Blues — Recently Added

A huge collection of rare blues material from west coast powerhouse label Kent/Modern Records – a really important indie during the postwar R&B scene in LA, still going strong here well into the 60s! Modern was a real pioneer in recording electrified blues during the 50s – maybe ... CD

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

One of the grooviest records ever cut by the legendary Joe Turner – a set that takes him far from his Kansas City roots, and his 50s R&B for Atlantic Records – into a mode that's maybe even more soul-based overall! The great Gene Page handles the backings here – with a ... CD

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 ... LP, Vinyl record album

Tremendous work from Clarence Gatemouth Brown – a postwar guitarist who was big on the Texas scene, but who had the modern flair and jazzy swinging groove of some of his contemporaries who'd left for the west coast! All the work here is from the early years of the Peacock Records label, and ... 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 ... LP, Vinyl record album

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 ... LP, Vinyl record album

A massive 3CD look at the key early years of Elmore James – a package that's overflowing with great work by one of the greatest blues guitarists of the 50s! The set starts way back at James' roots in Mississippi, with some sweetly rough-edged recordings that still sparkle with incredible ... CD

A blues album, but one with a difference – thanks to some tremendous help from the legendary Johnny Otis and his young son Shuggie! Despite the fact that the leader is billed as Guitar Slim Green, Shuggie actually plays some lead guitar on the record too – adding in some cool, ... CD

A wonderful album that's easily one of John Lee Hooker's finest moments of the 70s – a set recorded live before a small audience at Hunter College in New York, but done with a feel that makes the whole thing even more timeless than most of Hooker's other albums of the decade! The mix has the ... LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most legendary bluesmen of the early 78rpm generation – heard here in a wonderfully-recorded set from 1964! The session came at a time when Skip James was hardly getting any mainstream attention, but had been rediscovered by a younger generation – which led to the fledgling ... LP, Vinyl record album

Rare work from the legendary Honeyboy Edwards – a blues guitarist who was a key force in helping the music make the transition to an electric mode in the 40s – but an artist whose talents were eclipsed by so many others he worked with at the time! This set's got a real back-to-basics ... LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe one of the most unique artists to be recorded in George Mitchell's field sessions of southern blues – as Dewey Corley plays a one-string bass, sings, and sometimes throws in a kazoo solo too! Here, he's accompanied by Walter Miller on guitar – whose work helps ground Dewey's ... LP, Vinyl record album

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

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 pair of amazing all-star albums from Chess Records – back to back on a single CD! First up is Two Great Guitars – in which Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry come together in a really unique album for Chess Records in the 60s – and that's saying a lot, given all the groundbreaking ... CD

Funky blues and plenty of soul – a massive 4CD set that not only features the complete 60s recordings done by Lowell Fulson for the Kent label, but which also includes a fair bit of rarities and unreleased material! If you're a fan of funky soul, you've probably heard Lowell's classic "T ... 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

A lean little set from Jimmy Johnson – recorded in France in the early 80s, but with the feel of an indie set on a small Chicago label from the decade before! Jimmy sings and plays guitar, and has a mighty sly way of working the two together – with a quality that kind of beats some of ... CD