A while back there was a thread of blues album recommendations but we have not had a detailed listing of people’s favourites of this core musical genre. For me it i the heart of all my music and the love affair goes back to the Stones Little Red Rooster, some 70s derivative Chicago blues and boogie by Aussie band Chain then getting into the heart of the matters with a compilation of early blues and the ripping slide guitar of Elmore James.
Live, the key event for me was seeing Buddy Guy and Junior Wells in about 1973 -first Afro Americans I had ever seen, Buddy in a red jump suit and Junior with a belt of harmonicas.Can still see them more than 40 years later.
Chicago /Delta blues is at the heart of my interest, with lashings of harp and slide. I dont like it too polite so Big Bill Broonzy and his ilk interest me less.
So anyway here are the favourtie records from my collection. not necessarily the ones most highly rated. Their is no BB King at the Regal – BB said it wasn’t anything special ,it was just another night on the road that happened to be recorded. And that is what I feel about BB -he is a showman first. No Muddy with Johnny Winter , though sonically great and real shout it out with a beer blues, I prefer the originals.
So,here I go. I am sure @alanbalfour will pick any mistakes up
# 1 Junior Wells – Hoodoo Man blues. 1965 Chicago blues featuring 2 upcoming stars from Muddy Waters -Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. Each complement each other and hold each other in check as both are inclined to be indulgent left to their own devices. Reissued on Delmark it is still a steady seller. you could add Southside jam, Comin’ At You, Live at Theresa’s to the list but Junior hit the piss pretty hard and tends to play the same songs. Title track Hoodoo Man blues has the feel of the title -real Hoodoo.
# 2 Muddy Waters – They Call Me Muddy Waters. Not rated particularly highly in the pantheon. for acoustic try Folk singer a superbly recorded album with Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon. For me this album just swings from the start with when the eagle flies followed by Crawling Kingsnake covered by the Doors on LA Woman. Favourite track for me is Bird Nest On the Ground. The band is just so tight and no one dominates, no histrionics, no hackneyed Mannish Boy or Mojo Working, this 1970 album won the best ethnic album in the Grammys.
# 3 A quirky selection Party Blues a compilation of blues from the 1920s on Melodeon. The theme is Party Blues i.e. dirty, lewd, double entendre stuff. Crackley, sonically poor but full of atmosphere and such a musical education. Tampa Red’s Jug Band with the gazoo and jug (2 instruments that belong in the annoying instruments thread) Blind Lemon Jefferson with Bed Spring Blues (who is this guy thought a wide-eyed 14 year old in suburban Melbourne. Mississippi John Hurt Candy Man Blues, Bo Carter All Round Man and Blind Blake’s Diddie Wa Diddie later popularised by Ry Cooder. Vale the compilation disc I say.
#4 John Lee Hooker It Serve You Right To Suffer (grammatically corrected to It Serves for some reissues . He of the spoken word stutter and over 100 albums plus a heap under various other names he kicked it off with one of the finest blues boogies in 1948 with Boogie Chillen. The trademark being his moan and that beat kept by his foot on a board.There are a mountain of greatest hits albums-simple rule -the earlier the recordings the more likely those compilations are likely to be. Forget Mr Lucky and those later period collaborations in his twilight. This album had more the feel of an album. A “folk” record originally on Impulse with 4 backing players. John Lee was too tight to keep a band and given he always changed the tempo (see Berry C) he was a challenge for pick up bands. This opens with Shake It Baby, includes the rocker Bottle Up and Go but for me the the highlight is Decoration Day. And you cant get more blues than the title can you? If you want him rockin’ out check his recordings with his greatest fans Canned Heat on One bourbon One Scotch .
#5 Gee this is tough. Apologies Otis Spann, apologies that 10 inch by Brownie McGhee, apologies Otis Rush, apologies Albert and Freddie, Charlie Patton, Bessie Smith, Reverend Gary, Jimmy Reed and the rest of em, I’m going for some raw, down home gospel infused slide driven delta blues.
Fred McDowell My Home Is in the Delta. On a bender I bought a bunch of his records and they are pretty much all the same songs played the same way.there is a good one : live in London but this has served me well. Rediscovered in the blues folk revival this was recorded in 1963. The Stones You Gotta move is his ,old time slide played, I think, with a bone for the slide at least originally. His wife Annie Mae McDowell adds vocals in a loose languid style that just evokes heat, flies and a delta verandah. You don’t get many songs called Going Down South Carry My Whip . Diving Duck blues is on this some gospel with get Right Church and possibly the loveliest song ever amazing Grace Where Could I Go (But To The Lord) and Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning that I recalled from electric Hot Tuna days.
Over to you @johnny-concheroo
Alan go the hyperlink wrong
@alan-balfour
oh for an edit function
A Long Way From Home by Fred McDowell is great. As is Vietnam Blues by JB Lenoir.
Songs or albums Moose?
Ooo, ooo, can I join in ????
Blues albums are tricky cos the best are compilations. Here’s mine…
1. Blind Willie Johnson. (All CD’s have the same tracks more or less. Mine is called “soul of a man” I think”). Not really blues – or possibly the realest of blues.
2. Charlie Patton (As with BWJ above all compilations are the same. Mine is “the definitive”).
3. Sad Days Lonely Nights – Junior Kimbrough
4. Sleepy John Estes – Someday Baby Blues (another compilation which could be substituted for any of the others)
5. A compilation – “Good For What Ails You. The music of the medicine shows”. Most of this isnt blues, more jug band, country stuff. Its great.
Why certainly I’m hoping for a blues love-in
Thanks for these recommendations, Wellsie. Nicely written. I’ll try to track them down.
thanks, though I’m thinknig of hiring a prof raedr.
Here are the results in reverse order:
#5: Albert King – Live Wire: Blues Power (Stax 1968)
Albert was recording for a range of small labels as early as 1953 but it wasn’t until he signed to Stax in 1966 that everything fell into place for the Velvet Bulldozer. Produced by Al Jackson and backed for the most part by Booker T. & the MGs, Albert’s Stax albums gave us some of the most important blues recordings of the era and provided the British Blues Boomers with a treasure trove of material.
Born Under A Bad Sign, Crosscut Saw, As The Years Go Passing By, The Hunter, Oh Pretty Woman and the rest became staples of the white boy blues repertoire and after a decade or more on the Chitlin Circuit Albert soon began to play rock arenas alongside the Stones and other big names.
An imposing figure, Albert weighed in at 250 pounds and played a Gibson Flying V left-handed and strung upside-down (with the bass strings at the bottom) so it was almost impossible for us fledgling guitarists to figure what he was doing, or how he was doing it. That only added to mystique somehow.
One of the biggest thrills of my life was finally seeing Albert live. It was just a couple of years before he died in 1992 and he was past his best by that stage. He was in a grumpy mood, his amp was giving problems and the set took quite a while to warm up. At one point he broke a string and, with no spare guitar, the band had to vamp along while he took a fresh string out of his back pocket and changed it right there on stage in front of us. But we had front row seats and I was happy just to breathe the same air as the great man.
Live Wire: Blues Power was recorded at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East in San Francisco in June 1968 and contains none of the above classics. It does feature Albert at his live best however and the ten minute slow blues title track is easily as good as anything he did. The rest of the album is not too shabby, either.
This is one of those albums I’d run into a burning building to rescue.
http://i.imgur.com/RwZh48J.jpg
Was that the Aussie tour?
Grumpiest man in show business.
I was always surprised how well he seemed to get on with SRV given he copied his style so much . Read somewhere that SRV gave him a sizeable wad of money early on as recognition for his influence.
All sweet after that.
Money changes every thing
Yes, it was in Perth around 1989 I think.
The saddest thing I ever saw was Gary Moore playing with Albert King and Albert Collins. Moore was flying high with Still Got The Blues and it must have seemed like a good idea at the time.
Except Moore made absolutely no allowances for the fact he was playing with two old guys who usually played through small amps at club volume. He cranked his Les Paul up to eleven and, playing a million notes a second, left the two Alberts eating his dust. They just couldn’t compete with the volume or the speed.
It was like Moore simply wasn’t aware of what he was dealing with.
Let’s try that picture again:
I liked it better the first time.
#4: Robert Johnson – King Of The Delta Blues Singers (Columbia 1961)
Where would rock music be without Robert Johnson? His entire recorded output amounted to just 20-odd tracks released on a bunch of Vocalion 78s in the 1930s, but what a strike rate he had. Virtually everything Johnson recorded has become rock and roll gold, covered by the Stones, Cream, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Fleetwood Mac and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (yes a Robert Johnson track even appeared on the Beano Album). No point in listing them here, you already know them all, even if you think you don’t.
Surprisingly, after those original 78s (now worth a fortune) went out of print the material was unavailable for decades, until the great John Hammond persuaded Columbia Records (CBS in Europe) to issue them on what would be the first Robert Johnson LP King Of The Delta Blues Singer released in 1961. In his book Chronicles, Volume One Bob Dylan mentions having a couple of one-sided white label acetates of the album when he first signed with Columbia. Clearly Bob knew the importance of this material and went directly to the source for his inspiration.
In Britain this LP didn’t really start to circulate until the mid-60s and I picked up my first copy in the midst of the blues boom along with the Chicken Shack and Fleetwood Mac albums, which initially diminished its importance in the scheme of things.
On first hearing this LP is a hard listen. The timing is all over the place, the production is non-existent and Johnson’s high, reedy voice is an acquired taste. But never forget, this was recorded in 1937 and what we’re hearing is a snapshot of the time. The guitar playing is quite astonishing (people like Clapton are still trying to figure out what Johnson was doing) and as mentioned the songs are timeless.
I don’t often play it anymore, but King Of The Delta Blues Singers is one of those massively important touchstone albums you simply have to own.
Damn, forgot that one. An essential in any music collection.
Great cover too
Can we see it again, Johnny?
#3: Lonnie Johnson – Blues In My Fingers: The Essential Recordings (Indigo 1994)
Lonnie Johnson nestles right alongside Robert Johnson in my CD rack, but there the similarity ends. For although Lonnie was a contemporary of Robert (and was actually recording for Okah in the 20s, well before the Crossroads hitmaker) their styles couldn’t be more different.
Lonnie’s guitar playing is thing of great beauty and precision with superb tone and vibrato, especially for the time. Imagine Django Reinhardt playing straight blues and you’re almost there.
His biggest hit was Tomorrow Night in 1948, a great song which was covered by Bob Dylan on his 1992 album Good As I Been To You.
When Lonnie Johnson toured Britain in 1952 a young musician named Tony Donegan was on the same bill and was so impressed he adopted Lonnie’s first name as his own. We all know what happened next.
Johnson was recording from the mid-20s to the late 60s and with 40 years-worth of material to choose from it’s hard to pick a definitive album (if such a thing exists). I have several of his compilations from different eras and although the material on this CD was recorded in the 20s and 30s, much of it sounds as modern as tomorrow.
http://i.imgur.com/0kz2t1l.jpg
FWIW Lonnie’s first appearance in the UK was in London, 29 June 1952 at the Royal Festival Hall and one Anthony Donegan and his jazz band appeared on the same bill.
Lonnie performed 10 songs which included Backwater Blues, Careless Love, Stardust, Just Another Day. Pianist Ralph Sutton was also on the bill for two numbers.
More than that I don’t know.
Looking forward to your list Alan -or will it be mental torture
JW what list? Am I missing something? Like maybe losing the plot? 🙂
Your top 5 blues album he means.
Top in the sense of the ones that mean the most to you – perhaps not necessarily those albums regarded as the definitive albums i.e. my Muddy selection .
To this end clearly JC only left off Beano to as he says avoid predictability.
The late Ray Bolden (of Dobells) in 1964 very kindly sold me the following four “used LPs” for next to nothing – namely two bob each. The only way I’d be parted from them would be death!!
Various Artists – Blues Fell This Morning Philips BBL 7369
Louisiana Red – Lowdown Back Porch Blues Columbia (UK) 33SX 1612
Spann Otis – The Blues Of Otis Spann Decca LK 4615
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee – Down Home Blues Sharp SMG 2003
Thanks Alan, that’s plenty.
You certainly like your Johnsons Concheroo. Blind Willie next?
His favourite Johnson is One-Eyed Dick Johnson, a little-known performer from down under.
Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson – UK Eurovision entrants 1959 with Sing Little Birdie.
They came second, as usual.
Todd Rundgren had an album of blues Todd Rundgren’s Johnson
Saw the tour, now that was lumpen.
I was looking forward to that album but it was, frankly, rubbish.
For some people Todd walks on water, but that album of Robert Johnson covers was a stinker.
yeah I left early
Prince. Todd Rundgren. Brilliant guitarists, composers, multi-instrumentalists, producers. Both leave me with the same sense of … well, nothing, really.
#2: Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac (Blue Horizon 1968)
Retrospectively known as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, or the Dog and Dustbin Album the debut Mac LP was recorded in late 1967 and released in February 1968.
Ironically, the “Mac” part of the name, John McVie, was still with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers when recording began and some early tracks featured Bob Brunning on bass (notably Long Grey Mare), before McVie took the plunge and left the financial security of Mayall’s band as Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood had done before him.
Such was the power of the British Blues Boom in 1968 that this LP reached number four in the UK album charts and went on to sell a million copies.
We all wanted to hear Peter Green of course but confusingly, half the album was turned over to an unknown slide player named Jeremy Spencer, an Elmore James disciple who delivered several versions of Dust My Broom under different titles. It turned out that’s all Spencer could do (along with a nifty line in rock & roll pastiche).
This problem would be comprehensively solved by the next Mac LP Mr Wonderful with the introduction of Danny Kirwan, a gifted guitar prodigy of the Peter Green school.
I actually prefer Mr Wonderful to the debut LP, but chose this because it’s not only the all-important first Fleetwood Mac LP, but the first album on the equally important Blue Horizon label.
http://i.imgur.com/PWJb22Y.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/PWJb22Y.jpg
Two copies of the photo, just for HP
Knew it would be there – prefer his playing with Otis Spann but good on you for including the white boys.
Surely Beano wont be #1.
I’m tempted, but I don’t want to be too predictable.
I’m still thinking about it.
Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Willie McTell …apparently no-one could play the blues like him, Howlin Wolf , did a London session too, Willie Dixon -write most of the big ones, Son House – Death Letter Blues then there is Huddie Leadbetter
Paul Butterfield -to continue your honkey theme?
Come on man …..
Leave it with me. I have to browse the racks for inspiration.
Seeing those in stereo, Johnny.
I have the awful feeling – like my bowel’s about to prolapse – that sooner or later we’re going to be seeing the B**** album here. I’d like the entire Afterword – internet, if possible – to take up the chant: Bea-no, no no no. Bea-no, no no no. Bea-no, no no no …
Something like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4v4a5ibFhw
I’ll say it again…. wolves did it!
Well, I love a lot of blues (Brownie McGee, Howlin’ Wolf, Bukka (Booker) White, Muddy Waters etc) but there are tons of compilations out there and if they’re made by a reputable record company they’re almost always good.
I’ll leave those alone and speak of my great love: Mr Taj Mahal.
The man who got me into the blues in the first place, when I was five years old.
My Top Five Taj Mahal albums are:
5. Taj Mahal (-68)
4. Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home (-69)
3. Happy Just to Be Like I Am (-71)
2. The Natch’l Blues (-68)
1. The Real Thing (-72, Best live album ever)
Hm…looking at that list of albums and years I’m struck by the (very random) fact that I was born in 1967 and all of my favourite Taj Mahal albums were released during the first five years of my life, and I first heard him when I was five…spooky, dude! 😉
yep -a veteran. Ali Farka Toure who collaborated with him had a funny line. “That boy, he wasn’t very good (at the guitar) but he was so damn keen to learn.
My favourite is Ohh So Good’n’ blues. Lovely rural blues and a couple of delightful instrumentals. Railroad Bill includes, horror, whistling but here is the other one
Love the first Taj album.
the Cooder factor?
I was going to say that, but I’m never sure how much Ry played on that 1st Taj LP. I know they were big mates and all, but I have a feeling Jesse Ed Davis did most of the lead guitar on the record.
I seem to think Ry just did mandolin and a bit of rhythm.
It’s always amused me that there’s an album where Ry was only needed for a bit of rhythm guitar (and mandolin). Mr Davis must have felt like a million dollars.
Speaking of instrumentals with whistling (and flute): this – although it’s not what you’d call a blues track – is one of my favourite Taj Mahal musical moments; Ain’t Gwine To Whistle Dixie (Any Mo’) – the long live version from The Real Thing (of course).
He’s not very good at whistling, it’s flat and thin and all over the place, but that’s what makes it so wonderful! This track is pure joy and love and everything that is good in the world, it can chase away a whole pack of black dogs and I want it to be played at my funeral.
Quick question before I make my mind up; is Safe As Milk blues?
While I’m here, I’m going to defend Hard Again. They have a rollicking good time singing those blues. The blues bravado is nicely counterbalanced by a big tongue in their cheeks. More importantly, unlike Muddy’s other albums, it hangs together as an album, a set, perfectly. That’s the problem with many blues ‘albums’. They weren’t conceived as such and only work if the artist tends to be a bit one-dimensional, with a consistency of sound that is easy to grow weary of after side one.
Im saying yes it is blues.
Nothing wrong with hard again – I could list ten muddy w albums.
Sameness -well the same could be said for reggae, jazz, disco, funk ,country ….Hopefully the standout records make you wanting more rather than tiring of them.
If Safe As Milk is blues, I’m Pia Zadora.
Safe as Milk is the debut album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in 1967. A heavily blues-influenced work, the album featured a 20-year-old Ry Cooder, who played guitar and wrote some of the arrangement
From Wikipedia so it has gotta be true.
Why isn’t it blues?
I’ve always thought that Strictly Personal was more of a blues album. There are are a bunch of blues tracks dotted about the Beefheart canon that would make a nice compilation.
The Mirror Man Sessions probably even more so.
There are no blues songs on it, for one. There are pop songs, sorta-soul songs, some weird shit, but just because you can hear a blues influence (mainly in the vocals and Ryland Cooder’s guitar) doesn’t make it a blues album. Spotlight Kid showed more evident blues roots, but that’s not a blues album either.
OK. I’ll rule it out.
Never rule out Safe As Milk! It’s an extraordinarily good album.
Even better in Mono!
Right. That settles it. It’s number one.
#1: Davy Graham – Folk, Blues & Beyond (Decca 1965)
And at number one, no, it’s not The Beano Album, it’s what I consider to be the greatest acoustic blues LP of all time. This is actually Davy’s second album. Before this he released a 1963 album of MOR/jazz instrumentals for Pye called The Guitar Player, but his Decca debut is where it all started to happen for him.
John Martyn, Bert Jansch, Jimmy Page, John Renbourn, Paul Simon, Ralph McTell, this LP influenced them all, and many more besides. Most of them went on to find more fame and fortune than Davy did, however.
A poor singing voice, a lack of songwriting skills, plus a carefully cultivated drug habit prevented Davy from ever getting rich and famous, but just like Ziggy, boy, could he play guitar.
It was Davy who is credited with introducing the DADGAD tuning into the folk and world music arena and his rock-style attack and phenomenal technique revolutionised acoustic folk blues guitar playing forever.
This is the album that launched a thousand careers.
http://i.imgur.com/re4xYM1.jpg
Nice one JC
I was tempted to put in the first Hot Tuna album – largely acoustic blues with Will Scarlett on harp. Certainly not as path breaking as this album was. Wonder what the “traditional” blues artists made of Davey’s effort?
I haven’t played FB&B since, oh, 1974. That will be rectified whilst I make supper tonight…
I loathe blues music. Alongside modern so-called R’n’B and thrash metal it’s a genre I’ve no time for. (Having said that – Junior, I’m amazed you forgot Robert Johnson. Whenever anyone bangs on about the blues he’s always mentioned without fail. Like talking about reggae and forgetting Bob Marley I would have thought.) Anyways, I only own two blues albums, both of which I’m unacountably fond of.
1. The soundtrack to The Hot Spot (dunno if this counts as blues).
2. Mississippi John Hurt (Complete Studio Recordings)
Them two.
I couldn’t find the bit where he says something like “the blues – aren’t they kind of depressing?” but the trailer will remind us of what it’s like to grow up a poor black kid …
(Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, too!)
Well I am not going to turn this into a defence of the blues thing,. you like it or not. Having said that -go through your collection . Most people acknowledge that rock’n’roll is just white boy pumped up r’n’b.
How did I miss Robert Johnson ? Well I flipped thru the collection and the ones I listed stuck out. Unlike JC who had to ponder the matter for some time they were quick heart on the sleeve choices- like the thread title indicated.
Johnson’s songs are everything JC describes .
Sort of around topic, if not fully on, has anyone yet picked up on this, OK, not yet out in UK, but, um, available, no doubt, at Sauceburts market. (I have resisted such copies, as I have rules about currently available stuff, but the cast of players is rather good, even if the cheese grater/curdler is on it twice.)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/God-Dont-Never-Change-Johnson/dp/B019GAUPJA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1456217563&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=blind+willie+mctell+lucinda+waits
Funnily enough I listened to this yesterday evening (unlike Retro I have no rules or indeed morals) and damn fine it is too.
My music collection is stashed full of blues ( I’d say 80 to 90% of the above) but truth be told they are largely unplayed in Wrongness Manor…
No mention yet of the mighty Howling Wolf.
I will rectify that.
Most available collections are that collections.
I have the Chess set – Howling Wolf – The Genuine Article which contains most if the significant recordings from his catalog.
I would also have to include John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, both the “Beano” release with Eric Clapton and “A Hard Road” with Peter Green. These were the albums which introduced me to Blues.
Well in fact my 1st introduction was earlier referenced in the thread – “Little Red Rooster” by the Stones.
I know that for many years they have been past their “sell by” date , but never forget that they were the artists that got to No. 1 with a straight ahead Blues – yes a Howling Wolf classic.
Respect……………..
And a big “up” for mention of The Beano Album, the Afterword’s favourite El Pea.
Good comments.
Yes the Wolf I asked for water she gave me gasoline, smokestack lightning. Fearsome physique, disposition and voice. Didn’t think muck of the callow acolytes when he came over for the London sessions. He and Muddy didn’t see eye to eye I don’t think. Angry man angry blues.
There is a story that Muddy “stole” Hubert Sumlin the Wolf’s guitarist.
The Wolf came looking for his man armed to the teeth and threatened to kill Muddy…….
Hubert returned to the Wolf’s band.
Don’t know about “armed to the teeth”, more like armed with teeth. Didn’t Wolf knock out a few of Hubert’s teeth to show his ire at such disloyalty.
You may well be right. Obviously the name Wolf was well earned.
What follows is as best as I can recall it and although at the time it might’ve looked, and sounded, a lot worse than it was (I was an 18 year-old attempting to get autographs) the event has never left my subconscious. There were other’s present who, being far more mature, will probably have less “impressionable” recollections. 🙂
I was, milling around backstage at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, with the great and the good of the 1964 American Folk Blues Festival package (courtesy of Charles Radcliffe blues writer and family friend) when Sonny Boy Williamson told those present he’d been before (with the 1963 package) and knew a “drug store” (off-licence) nearby and was off to buy whiskey. Lightnin’ Hopkins overheared this and thrusted money at him asking him to get a “fifth of wine” and “the change man, the change”. Someone explains to SBW that he’ll have to ask for it by the bottle, to which he exploded “I know, I’ve bin here before”. After what seemed like an age, Sonny Boy returned with two bottles of whiskey, giving one to Lightnin’ and NO change. Lightnin’ went berserk telling SBW that he wanted wine not whiskey and even if he’d wanted the stuff he’d want change. The two of them sized-up to each other and, just as it looked like it was about to come to blows, Howlin’ Wolf stepped between them, put his massive hands on each of their shoulders and parted them with the quiet words “cool it, cool it” as thought dealing with small children, rather than middle-aged men both nearing six feet. Lightnin’ went away mumbling to himself about Mississippians being crooks and cheats whilst Sonny Boy was left with two bottles of whiskey only one of which he’d paid for. A little later, whilst SBW was performing his set, Lightnin’ back stage muttered “Mississippians, Mississippians they cain’t sing about nothing but women”.
On the train journey home I didn’t stop regaling my companions of what I’d witnessed. It served to confirm all those teenage pre-conceived ideas I held concerning hard drinking, hard fighting, bluesmen.
But I’m older than that now…to quote Mr Dylan
Fab story beautifully told Alan, I was right there with you.
Thanks for your kind words/appreciation. Things I Used To Do I Don’t Do No More, see link below for an ancient handful of such which has found its way to the internet. Toe curling stuff…aaargh
http://ourblues.net/category/authors/alan-balfour/
Only just spotted this – great anecdote Alan
First I have to have some English delta blues. The album that turned me on to blues and rescued me from the singles chart – Malpractice by Dr. Feelgood. I started exploring from there. Still the band I’ve seen live more than any other.
Then I need the definitive Wolf and Muddy compilations. To my mind, the two giants of electric blues, way above the others.
I’ll have (for all the reasons above from Johnny Concheroo, I couldn’t put it better) Davy Graham’s Folk, Blues and Beyond.
And I’ll finish with the compliation of Buddy Guy’s Complete Vanguard Recordings (I know it’s a bit of a cheat, as it comprises 3 separate albums). Buddy is my favourite blues guitarist.
Those Vanguard best ofs and their Blues compilations are excellent Jim.
In fact is there a genre that has been better served by the compilation.
Pity Buddy has to be such a ham Seems like he has to prove, every time, that Hendrix got his schtick from him.
My contribution. I love all of these. Please don’t tell me I’m wrong to do so!
1. San Francisco Bay Blues by Jesse Fuller: invented the fotdella, wrote San Fransisco Bay Blues (Clapton, McCartney, Hot Tuna and every 1960’s folk club repertoire across the land), influenced The Grateful Dead AND Don Partridge.
2. King Biscuit Time by Sonny Boy Williamson ll: early recordings and includes Elmore James first recording of Dust My Broom (apparently). Had it on vinyl decades ago (only for a week though – borrowed from library) but sadly just a CD copy now.
https://youtu.be/WBBQQU2aKd4
3. Sitting on Top of the World by The Mississippi Sheiks: the roots of country blues performed by the sons of an ex-slave sharecropper. (It’s time I upgraded to the JSP 4 CD box set Bo Carter & The Mississippi Sheiks.) There’s also a wonderful tribute album with some interesting interpretations of these great songs, lovingly put together by Steve Dawson.
Thanks to Mr Crumb: http://imgur.com/1hXpWy1
4. Black Brown and White by Big Bill Broonzy: another big influence from my ‘60’s folk club days which, together with the early white boy blues playing of the Beano album, Little Red Rooster, Steve Winwood and Peter Green, sent me sideways into American blues music.
5. Texas Sensation by Freddie King: listen to Hideaway and Have You Ever Loved a Woman from 1960 and I suspect you will hear just what Eric Clapton was listening to before he joined John Mayall.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Things-About-Comin-My-Way/dp/B00U7E7YAS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456245046&sr=8-1&keywords=things+about+comin+my+way
No rights or wrongs Peanuts. Some fine selections. SDonny Boy 2 -another mean motherfucker – wonder whether the dental disarray (TMFTL) assisted or hinderred the harp playing. A violent bloke, with a knife on him always and a notorious thief too. Course incredibly tough environment to survive in.
Dont Start Me Talkin;’ Help Me, Bring It On Home – pretty much Van’s blues performance catalogue.
Some good stuff on Wikipedia
n the early 1960s he toured Europe several times during the height of the British blues craze, backed on a number of occasions by the Authentics (see American Folk Blues Festival), recording with the Yardbirds (for the album Sonny Boy Williamson and The Yardbirds) and the ANimals, and appearing on several TV broadcasts throughout Europe. Around this time he was quoted as saying of the backing bands who accompanied him, “those British boys want to play the blues real bad, and they do”. According to the Led Zeppelin biography Hammer of the Gods, while in England Sonny Boy set his hotel room on fire while trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator. The book also maintains that future Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant purloined one of the bluesman’s harmonicas at one of these shows. Robert Palmer, writing in “Deep Blues”, stated that during this tour Williamson allegedly stabbed a man during a street fight and left the country abruptly.
I’ve just started reading Deep Blues – interesting that the index only lists John Lee Williamson; SBW II is indexed under Rice Miller.
A big UP for Jessie Fuller, Peanuts.
The 10″ LP of San Francisco Bay Blues was just about the first blues album I ever bought. He only really had that one song, but it kicked off the whole one man band movement.
http://i.imgur.com/tmoa5pS.jpg
I hope he made some royalties from the first track on Dylan’s first LP in 1962 – You’re No Good (listed as She’s No Good on the label).
And here’s Grateful Dead (with admittedly not one of his better songs!):
For me as a fan but not an afficiando ( for many years I didn’t know there was a Tommy Johnson as well as a Robert Johnson), my choices are pretty predictable
– Muddy Waters ‘His Best 47 – 55′,
Howlin’ Wolf – ‘ The Genuine Article’ definitive & terrifying, almost other worldly music
Elmore James/ John Brim – ‘ Whose Muddy Shoes’, an MCA masters complilation that includes the exhilarating Talk To Me Baby and Madison Blues
But my all time fave blues album is ‘Gutbucket -an Underground Explosion’ a Liberty sampler. Not because it’s definitive or anything, but because a pal picked it up at a jumble for 5p ( we were about 14 & well into punk) because he’ d noticed it had a Beefheart track ‘ Gimme That Harp Boy’ & I’d namechecked Beefheart at some point. As a result I discovered Lightnin’ Hopkins & John Lee Hooker as well as some pretty respectable stuff by Canned Heat among others. That scratched LP led to a lot of discoveries that are life long treasures, so that’s why it’s my pick.
Wondered when someone would get round to Lightnin’ Hopkins. He’s the man for me. Made the songs up as he went along and always claimed his fee before he played. What a Dude.
‘Katie Mae, oh Katie Mae …’
Gutbucket. There was a second volume titled Son Of Gutbucket.
http://i.imgur.com/8nW9jTn.jpg
Then, years later they put both volumes together on a CD. Trouble was, they didn’t have the rights to some of the artists any longer, so CCR and others were missing.
http://i.imgur.com/XImjcKZ.jpg
Sorry Beefheart dont play no blues- HP says.
I discovered blues in the 80s thanks to the NME cassettes and ACE and Charly compilations. These are a few of my favourites:
Bobby Bland – The Voice
John Hammond – Wicked Grin
Mose Allison Sings
Bo Diddley – Road Runner
The Fairfield Four – The Bells Are Tolling
Albert King – I Wanna Get Funky
OK. I’ve pondered.
1. Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland – Two Steps From The Blues
The point at which soul-blues was created, as though Ray Charles recorded for Chess Records. A perfect album.
Cry Cry Cry
2. Magic Sam Blues Band – West Side Soul
Magic Sam brings an elegance to the Blues firecracker guitar and a soulful tinge to the vocal. A modern Blues album exploding with energy that hasn’t grown old.
That’s All I Need
3. Muddy Waters – Hard Again
Is there a louder, more priapic record? It’s sloppy, it’s messy, it threatens to descend into chaos. Everybody here is having the time of their lives.
Bus Driver
4. R.L. Burnside – A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey
Blues purists often turn up their noses at R.L. Burnside. Worse still is the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. But this album is blistering, grimy, greasy and dirty. It is magnificent.
Goin’ Down South
5. Professor Longhair – Rock N Roll Gumbo
The maestro of piano, playing with old mates on an LP that was nearly never released. Marvel at the intuitive interplay and try and keep still. You’ll find you can’t.
Mardis Gras In New Orleans
Great selections. My favourite BB album is this one featuring the song featured on Its Too Late To Stop Now.
One of my favourite record covers too
Johnny Jenkins’ album Ton Ton Macoute is a beaut. With added Duane Allman. There’s a fantastic version of Down along the Cove. Sadly not on YouTube
Probably bigger in UK/Europe than anywhere else, Big Bill Broonzy’s influence on British guitarists was immeasurable. Chris Barber brought him over to tour several times in the 50s and everyone from Lennon, Clapton, Bert Jansch and Davy Graham down was influenced by his aggressive folk blues style
Speaking of ten inchers- this album should have been on my list Brownie McGhee blues on Folkways. Heavy disc, thick cardboard and a cardboard divider.Incredible presence in the sound.
Happy Traum studied under him and did a video on his style.
http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Teaches-Guitar-Brownie-McGhee/dp/B001GAO586
Sonny and Brownie were great, although we took them for granted a little since they were always touring the UK and became the “acceptable face of blues”, in the same way that someone like Josh White had before them.
I didn’t find out until a few years ago that Brownie’s younger brother Sticks McGhee wrote the song Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee. It originally had bawdy lyrics, but with Brownie’s help Sticks re-wrote the words and turned it into a rock & roll standard.
Originally released in 1947, it reached #2 in the Billboard R&B charts two years later.
S & B a bit polite, but not too each other .
From this album, in happier times
That’s a great recording for 1955 and it’s exactly in pitch in the key of E. Often those guys never bothered to tune to concert pitch, so you get records that are halfway between keys. But that one is spot on. I suppose because Brownie had to play along with Sonny’s harp the tuning had to be right.
Whole album is great – all 10 inches of it .sporting life, careless love, betty and dupree. There were some other tracks off that album on YouTube but poorer sound.
Don’t have 5 fave albums, but I’ll ramble on anyway.
Howlin’ Wolf is, by some distance, my best-loved blues artist. I have the Chess Box plus many others – London Seesions, Coon on the Moon (yes, really) plus a live recording of him solo with piano in Europe and assorted compilations. I find him enormously exciting and primeval, helped enormously by the great Sumlin. I’m not sure he’s ‘angry’, as claimed by another poster. He’s one tough mofo, but he can also be delightful. Check out the clip of him at Newport. He wows the crowd. Magnificent performer and kudos to The Stones for insisting on him appearing with them on a U.S. TV show.
The other thrilling performer that I love is John Lee Hooker. Again, I have masses of his early stuff on various compilations. Superbly confident frontman who always throws me with his various idiosyncrasies as regards the beat and his timing of the lyric. There’s a great BBC clip of him doing I’m Leaving with the early Groundhogs. He starts yelling like a dog half way through. Beyond exciting. I also love his Boogie Chillen No 2 with Canned Heat. Al Wilson is phenomenal on harmonica, propelling the song forward for over 11 minutes. ‘Who’s that cat on the harmonica; that’s a cat he is’
Captain Beefheart, who was enormously influenced by the Wolf, gives a magnificent vocal on Hard Working Man on the Blue Collar soundtrack, backed by Cooder, with Nitszche producing.
Yes that Blue Collar soundtrack -industrial blues !
The angry bit was largely my observation. I’ve watched a bit of footage on the Wolf, read a fair bit about him and he certainly seems angry to me. Not saying it is a bad thing, and certainly adds to his music.
Santana has a lot of anecdotes about JLH in his book.
Completely forgot to declare my love for Peter Green’s Feetwood Mac. Have everything they did plus many bootlegs. Love the extended workouts when he’s on fire.
Any boots better than the Boston shows ,since issued officially?
Let me check. I know I have a couple from pre-Kirwan days, but I think the sound was slightly ropey. I believe I’m indirectly responsible for a couple of later ones that I’d found getting a legitimate release.
Slightly Ropey
TMFTL