We love our Buddy Guy here in Chicago – and this set cut for Vanguard, one of his first full solo albums with his own band will always be a favorite! Buddy's late 60s sound was as charismatic as he'd always be, but there's an understated approach to his lead that's really wonderful, and hits us much deeper than the showy, guitar solo heavy stuff that the blues club tourists want to hear! He's got the great Otis Spann playing piano, Wayne Bennett on rhythm, Jack Myers on bass, Lonny Taylor and Fred Below on drums, and Donald Hankins, Aaron Corthen and Bobby Fields on saxes. Titles include "A Man And His Blues", "I Can't Quit The Blues", "One Room Country Shack", "Just Playing My Axe", "Worry, Worry", "Jam On A Monday Morning" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Not the Bay Area effort you might guess from the title – and instead a sweet Chicago session that's easily one of the funkiest records that Buddy Guy ever cut! There's a great mix of funk and soul mixed in with the blues – thanks to arrangements from Charles Stepney and Gene Barge, who groove Buddy up in the same new funky mode that Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters got from Chess Records at the same time. A few cuts are more stripped-down and classic – but most have this great tight groove, with instrumentation by Stepney on some surprisingly funky drums, plus Matt Murphy on guitar, Phil Upchurch on bass, and Gene Barge on tenor sax. Titles include "Goin Home", "Buddy's Groove", "She Suits Me To A Tee", "Every Girl I See", "Too Many Ways", "Crazy Love", "Keep It To Myself", and "When My Left Eye Jumps". LP, Vinyl record album

We're not normally ones to rave about electric blues albums, but this one's a lot nicer than you might think – recorded with plenty of deep soul touches, and even a dose of funk in the right places! We hate to admit it, but a big part of the credit here goes to Eric Clapton – who produced most of the record and gives Buddy and Junior a tightness that's missing from some of their other records of the time. There's almost a post-Cream sort of groove to the record – that "hipper than rock" sensibility that colored many of Clapton's old group members' projects for Atlantic in the years after Cream disbanded. But of course, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells are the real stars of the set – and the record's good enough to make even jaded Chicago residents like us appreciate their talents here! Titles include "A Poor Man's Plea", "My Baby She Left Me", "A Man Of Many Words", "I Don't Know", and "This Old Fool". LP, Vinyl record album

A smoking live performance from these two Chicago blues legends – recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, but with a gritty electric vibe that's very much like the duo's best work back home! The approach is very stripped-down and unadorned – just vocals by both Guy and Wells – with Buddy on guitar and Junior on harmonica – plus additional piano from Pinetop Perkins, and even the mighty Bill Wyman on bass. Wyman produced the set – very faithfully too – and titles include "How Can One Woman Be So Mean", "Hoodoo Man Blues", "My Younger Days", "Messin With The Kid", and "Ten Years Ago". LP, Vinyl record album

Not the folk festival you might expect – especially given that the blues here are electric – and a set that was recorded at a small Chicago club, not some stuffy outdoor concert on the east coast! The album's an early powerhouse meeting of the best Chess blues talents at the time – a date that features Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Howlin Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Willie Dixon in varying settings – mostly getting center spotlight as a solo act with the same backing combo, but also coming together as well at one point too. The whole thing's great – a gritty live record of electric Chicago blues in the 60s – with a strong sense of liveness that really recreates the small club feel! Titles include "Wee Wee Baby", "Sitting & Thinking", "Worried Blues", "Sugar Mama", "Bring It On Home", "Got My Mojo Working", "May I Have A Talk With You", and "19 Years Old". LP, Vinyl record album

The incredible mid 60s album from blues singer and harp blower Junior Wells and his Chicago Blues Band with Buddy Guy! This is a most pivotal set in which Junior & his players don't sound as if they're trying to imbue blues tradition with urban grit and electricity – it simply seems to happen naturally, and you can really imagine when you hear this how it blue the minds of so many Brit and American rock & blues fellows who would come the recast the style with their own life and experiences, and pretty much take over popular music with it. Titles include "Snatch It Back & Hold It", "In The Wee Wee Hours", "Hey Lawdy Mama", "Hoodoo Man Blues", "Yonder Wall", and "Chitlin Con Carne". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

Buddy Guy reached much bigger fame on later labels, but he sounds pretty darn great here in a set of early recordings done for Chess – all sides recorded in the first half of the 60s, when Buddy represented one of the best talents in a new generation of bluesmen rising up in Chicago! The style here is tighter and a bit more urban than some of the Chess work of the 50s – less rootsy overall, with saxophone often sliding next to the guitar – in a wickedly soulful mode that's got elements of R&B in the mix. Titles include "My Time After A While", "Ten Years Ago", "Watch Yourself", "Stone Crazy", "I Found A True Love", "First Time I Met The Blues", and "No Lie". LP, Vinyl record album

Rare small group sides from the Harlem scene of the pre-War years, with early appearances by Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke! LP, Vinyl record album

As the title indicates, the session features Buddy DeFranco and Oscar Peterson – but the real guy we wanna thank here is arranger Russ Garcia! Unlike some of the other Verve "soloist with the Peterson Trio" albums of the 50s, this one is more of a shared effort that has Buddy and Oscar both acting as soloists over larger backings directed by Garcia. Russ takes a lot of cues from Ralph Burns on the session – and like Burns on earlier Verve recordings, he sets things up so that the orchestrations never overwhelm the players – and instead simply augment their moods and shade in the colors of the tunes. We especially like Peterson in this format – as he was so often recorded heavily in trio format – but DeFranco is great too, snaking out over the top of the strings with a lean and angular tone on clarinet. Titles include "They Can't Take That Away From Me", "I Got Rhythm", and "It Ain't Necessarily So". LP, Vinyl record album

A seminal album by Muddy – recorded in a style that's rootsier, and more down to earth than a lot of his other chess sides! Muddy's playing acoustic guitar, and the rest of the group features Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon, and Clifton James. The sound is really spare, and very moody – and tracks include "You Gonna Need My Help", "Cold Weather Blues", "Feel Like Going Home", and "My Home Is In The Delta". LP, Vinyl record album

An incredible slice of Chicago blues – and maybe one of the most important contributions Delmark ever made to the Windy City scene! The album captures Junior Wells in all his rough and raw brilliance – working in territory that's quite similar to the Chess Records vibe of the early 60s – in a group that has Buddy Guy on guitar, Otis Spann on piano, and Louis Myers on a bit of extra guitar! Guy sings a bit, but Junior does most of the vocals – and also plays harmonica too – on titles that include "Blues For Mayor Daley", "Stop Breaking Down", "You Say You Love Me", "Trouble Don't Last Always", and "Baby Please Lend Me Your Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Lots of rare work – by Albert King, Buddy Guy, Earl Hooker, Otis Rush, Robert Nighthawk, and BB King! LP, Vinyl record album

Features swinging arrangements from Buddy Bregman – and titles that include "All Through The Night", "A Wonderful Guy", "Something Wonderful", "Hello Young Lovers", "Give A Little Get A Little", and "If This Isn't Love". LP, Vinyl record album