Big Maybelle's got a new bag – and we like it! This tasty set was cut for the tiny Rojac label in between Maybelle's earlier years at Savoy and later albums on Brunswick – and it's got a swinging, 60s mod sort of style that's pretty darn groovy, baby! The arrangements are by Bob Gallo, and most of the tracks are 60s pop and soul standards – but Maybelle sings them with a gusty, sincere style – and brings a really great approach to the album – almost giving it the feel of some of the best Tangerine label albums from the decade. Titles include "Eggplant That Ate Chicago", "I Can't Control Myself", "Coming On Strong", "Mellow Yellow", "96 Tears", "Eleanor Rigby", and "Black Is Black". Kind of nutty, but it kind of works! (Soul, Blues) LP, Vinyl record album

Big Maybelle's got a new bag – and we like it! This tasty set was cut for the tiny Rojac label in between Maybelle's earlier years at Savoy and later albums on Brunswick – and it's got a swinging, 60s mod sort of style that's pretty darn groovy, baby! The arrangements are by Bob Gallo, and most of the tracks are 60s pop and soul standards – but Maybelle sings them with a gusty, sincere style – and brings a really great approach to the album – almost giving it the feel of some of the best Tangerine label albums from the decade. Titles include "Eggplant That Ate Chicago", "I Can't Control Myself", "Coming On Strong", "Mellow Yellow", "96 Tears", "Eleanor Rigby", and "Black Is Black". Kind of nutty, but it kind of works! (Soul, Blues) CD

(Funky 45's, Blues) 7-inch, Vinyl record

A nice little collection of Bo Diddley's earlier work for Chess – put together in the early 70s, when Bo was in his Black Gladiator phase, as pictured on the cover – but featuring the rawer, rougher grooves of his initial recordings in the late 50s and early 60s! The Bo Diddley groove hardly needs an introduction from us – and the 24 tracks on the set are a perfect illustration of his blinding mix of fast rhythms, choppy guitar, and comical vocals – a sound that made Bo's work some of the most striking R&B of the time! Titles include "I'm Man", "Pretty Thing", "Before You Accuse Me", "Who Do You Love", "Hey Bo Diddley", "Say Man", "I'm Looking For A Woman", "Road Runner", "Cops & Robbers", "Story Of Bo Diddley", and "Hush Your Mouth". LP, Vinyl record album

A decade's worth of amazing music from the legendary Bobby Blue Bland – a singer who already hit his peak on these sublime early sides for Duke Records! There's never been anyone like Bobby Blue Bland – especially at this point in his career – never a straight jazz singer, and instead a vocalist who could dig deep into his roots, but find a way to forge them to a hipper, jazzier current – one that carried Bland strongly from the 50s R&B generation well into the world of 60s soul – and which still continues to make him one of the true standout artists of his generation – and one of the few that nobody else can ever even think of copying! This package is one of the best we've ever seen to focus on Bland's work of the period – with 26 tracks, and a great set of notes that really illuminate the material – a classic set of titles that include "I Pity the Fool", "Cry Cry Cry", "Back in the Same Old Bag Again", "Sometimes You Gotta Cry a Little", "These Hands", "Ain't No Telling", "Chains Of Love", "Back In The Same Old Bag Again", "That Did It", "Shoes", "Don't Cry No More", "Ain't Nothing You Can Do", "Two Steps From The Blues", "Share Your Love With Me", and "Turn On Your Love Light". CD

More excellent early Bobby Blue Bland material, with stellar arrangements by Joe Scott that mix soul, blues, and a slight bit of jazz to create the unique style that made Bobby's work unlike that of anyone else. The LP includes such classics as "The Playgirl", "I Can't Stop", "Back In The Same Old Bag", and "Too Late For Tears" – but the whole thing's pretty darn great! LP, Vinyl record album

Tasty bluesy organ material from Prestige, featuring 2 hard-to-find records, back-to-back in a single set! Billy Hawks sings and plays organ with a groove that's in between jazz, blues, and deep soul. On New Genius Of The Blues he's fronting a trio that includes a young Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones on guitar, and the group plays a few instrumentals with some excellent organ/guitar interchange. Some of the material here is a bit bluesy, but there's also still a relatively strong soul jazz component as well – one that comes through in the overall structure of the tunes, and in the lean style in which they were recorded. Titles include "Hawks Blues", "Let Me Love You Before You Go", "Got My Mojo Working", "Mean Woman Blues" and more. More Heavy Soul is the rarest of his albums for Prestige – and on this one he plays organ in a style that's more in keeping with some of the funky jazz artists on the label – especially on the instrumental tracks, which give a lot more room to the instrumental solos. There's a great instrumental groover called "That's Your Bag" that's right up with the best of the Prestige funky jazz tracks from the 60s, and even the vocal cuts are really nice, as Billy has a good soulful singing style. He's backed here by Buddy Terry and Maynard Parker, and other tracks include "Heavy Soul", "Whip It On Me", and "I'll Be Back". 19 tracks in all! (Jazz, Blues) CD

An incredible album that has Cleanhead moving way past his usual bag! Sure, he's normally known as an R&B vocalist and alto player, but here, in one of those great Riverside "Cannonball Adderley Presents" sessions, Vinson gets into a whole new bag on some cuts. He's playing with Cannonball's group of Nat, Joe Zawinul, Sam Jones, and Louis Hayes – and there's one track in particular that's amazing – "Arriving Soon", an instrumental that has Vinson soaring on alto, wailing with an almost Coltrane-esque level of freedom. It's a killer modal track, and is worth the price of the album alone. There's another instrumental called "Vinsonology", plus vocal numbers like "Hold It", "This Time", and "Kidney Stew" – all with a nice groovy Adderley quintet kind of groove. CD also includes 4 bonus tracks! CD

Features guitar work from Wayne Bennett and Renard Poche – on titles that include "Lovers Will", "Missing You", "Fortune Teller", "Snap Your Fingers", "Garbage Man", and "Give A Broken Heart A Break". (Soul, Blues) LP, Vinyl record album

Early King Records material by Champion Jack Dupree – a hell of a pianist, and a heck of a great singer too – working almost as a raconteur on some of the best songs on this collection! The music has deep roots in New Orleans, where Jack must have really honed his piano skills – but there's also a more northern, more urban presentation of the music on these cuts – a strong current of wit that comes in the way that Jack puts over a tune, and a great mix of jazzy phrasing in both his piano and the electric guitar that sometimes provides strong accompaniment. Jack's vocals are almost more commentary than traditional lyrics – often with an undercurrent of raunch – and titles include "That's My Pa", "Failing Health Blues", "Big Leg Emma's", "Two Below Zero", "Camille", "Me & My Mule", "She Cooks Me Cabbage", and "Silent Partner". CD

A fitting title to this one – as it virtually describes the standard that the blues business was operating on during the early 70s – as artists came out of the shadows and found big audiences on college campuses, rock clubs, and other crossover scenes! The concept is carried to the Nth degree on the cover – which has a front image of a young Asian boy eating a big watermelon, Sambo-style – and the back cover features notes that say things like "Chinese kids like watermelon, Irish like bagels, black people like Jewish rye, and today everybody loves the Blues." Fortunately, this comic packaging doesn't affect the album too much – as Junior's still in the fine form he was at the end of the 60s, cruising between blues and soul, with a slight touch of jazz, in a unique way that sounds better to our ears than the work of most of his contemporaries. Titles include "Five Long Years", "That's Alright", "Way Back Home", "Man Or Mouse", and "I Like Your Style". CD

Muddy Waters can't get no grinding – but that's hardly a problem, given the strength of this sweet early 70s set! The album marks Muddy's return to more basic Chicago blues after his funky electric period on Chess – but the set's still got some of the trippier touches of a few years before – laid out in a much more spare, basic way! The guitar has a weird quality at times – possibly from the way the electric piano comes across at points – almost a bit like Sun Ra's rocksichord, with all the freaky fuzz that might imply! The harmonica almost feels electric too – and all three instruments come together with a nicely offbeat quality that's really head and shoulders above the usual from the Chicago scene. Titles include "Funky Butt", "After Hours", "Garbage Man", "Love Weapon", "Muddy Waters' Shuffle", and "Mother's Bad Luck Child". CD

A great little set that really lives up to the promise of its title – and it's claim to offer up "commercial recordings of Anglo-European American vernacular music that challenges the stereotypes"! The set's a wealth of obscure 78rpm recordings that really defy genre convention – and which show that the 20s was easily one of the most experimental times in American music – a point when later common styles were really quite new, and still very fluid – bits of later blues, folk, or country intermingling equally – often from sources that you wouldn't expect a decade or two later. These tracks are all acoustic, but feature really inventive instrumentation – especially when modes of a generation or two before are pushed into new phrasings with decidedly (then) modern flavors. As usual with these Tompkins Square reissues, the sound quality is great – and the package offers up some good notes to help situate the music too. Titles include "Caliope" by Lewis Brothers, "Bacon & Cabbage" by Blind Joe Mangrum & Fred Shriver, "Don't Get One Woman On Your Mind" by Willard Hodgin, "The Whale Did I Know He Did" by Mustard & Gravy, "Ladies Quadrille" by The Happy Hayseeds, "Dill Pickles Rag" by McLaughlin's Old Time Melody Makers, and "Down In Tennessee Blues" by Homer Davenport. (Folk/Country, Blues) CD