Blues — Recently Added

Well-recorded material from Louisiana Red – a blues musician who really hit his stride in the 70s, but with a style that feels a lot more vintage overall! Red works here with just vocals and guitar – and a bit of harmonica – in a mode that's like the 60s albums on Arhoolie, but ... CD

He may be blind, but he's plenty satisfied – and so are we, with this excellent package of rare 78rpm recordings from Willie Johnson! The sound quality is great – which is important, as Willie's got a style of guitar that's almost lighter in tone than some of his contemporaries – ... LP, Vinyl record album

Vintage work from Mississippi John Hurt, but somehow amazingly clear and crisp in this classic LP presentation! The tunes are wonderfully earthy – just vocals and guitar from Hurt, in a style that's definitely blues, but which has some surprisingly jazzy inflections at times – at least ... 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

A fantastic rediscovery of the great Bukka White – material recorded in 1963 by a young John Fahey and Ed Denson, who'd do a lot to revive White's career with their later release of his work on Takoma Records! These tracks are all live, recorded in Berkley in a nicely loose setting – ... LP, Vinyl record album

Astoundingly strong early recordings by Mississippi blues hero RL Burnside – with violence-tinged songs performed with a clearer, though no less tough voice than we heard on the songs that made him a bit more famous in 1990s! Includes RL's takes on traditionals played on acoustic guitar and ... LP, Vinyl record album

A really great moment in the spotlight for the legendary Chicago bluesman Otis Spann – an artist who often appeared on records by bigger talents of his generation, but didn't always get to shine this brightly on his own! The album's a very reverent session that has Spann's piano and vocals ... LP, Vinyl record album

The legendary Jimmy Rogers works here with a whole host of famous guest stars – or "all-stars", as they're listed on the label – a lineup that includes Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Taj Mahal, Stephen Stills, Jeff Healey, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and Lowell ... LP, Vinyl record album

Classic raspy vocals from the legendary Howlin Wolf – singing here in a way that definitely lives up to his nickname! The sound here is spare and stripped down, with very little accompaniment – usually just a bit of guitar, piano, bass, and drums – and sometimes not even all that ... LP, Vinyl record album

A funky bit of blues from Otis Rush – the guitarist's debut album, and a surprisingly great batch of tracks recorded at Fame Studios! Production is by Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites, who are clearly going for more of a crossover sound than Rick Hall might have given the set – but ... LP, Vinyl record album

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

A group that definitely lives up to its name – given that the lineup features the Chess Records stalwarts Bo Diddley, Howlin Wolf, and Muddy Waters! The set's maybe a bit more in the mode of Wolf or Waters than some of Bo's own records – although there's a bit of that riffing spark of ... LP, Vinyl record album

Skip the "rock" in the title, because this set is pure blues all the way through – filled with rare treasures from those years when the electric guitar first started dominating the music – with a heady sound that rang from the Chicago scene down to Texas – and all the ... CD

Really raw work by Reverend Charlie Jackson – gospel in subject, but delivered in a style that's much more blues overall – thanks to a stripped-down presentation, and lots of electric guitar from the man himself! The Rev comes across here like some cat recorded out at a juke joint in ... CD

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

Almost a decade's worth of great work from Howlin Wolf – late 50s and early 60s recordings done for Chess Records in Chicago, nicely packaged up here in an archival series album with full notes on the sessions and music! Nearly all tracks are originals by Wolf – aka Chester Burnett ... CD

Muddy Waters definitely put the "unk" in funk – although back in his day, the word meant something different than in the 70s! This set features some great late Muddy for Chess – produced in conjunction with Ralph Bass, Muddy's longtime associate in the studio, and done with a ... CD

Late work from RL Burnside – done in that raw, raspy style that really helped set fire to the second half of his career! The production and instrumentation show a bit of the attention that Burnside was getting from the indie rock world – but at the core of the record, the vocals and ... LP, Vinyl record album

Hardly the surf album you might expect from the title – although the set is a killer batch of guitar instrumentals – with more than enough power to blow any west coast groups right off the beach! At this early point in his career, Freddie King is way more than just a blues guitarist, ... LP, Vinyl record album

A well-titled record, as Albert King here plays with the large sound and big tone that would make him one of the best up-and-coming bluesmen of the 60s – a key player in the already-electrified generation, and possibly the greatest example of the new confidence that was coming into the genre ... LP, Vinyl record album