Blues — Recently Added

Key work from Blind Willie Johnson – a singer who only recorded for a few short years, but who left behind a tremendous legacy of music! Willie's got this unusual froggy style of singing that's unlike anyone else we've heard – except for maybe Clarence Henry – and it mixes ... LP, Vinyl record album

At the time of this set, Magic Slim called Chicago his home – but the title may well be apt, as the set was recorded overseas in the Barclay Studios in Paris, at a time when Slim was hitting the highway to reach a wide global audience with his music! Despite that displacement, though, there's ... CD

Jessie Mae Hemphill might look like an 80s blues artist on the cover, but the record's got a much more vintage vibe – as the set features field recordings done on New Years Eve in 1989, with Jessie Mae singing in a style that seems geared to ring in the year with the ghosts of the past! The ... LP, Vinyl record album

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, ... LP, Vinyl record album

Not really famous, but gritty & grooving bluesy gospel soul from Famous L Renfroe – and artist who might even be more mysterious to us after hearing the record! The Flying Sweet Angel Of Joy is kind of a dreamlike mix of impassioned vocals, electric guitar and bass, with some drums. ... LP, Vinyl record album

The first ever recordings of Mississippi Fred McDowell – the legendary Alan Lomax Recordings – recorded in Como, Mississippi in September of 1959! It includes songs that would be part of his canon for the rest of his career, mostly just his voice and guitar in raw, beautiful, soul-shaki ... LP, Vinyl record album

Muddy Waters' band meets the vocals and guitar of Luther Snake Johnson – in a sweet little set that's almost a double-header, given the talent on deck! The material's got a gritty feel that's right up there with Muddy's best for Chess – and the group features Mojo Buford on harmonica, ... LP, Vinyl record album

Two guys, one gal, and a heck of a lot of great R&B material from the King Records catalog! The set features Lula Reed on vocals on all tracks – belting things out in that massively soulful style that makes her own work so wonderful – accompanied by mighty guitar from Freddy King, ... LP, Vinyl record album

Rare King Records material from these two postwar blues greats – each of whom get a single side of the record! Sticks McGhee really shines on side one – with that playful, jazzy approach to blues that he used on his late 40s recordings for Atlantic – almost somewhere in the ... LP, Vinyl record album

A late 60s album on Chess Records – but one that serves to bring together all the best early work that Muddy Waters did for the label – including lots of original 45s and 78s! The range of music is really wonderful – the kind of tracks that first got Waters noticed in the first ... CD

Killer early material from Freddy King – a blues album, but one that's also got a strong resonance with instrumental soul and early funk! The record is "Strictly Instrumental" – as the cover says – and a nice batch of short bluesy groovers that feature Freddy's great ... CD

A gem of a record from the legendary Lightnin Hopkins – a set that adds in just a bit of extra instrumentation, including drums from Spider Kilpatrick on a few cuts, and additional bass and drums on a few more – all with a vibe that adds a slight extra kick to the Hopkins groove, but ... LP, Vinyl record album

A really fantastic record from Chicago legend Mighty Joe Young – and one that really breaks the mold of the usual blues records of the time, as the tracks are all quite long, and really spin out with these long solos that beautifully demonstrates Joe's strength on guitar! We've heard Joe ... CD

An obscure 70s album from the legendary Roosevelt Sykes – but a set that captures the singer and pianist at the height of his powers! The format here is very stripped-down – often just a focus on Sykes himself, with the occasional addition of a bit of guitar from Louisiana Red or ... CD

The title gets it right – and the grooves do too – nothing but funky blues from the 60s and 70s, the kind of gritty, hard-edged tunes that are way better than the sort of blues you might be used to hearing at frat boy bars! All of the work here was originally issued on west coast indie ... CD

A late 50s collection of earlier 78rpm singles issued by Aladdin Records – material that's far rawer than the "strums" in the title might imply! At a time when other blues musicians were fleshing things out a bit – sometimes adding in larger backings, horns, and a bit of ... LP, Vinyl record album

A very cool volume of this excellent series of Louisiana sounds – one that mixes rare and unreleased tracks from the late 50s from equally great 70s sounds – all with a unified bluesy groove that really makes the whole thing come together nicely! The 70s tracks have a style that's much ... CD

A really amazing package – not just for fans of John Lee Hooker, but for anyone who loves postwar blues in general! The work here is all from the tiny Sensation Records label in Detroit – the label to first record John Lee Hooker in the late 40s, and who continued to do sessions with ... CD

Sure, you've got other Lightnin Hopkins CDs back home in your collection – but this set is will pretty darn essential – as it features a whopping 57 songs in all, including 37 unreleased tracks, and other material that's hard to find on CD! CD1 features some of Hopkins' best work of ... CD

Really great later recordings from Mississippi John Hurt – recorded in Washington DC, hence the title – and done in this stripped-down mode that really captures Hurt at his best! The tracks were all recorded for the Library Of Congress, mostly on the stage of the Coolidge Auditorium, ... CD

A great date from this legendary Chicago musician – an artist who recorded in the early days for Chess Records, then seemed to find his most welcome recording home overseas on albums like this! The material is from a 1973 session in France, but has all the grit and growl of a Chicago ... CD

One of the first recordings to ever feature Lefty Dizz in the lead – done at a time when the singer/guitarist was a young star on the Chicago scene, but getting some key exposure here, thanks to an overseas recordings! Lefty's as great as you might guess from his name – a strong ... CD

A set that was actually recorded in France, many years before the start of the Chicago Blues Festival – but with a great Windy City group that includes Eddie Taylor and Louis Myers on guitars, David Myers on bass, and Fred Bellow on drums – all of whom ensure that there's a great ... CD

A killer set – one that not only features vocals from Jimmy Dawkins on one half, and vocals from Big Voice Odom on the other – but which also includes some great guitar from the mighty Otis Rush! Rush is fantastic, twisting around Jimmy's own guitar, which is pretty darn great too ... CD

Great work from this Chicago group – material recorded in France, but which wails with the best sound of the small blues clubs on the south side at the time! The core group features Louis Myers on guitar and harmonica, Dave Myers on bass, and Fred Below on drums – joined by Eddie ... CD

A fantastic document of the first-ever Ann Arbor Blues Festival – the start of a great event that would blossom into other styles of music in the 70s, but which stood as a strong blues-based event in its initial year of 1969! In some ways, the three day series of concerts is a roots answer ... LP, Vinyl record album

Delta blues, recorded right near their source – an early Mississippi recording by Arhoolie Records – one that captures Mississippi Fred McDowell at his best! Fred's mostly on acoustic guitar, alongside his tremendous vocals – really stretched-out, well-inflected lyrics that could ... LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic document of the first-ever Ann Arbor Blues Festival – the start of a great event that would blossom into other styles of music in the 70s, but which stood as a strong blues-based event in its initial year of 1969! In some ways, the three day series of concerts is a roots answer ... CD

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 ... LP, Vinyl record album

A fantastic pairing of soulful talents – the legendary John Lee Hooker on the mighty Stax Records – in a set that's a real standout in the career of both! The vibe here is different than the usual sound of Stax – not a Memphis-ized John Lee Hooker, but instead the kind of ... LP, Vinyl record album