Blues — All Formats  

Includes tracks by Pearl Dickson, Mae Glover, Lucille Bogan, Lillian Miller, Memphis Minnie, Lottie Kimbrough, Lulu Jackson, Rosie Mae Moore, Elvie Thomas, and Geeshie Wiley.

Rare Mississippi blues from Ranie Burnette – recorded in the early 80s, but with a timeless style that takes us right back to the delta! The approach here is similar to some of the best Georgia rural blues of the time – very spare and stripped-down, with mostly just guitar and vocals from Ranie, often with some folksy undercurrents – and some occasional harmonica on two tracks from Abe Keg Young. There's no attempt to modernize the music at all, and the quality of Ranie's gritty guitar comes through beautifully in the space of the recording – on titles that include "Lonesome Moon Blues", "Gone Dead On You", "One String Baby", "Yonder Goes My Baby", "Shake Em On Down", and "Dough Roller Blues".

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 the accordion, which can come across like a harmonica at points! Titles include "Mama", "La La Waltz", "Sugar Cane Patch", "Country Boy", "SB 5", and "SAM".

Seminal work from the great Ivory Joe Hunter – an artist who went onto have a huge impact on the development of music well into the 70s, but who doesn't always get his due! Joe's got a really amazing way of weaving together different strands of music – jazz, blues, and R&B – plus a healthy dose of country – which he uses here years before bigger later names like Ray Charles, Brook Benton, and Joe Tex! Hunter's work is completely sublime, and given a great Atlantic punch throughout – a way of fusing these elements together without making anything sound forced at all – still plenty darn fresh all these many years later. Titles include "Since I Met You Baby", "I Want Somebody", "Heaven Came Down To Earth", "I Need You", "That's Why", "I've Got To Learn To Do The Mambo", "You Can't Stop This Rocking & Rolling", "It May Sound Silly", and "That's Why I Dream".

Blues, but with an undercurrent of New Orleans jazz – no surprise, given the Louisiana roots of Eurreal "Little Brother" Montgomery! The album's a classic set recorded in Chicago in the early 60s – featuring both Montgomery in a spare solo setting, and with help from a small backup group that includes Ted Butterman on cornet, Bob Gordon on clarinet, and Mike McKendrick on banjo. Little Brother plays piano on all numbers, and sings on most – and titles include "44 Vicksburg", "Prescriptions Of The Blues", "Sweet Daddy", "Home Again Blues", "Up The Country Blues", "Saturday Night Function", "Michigan Water Blues", and "Oh Daddy". CD features the bonus track "Cooter Crawl".

A legendary night at Chicago's Checkerboard Lounge – when The Stones, in town for some shows out in Rosemont, sat in with their hero Muddy Waters! First and foremost – we're in Muddy's wheelhouse here – it's his show, and he sounds great, even this late in the game! The Stones, who are hardly ever better from the early 80s onward than when they're in hard blues homage mode, provide stellar support, and they may very well instigate Muddy and his band to bring their best, which they handily do! Also in action are Muddy's own great band and other guests, including John Primer, Rick Kreher, Earnest Johnson, Ray Allison and Mojo Buford – plus Junior Wells, Buddy Guy (who does some singing on the set, along with Mick and Muddy), Lefty Dizz and Nick Charles. The whole thing sounds great, and this 2LP edition also includes a DVD of the live show – and titles include "Sweet Little Angel", instrumental takes on "Country Boy" and "Baby Please Don't Go", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Mannish Boy", "Got My Mojo Workin'", "One Eyed Woman", "Clouds In My Heart", "Champagne And Reefer" and more.

The first album by Mance Lipscomb and the first album issued by Arhoolie! This is beautiful, acoustic country blues in purely great form – holds up as well as anything made by his peers of the time. As the folk revival was taking flight in the late 50s and early 60s, true blue, downhome figures like Mance were getting love and respect all over the world, some recording for the first time ever. This is one of those cases and the world's better for it. Titles include "Ella Speed", "Freddie", "Sugar Babe It's All Over Now", "Baby Please Don't Go", "Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo", and "One Thin Dime".

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 – so it's a bit surprising that there hasn't been a proper live document before the top notch Live At Legends! Better late than never. It kicks off with a profane stage intro that lets you know that Buddy and his band aren't messing around or coasting on reputation, before they shake the roof with "Best Damn Fool", "Mannish Boy", "I Just Want To Make Love To You", "Damn Right I Got The Blues", "Skin Deep" and a couple killer medleys: "Boom Boom/Strange Brew" and "Voodoo Chile/Sunshine Of Your Love". The set also includes 3 bonus studio recordings: "Polka Dot Love", "Country Boy" and "Coming For You" – the latter featuring The Memphis Horns.

A range of styles from Taj Mahal – from slow rolling, reggae tinged bluesy soul, to much bigger arrangements working in elements of funk, country soul, and more smoothed out jams on a bed of brass and backing vocals – Taj is all over the place here, and it a lot of it works surprisingly well! The kitchen sink approach only goes so far, and a bunch of the tunes indeed find working with reggae rhythms, and an easygoing approach to the vocals that gets it over. Ultimately, it's a modestly charming set that might have had some grander ambition behind it, but we'll take it. Titles include "Satisfied N Tickled Too", "New E-Z Rider Blues", "Black Man, Brown Man", "Baby Love", "Ain't Nobody's Business", "Easy To Love", "We Tune" and 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 contains the Boston set and includes "Country Road", "Mess Around", "Good Time Boogie", and "Change Your Ways." Side two contains three longish tracks of "Dry Throat", "Exercise in C Major", and "Got to be this Way".

A really well-titled album, given that Joe Turner was a key force in the birth of rock and roll in the 50s – not to mention a strong link between jazz, soul, and R&B as well! At the time of these recordings, Turner was already a relatively old singer – at least compared to some of his Atlantic contemporaries – a vocalist with roots in Kansas City jazz of the 30s, but able to really reinvent himself with a raw, rocking sound that was completely out of sight – as hard-hitting on Atlantic as work by Wynonnie Harris over at King Records – and maybe even more important overall, given the number of folks who covered Joe's tunes. Every cut's a classic – and titles include "Flip Flop & Fly", "Honey Hush", "Crawdad Hole", "Chicken & The Hawk", "Oke-She-Moke-She-Pop", "Corrine Corrina", "Well All Right", "Boogie Woogie Country Girl", 'Shake Rattle & Roll", "Feeling Happy", and "Midnight Special".

Dark tales from the mid-century American scene – a host of rare blues, folk, and country numbers that went onto become inspiration for a host of rockers in later years! The package is put together with a Mojo stamp of approval – and features the original recordings of tunes that are key roots for Bob Dylan, Led Zepplin, Ry Cooder, Johnny Cash, and others – some classics, others a fair bit more obscure – and brought together here with thoughtful notes by Dave Henderson of Mojo. Titles include "Cast Iron Arm" by Peanuts Wilson, "Vigilante Man" by Woody Guthrie, "Dying Crapshooter's Blues"by Blind Willie McTell, "John Hardy Was A Deperate Little Man" by The Carter Family, "Stack O Lee" by Mississippi John Hurt, "Banks Of The Ohio" by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Pretty Polly" by Dock Boggs, "Jesse James" by Almeda Riddle, "Prison Cell Blues" by Leroy Carr, "The Gallis Pole" by Leadbelly, "Ornie Wise" by GB Grayson, and "Miss Otis Regrets" by Ethel Waters.