Juke Joint Blues

Rhino's double-disc 1991 set The Ultimate Collection (1948-1990) falls just short of the promise of its title, losing its focus toward the end of the set. That said, it comes close enough to satisfy, particularly because John Lee Hooker had such a long, convoluted discography, recording for...

One of the truly classic blues albums of the 1960s, and one of the first to fully document the smoky ambience of a night at a West Side nightspot in the superior acoustics of a recording studio. Wells just set up with his usual cohorts -- guitarist Buddy Guy (billed as "Friendly Chap"...

There have been many Slim Harpo best-ofs available over the years, some frustratingly incomplete. This one gets all the chart hits together with several of the obscure singles like "Wonderin' and Worryin'," "Strange Love," "One More Day," and

Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton was part of the American Folk Blues Festival revue which toured Europe in 1965, so when it was time to record this session on October 20 at Wessex Studio in London, she had a crack impromptu lues band at her disposal, including a young Buddy Guy on...

This British import compilation of Peacock sides is a bit more comprehensive than the domestic Hound Dog anthology, including a few more tracks (22 in all, some previously unreleased). The MCA collection, more readily available for most North American consumers, should suffice for most...

These are the Modern/Cobra masters -- 17 cuts from the sessions Walter did with Sam Phillips in 1951, including several alternate takes. This is mostly great acoustic harp, but it does contain the songs "Have a Good Time," and "Need My Baby" with Walter playing amplified harp...

Too Bad Jim is cut from the same cloth as its predecessor, Bad Luck City. It features R.L. Burnside fronting a small juke joint combo, tearing through some greasy lues. However, Too Bad Jim is the better album, simply from a performance standpoint. Burnside sounds more relaxed and the band...

An acoustic date cut on February 9, 1960, this finds Hooker in top-notch form, running through a dozen performances in his instantly identifiable style. Except for three solo turns, Hooker is ably backed by bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes, both wisely following John Lee's...

Now You Can Talk About Me collects mid- and late-period Smith, with the harmonica genius' '60s sides for the microscopic imprint Sotoplay sampled on the first five cuts. The remainder of the album is from a 1982 session for the Murray Brothers label with Rod Piazza behind the board,...

No, it's not the definitive collection, covering just Hooker's time with Vee-Jay from the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s. In fact, it's not even the definitive collection of the Vee-Jay years, although with 24 tracks, it's pretty long for a single-disc retrospective of...

An intensely powerful singer and guitarist, Elmore James did not start his recording career until he was 33, and he only lived to be 45, but he made a very strong impact during his dozen years on records. Some of his finest work was cut for the Fire label during 1959-1961, roughly half of which...

Serious lues fans will no doubt delight in these sides by the all but unsung George Harmonica Smith from Japan's P-Vine label. Taken from both the RPM and Modern labels after he left the Muddy Waters Band, Smith is showcased in all kinds of settings, including those with the young Otis...

While Charlie Musselwhite has always been an adventurous musician -- take into consideration his fine Cuban inflected Continental Drifter, the Americana drenched One Night In America, and the rollicking ock and soul on Sanctuary -- the Delta of his upbringing has never been left out of the mix...

A beautifully packaged edition of Junior Kimbrough's first album, recorded live in the converted church that replaced Kimbrough's original wooden shack juke joint. The lineup is Kimbrough on vocals and guitar, Garry Burnside on bass, and Kenny Malone on drums (it's a family...

This ten-disc, 114-track box set collects sides John Lee Hooker recorded for the Vee-Jay and Gotham record imprints and includes Hooker classics like

Three years after William Lee Ellis gained the attention of the world's lues community with his stellar third album and Yellow Dog Records debut, The Full Catastrophe, he arrived on a horse of a different color. Conqueroo is a record steeped deeply in all of the traditions that have...

Although he had been playing for years, it wasn't until the 1990s that R.L. Burnside's raw electrified Delta blues were heard by a wide audience. His new fans celebrated his wild, unbridled energy, so it made sense for him to team with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the warped indie...

When R.L. Burnside and the rest of the Fat Possum confederation emerged from the northern Mississippi hills in the early '90s, they gave contemporary blues a much-needed shot in the ass, reminding everyone that the genre really wasn't so much about pyrotechnic guitar histrionics as it...