Blues — In Stock — LPs  

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Way more than you might expect from the legendary Big Maybelle – a smoking collection of soulful tunes that goes way beyond her early blues of the 50s, and shows the lady to be one heck of a funky singer – on a par with the best 60s work from Etta James at Chess! The cuts here are... read more

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One of the earliest albums on Arhoolie Records – an amazing document of steel guitar bluesman Black Ace! Ace plays just like he sits on the cover – really leaning into the instrument in ways that bring out all these cool, deep inflections – completely hypnotizing on their own,... read more

Brilliant later work by Bobby Blue Bland – done with backings that are much fuller than on his earlier albums – a mixture of strings and horns that really expand the sound! That doesn't keep things from being soulful, though – as Bobby's in incredible form vocally, really rising... read more

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Very raw, very rootsy stuff from Big Bill Broonzy, issued by Columbia (strangely enough) as part of their Adventures In Sound series. The packaging and the notes have the usual smug Columbia "serving up the best in roots culture for white liberals" tone – but the set's actually a... read more

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Rough and raw work from Big Bill Broonzy – well-done sides that feature Bill on vocals and acoustic guitar, recorded in Paris in the early 50s, and issued here in a US package on the Scepter label! There's a pretty earthy feel to most of the tracks – a real "crossroads" feel... read more

One of the youngest groups of the zydeco wave of the 70s – and one of the grooviest too! The group's got a solid swing and sense of soul that goes beyond most of their contemporaries – almost a deeper current of blues at most points, especially in the guitar – and even in some of... read more

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Titles include "Walkin Blues", "Get Out Of My Life Woman", "Mary Mary", "East West", "Two Trains Running", and "Work Song".... read more

A historic pairing of blues talents – one that only flourished for a few short years, but created some wonderful music together! Leroy Carr brings lots of jazz inflections to his work on piano, but the overall sound is definitely blues – thanks strongly to the guitar lines of Scrapper... read more

The cover's a striking one – and it definitely supports the music inside, given that most of these Bo Carter tunes are vintage blues tunes with a decidedly erotic bent! The metaphors are obvious, but they're put together beautifully – without any of the heavy-handed schlock that later... read more

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Funky Bo Diddley – one of Bo's key early 70s sessions for Chess Records – all of which have him stepping out in a much harder groove than years past! The sound here is relatively tight – with Diddley guitar and vocals on top of some larger arrangements from Bob Gallo –... read more

Heavy funk from the legendary Bo Diddley – one of his amazing comeback albums from the early 70s for Chess, all of which are plenty darn great! For this set, Bo's traded in the scratchy guitar mode of his classic work for a sweeter, tighter funk-based sound – a groove that's supported... read more

A wicked reinvention of the sound of Bo Diddley – a set that electrifies his groove even more than before – and takes him into the same mix of funk and blues that Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf were exploring at the time! This album's right up there with the two Cadet/Chess classics by... read more

Forget the silly cowboy costume on the front cover – because this is a heck of a great album! Bo might have gotten saddled (no pun intended!) with a silly gimmick for the title and image of the set – but the album's one of his best from the early Chess years, and features a rip-roaring... read more

Bo Diddley tearing it up in the mid 80s – with a fairly raucous, hard-charging presentation of his iconic sound, plus more electric bluesy numbers with sax and a more stretched out groove. Titles include "Intro/Bo Diddley", "Doctor Jekyll", "Everleen", "I... read more

You might need to be a Diddley diehard to know it, given the pretty hokey early 60s Beach Party cover photo – get past that and what you'll find is a rowdy, rumbling and completely incredible live album from Bo! It features material captured on a 2 night stand at The Beach Club in Myrtle... read more

Have guitar, will travel – and back in the day, Bo Diddley was going pretty darn far with great material like this! The album's a real standout, even in the classic Chess catalog of the early years –no filler, no covers, just all original material by Bo Diddley – done in that... read more

Nasty nasty funk from the great Bo Diddley – one of his rare funky 70s classics for Chess – produced by Johnny Otis with a really tripped-out groove! The album's got an edge that seems to go even farther than some of Bo's other Chess work at the time – and picks up the full-on... read more

A long-overdue recognition of the blues contributions of Willie Dixon – a set that pulls him out of the indie ghetto and pushes him firmly into the mainstream with this key release on Columbia Records! Yet despite that placement, the style is nicely down home – a strong recreation of... read more

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A great little record from Yazoo – almost worth the price alone for the great Robert Crumb cover art – but a real treasure considering the vintage recordings by Blind Boy Fuller underneath! The set brings together Fuller recordings from the years 1936 to 1939 – surprisingly well-r... read more

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A pretty great late live set from Buddy Guy – who's tearing it up at his namesake Legends club in Chicago! Buddy's been throwing it down for years at Legends during annual winter residencies – which can be among the tougher tickets to score in the winter live club scene around here... read more

The first full length collaboration between blues, soul and rock slide guitar eclecticist Ben Harper and harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite – and it's win for both – with a vibe that's rooted in many traditions, but feels right at home in both Harper's and Musselwhite's wheelhouses. ... read more

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Amazing sounds from the delta – but way different than the usual blues you might expect! Sid Hemphill is a really unique talent – a multi-instrumentalist who made most of the records heard on this set – and a strong proponent of the earlier Mississippi use of panpipes! The local... read more

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A killer late 60s Chicago blues set from Earl Hooker – one of his best! Earl is one of the great blues slide guitarists, and his tone is captured so incredibly well here – songs recorded at Chicago's Sound Studios with impeccable players. Earl sings on "Anna Lee" and "Yo... read more

John Lee Hooker takes a step or two into the bluesy soul sound of the early 60s on this sweet set on Vee Jay – while style flaunting his true blues pedigree really, really well! The grit of his voice is as heavily emotive and unshakable as ever – backed by a crack combo on drums,... read more

Plenty of Burnin from John Lee Hooker, and about as classic as you can get for his Vee Jay years – especially considering that the album starts out with Hooker's killer cut "Boom Boom" – a number that may well have set fire to a whole generation of British and American rockers!... read more

Great gritty sides from the mighty John Lee Hooker – material with a slightly obscure origin, but recorded in the late 50s, right in a stretch when he was cutting some of his classics! Hooker's guitar and vocals are center stage – both growling with a hell of a lot of soulful power... read more

Rough and raw blues from John Lee Hooker – recorded with plenty of emphasis on gritty guitar and vocals, backed by a nicely understated rhythm section! The overall feel is a bit rootsier than some of the other blues work coming out from Chicago labels at the time – and Hooker's right... read more

Quite an amazing little record – and one that definitely lives up to its title! The set's one of the most intimate ever recorded by Lightning Hopkins – done in a style that's equally folk as it is blues – with Hopkins playing guitar and singing, but in a very relaxed, laidback... read more

A really nice later set from legendary Texas blues titan Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins – done up for the Jewel label with a bit of the spark that was missing from the hit & miss work he did earlier in the decade for Bluesville! Blue Lightnin' also has a down and dirty style in spots,... read more

Lightnin Hopkins at his best – a set that rings out with all his bold electric tones on the guitar, yet which also has the moody, stripped-down feel of a blues recording from a few decades before! The electricity really does a lot to deepen the tone – both in the echo from Hopkins'... read more

One of our favorite of Lightnin's early 60s Bluesville records! Walking This Road By Myself is a nice little session with a rawer, back porch feel to it than some of his more polished up efforts for the label. Hopkins is on vocals and guitar, but he's not exactly walking all alone here –... read more

A great return to recording for Son House – a musician who'd stopped playing the guitar in the postwar years, but rose again to fame during the great folk blues revival of the 60s! The style here is every bit as classic as some of Son's earliest music – just recorded a lot better, too... read more

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Later Chess work by Howlin Wolf – but done in a rootsier electric mode that's similar to his earlier forays for the label! The set's from the years when Chess was backing off that great funk approach they brought to blues work at the end of the 60s – kind of a "back to basics"... read more

A killer album of funky blues – recorded by Howlin Wolf during the period when Chess/Cadet was backing its older artists up with some of the newer funk musicians it had working in its studios! The overall sound works quite well – and although purists at the time moaned at the way... read more

Funky blues work from Howlin Wolf – his key entry into the funked-up genre that Chess Records was cutting at the end of the 60s with other blues artists like Etta James, Bo Diddley, and Muddy Waters! As on records with those artists, Wolf's older modes are updated here for a hipper, younger... read more

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Vintage work from Mississippi John Hurt, but somehow amazingly clear and crisp in this classic LP presentation! The tunes are wonderfully earthy – just vocals and guitar from Hurt, in a style that's definitely blues, but which has some surprisingly jazzy inflections at times – at least... read more

Titles include "Laying Beside You", "Only Women Bleed", "Lovesick Blues", "Piece Of My Heart", "Strange Man", and "Blind Girl".... read more

Exactly the kind of a record to show why Skip James was really a cut above most of his contemporaries – a bluesman who works here with a sense of darkness and foreboding that really sets a chill to most of his tunes! There's less of the usual short-term sadness and smaller complaints of... read more

He may be blind, but he's plenty satisfied – and so are we, with this excellent package of rare 78rpm recordings from Willie Johnson! The sound quality is great – which is important, as Willie's got a style of guitar that's almost lighter in tone than some of his contemporaries –... read more

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A well-titled record, as Albert King here plays with the large sound and big tone that would make him one of the best up-and-coming bluesmen of the 60s – a key player in the already-electrified generation, and possibly the greatest example of the new confidence that was coming into the genre... read more

One of THE electric blues records of the 60s – a seminal set by Albert King that was probably blasted out of more college dorm rooms than southside juke joints, but which still more than deserves its due! The set was recorded by Stax with a nice raw sound – guitar very much upfront,... read more

BB King soars into the 70s with this smoking little set – a record that still holds onto all the raw energy of his best 60s recordings, but which also gives the whole thing an even more soulful focus too! There's no arranger credited for the core of the record – which is attributed to... read more

An excellent set by BB King – one of his best from the 60s, and a smoking live set recorded at Chicago's legendary Regal Theatre! The enthusiasm at the venue shows that BB's Memphis-honed style is a perfect fit for the electrified Chicago sound of the 60s – and the recording really... read more

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One of the most tightly-produced of BB King's albums for MCA, but a set that's still filled with undeniable charm – and which really shows King more than able to step up to some well-deserved superstardom! There's a bit of an LA finish to the backings, but things are never too smooth –... read more

Gritty blues from the great Lightnin Slim – a set of tracks that has a romping, almost rocking groove right from the start – the kind of back/forth energy we might expect to hear more from Jimmy Reed at the time! The overall proceedings are definitely in a more rootsy mode, though... read more

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A pretty nice little 2LP set – put together in the early 70s, and featuring material that Walter recorded for Chess during the 60s. As the title would imply, there's a lot of harmonica on the album – but Walter's vocals should also be given their due, as they're a bit more in the soul... read more

A classic bit of indie blues from the Chicago scene – featuring some great players from the second generation after Chess Records stopped picking up the younger local talents! Magic Sam leads the group on vocals and guitar, and he's working here with Mighty Joe Young on guitar, Odie Payne on... read more

A definite treasure from Taj Mahal – especially for fans of his excellent early work for Columbia Records! The first CD in the package features unreleased studio tracks recorded during the glory days for Columbia – not rough cuts or demos, but well-finished gems that offer up the same... read more

The classic second album by Taj Majal! Includes "Good Morning Miss Brown", "Done Changed My Way Of Living", "I Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Steal My Jellyroll", "The Cuckoo", "Ain't That A Lot Of Love" and more.... read more

A live record of a couple of shows from 1971 in Boston and New York. The lineup includes Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Clifford Solomon playing saxes, Ron Selico on percussion, Larry Taylor playing bass guitar, Freddy Robinson on guitar and Mayall plays harmonica, guitar and piano. The first side... read more

Bill Cosby introduces this hip little live set from the John Mayall group – which is fitting, as there's definitely a bit of an LA groove on the set! Mayall's still in very bluesy territory, but he also gets some great soul jazz support too – from players who include Charles Owens on... read more

A killer album from one of the most legendary versions of John Mayall's Blues Breakers – a quartet that features drummer Aynsley Dunbar, bassist John McVie, and lead guitarist Peter Green – who's also singing a fair bit on the album as well! The style here is tighter and more focused... read more

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Brilliant early recordings from Blind Willie McTell – easily one of the most distinctive bluesmen of his generation! McTell's guitar is subtle, but effective – often used in these strummed passages that seem to let his vocals do most of the work on the tunes – save for some key... read more

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Seminal work from the legendary Jimmy Reed – spare and bluesy numbers that were some of the best work coming out of Chicago at the time! There's a snapping quality to the rhythms here that was a keen inspiration to generations of better-known artists – and in a way, it's amazing to go... read more

Not just Jimmy Reed – as the album features work by Phil Upchurch on bass and Al Duncan on drums, plus some great uncredited organ too – but the album's still a great chance to hear the great one at all his stripped-down best! Jimmy really dominates on vocals and guitar, and some... read more

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A very obscure album on Philly International – and a rare Gamble-Huff blues session, cut by the legendary Bobby Rush. Chicago blues singer Bobby had been knocking around indie labels for the better part of the 70s, then strangely got the chance to work for Philly at the end of the decade... read more

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Almost more jazz than blues or folk – thanks to backing from Ruby Braff on trumpet, Sir Charles Thompson on piano, Freddie Green on guitar, and Jo Jones on drums!... read more

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Late 70s dancefloor soul from Soiree – a rare disco set featuring clubby revisions of huge hits of the day and earlier, with massive talent in the group! The sound is bright and grooving, and heck of a lot more endearing than so many of the disco era remake projects, and most impressively,... read more

Vintage blues from Memphis – a whole host of rare 78s from Frank Stokes, Furry Lewis, Will Weldon, Pearl Dickson, and others – presented here on a great album from Yazoo! The music has a surprisingly clear sound at times – clearly recorded with minimal studio effort, but still... read more

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Rootsy sounds from Henry Thomas – some great vintage recordings from the late 20s, with a feel that's quite different than more conventional blues from the time! Thomas definitely has a bluesy approach, but his use of the guitar is more strummy, almost folksy – as is his occasional... read more

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