de los 60 redescubrían el blues y lo llevaban a grandes audiencias, al otro lado del Atlántico Paul Butterfield y su banda inician ya en forma definitiva el blues rock, dejando bien en claro el tema a los entusiastas jóvenes Ingleses.

Aunque no exactamente blues blanco (un tercio del grupo no lo es), las verdaderas estrellas son Butterfield y Bloomfield, que con 23 y 22 años más bien parecen veteranos maestros del blues que dos jovenes aprendices. Lo cierto es que el dominio y seguridad que muestra Butterfield tanto al canto como en la armónica están muy por encima de los típicos cantantes blancos de la época. Mención aparte merece Mike Bloomfield, quizás el guitarrista menos reconocido en la historia del rock. ni Clapton ni Beck tsonaban como Bloomfield en 1965, un guitarrista verdaderamente genial que en los instrumentales Thank You Mr. Poobah y Screamin' y en Blues With A Feeling muestra lo mejor de su talento.

Si John Mayall y compañía se llevaron el crédito en Inglaterra, Paul Butterfield y su banda (gran compañía también) merecen un destacado lugar en la historia por su enorme influencia en el desarrollo del blues y su variante más rock. ... Read more

Amazon.com

With an unmistakable falsetto delivery, Skip James created some ofhistory's eeriest blues records. His blues sounds dark and mysterious, using odd tunings, structures, and rhythms, and exploring gloomy lyrical themes. Unlike other bluesmen of the day, James's music was personal and bleak, played for his own emotional release and not for purposes of entertainment."Devil Got My Woman," "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues," "Hard Luck Child," and "Special Rider Blues" convey sorrow and misery like few others can. Uptempo numbers such as the classic "I'm So Glad" and "Drunken Spree," which resembles the hillbilly traditional "Late Last Night," showcase his forceful guitar picking while rags "Little Cow and Calf" and the jumpy "How Long 'Buck'" feature his unique piano work.--Marc Greilsamer ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Chills and enchants
The Martin Scorcese documentary has done blues a real service in foregrounding the aloof and elusive Skip James again. He was a great craftsman and a bracingly honest performer and he speaks to universal emotions effortlessly.

If you like your blues grim hopeless and hard then you need this record. The lyrics and singing here are going to blow you away. If you're partial to classical music, let's say Bach, then you are going to find that Skip James comes as close to a Bach fugue or minuet in terms of overall sophistication in his six string playing as I believe has been done - only instead of trying to educate and delight you, Skip James is trying to "stun" you, as he says in the (excellent) linear notes.

This is heavy stuff, and it isn't for everyone. Prolonged listening may leave you feeling slightly...unbalanced. For me, Skip James was one of the most compelling performers the blues produced. A solo acoustic player (there are a few piano cuts on the record but they are considerably less interesting than the acoustic stuff, in my view) in the style of Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Lemon, Blind Willie McTell, early Dylan, etc., he has moments where he makes them all look like little kids.

Like most early blues recordings, the material and themes can get repititious, and the sound quality isn't all that hot, but there are a lot of quality songs here, and at least half of them are good to pretty good, a few are plain transcendent.

The Poetry of the Blues (For Real!)
You often hear the phrase "the poetry of the Blues" used by writers to describe certain artists,and while it's (usually) deserved,the case of Skip James is emphatically POETRY.
The deal is this : his stunning guitar mastery AND that bone-chilling falsetto vocal resulted in some of the most enigmatic and hauntingly beautiful Music (irregardless of Blues,Jazz,or whatever) ever committed to phonograph recordings.
I am a Hot Jazz nut who had this material on an early '70s Biograph LP which had so muffled the surface noise as to be akin to hearing the music over a telephone! The digital mastering here is realistic,-face it,Paramount discs were the dirt-cheapest things made on the market,and surviving 78s are in such poor condition as to be FRAGILE beyond description.Unfortunayely,luck would have it that so much stellar music of the time was waxed for a label like Paramount!
That said,the MUSIC herein is nothing short of brilliant;James deserves his reputation as a haunting and evocative artist,that falsetto singing will send a chill up your spine...try to hear "Devil Got My Woman" without the hairs standing on back of your neck...ditto "Cherry Ball Blues"....and there's the virtuoso guitar piece "I'm So Glad" (apologies to Eric Clapton & Cream but they just couldn't touch the original!) and the spiritual songs are lovely (James struggled with the notion of becoming a deacon at one time).
Along with my Jelly Roll Morton CDs,this music is precious to me and I strongly feel that in the case of THIS cd it is possible to give an unconditional gaurantee of satisfaction....BUY IT TODAY!!!
And this IS poetry here,think of Skip as the Coleridge or Dylan Thomas of the Blues,,,yes,I know that's a tall order but its the Godspeed Truth.I do not undersell Robert Johnson (I have HIS cds as well) But James came first and he deserves your love and attention.
God bless you all.Thanks.

Eerie, organic, and ancient.
As many have said, this album is a true blues album. Skip's music is raw and early, and is on "the blues timeline" somewhere between slave songs and the blues/bluegrass that emerged in the early 20th century. His singing and wailing remind me most of some of the John and Ruby Lomax collection (parts of which are online), which include the songs that Moby sampled on his "PLAY" album.

Since the recordings were remastered from 78s, the sound quality isn't fabulous, but I haven't really found it to be a problem. If anything, it adds to the experience and makes it more organic -- you're more aware that what you're listening to is and old recording, in a good way.

Most of the songs on this CD sound very similar. True, they're by the same artist, and this is generally true about collections of work. I just found that with this album in particular, many of the songs have similar sounds (are written in the same or adjacent keys, etc.). For that reason, listening to it a few times through seemed to do it for me.

78 remastered edition, take note
The fidelity on this disc is poor due to it being re-masterd from 78's. If you are interested in the historical aspects of his recordings, this is great. If you want to hear better fidelity, Blues from the Delta may be a better choice. Skip James is fantastic!

Too much surface noise
Since this cd was made from old 78s there is alot of surface noise that makes it hard to appreciate the excellent music.Sure it has historical value but the later 60s recordings on Vanguard are just as good if not better musically.With todays audio systems the noise is enhanced.Music 5 stars audio 1 star.Buy at your own risk. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential recording

Think of Ry Cooder as a musicologist who makes learning fun. A particularly nifty collection from 1974, Paradise & Lunch is solo Cooder at his best. The song selection is inspired and unpredictable: numbers by Burt Bacharach, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Bobby Womack commingle with ease. "Tattler" is a rare Ry original that happens to be one of the collection's highlights. Jazz legend Earl Hines guests on the dapper "Ditty Wa Ditty." --Steven Stolder ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Ry Cooder's Best
All of Ry Cooder's music is exceptional. All of it. So picking his "best" record is a bit like picking Beethoven's best string quartet. Or Bob Dylan's best song. But this album is special. It's the kind of record that you mention to that new friend you discover whose taste is broad, deep and solid, who would recommend a record to you and you would just buy it unquestioningly because of the respect you have for the person's discriminating taste, and that person will look you in the eye with a knowing respect and say, "You know about 'Paradise and Lunch'?" And it will turn out