Blues — Recently Added

Blues 45s – but material that's also pretty close to the funky 45 spirit of the 60s too – given that most of these cuts have a pretty raw groove! The blues element usually comes from a guitar or harmonica element, or a way of vocal phrasing – but much of the background ... LP, Vinyl record album

A great early album from Junior Wells – and one that really opens up that more soulful side of his talents that was becoming a Chicago hallmark at the time! The set was produced by Samuel Charters, but has none of the rootsy vibe of his earlier work on Folkways – and instead matches ... LP, Vinyl record album

A late 50s session, but an album that captures Lighnin Hopkins in a rootsy style that could well hearken back to the 78rpm blues records of the 30s – thanks to production by Samuel B Charters, who captured Hopkins alone making music in his apartment in Houston! The tracks have that ... 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

The title definitely gets it right – as this 70s collection brings together most of the best Chess Records material by Howlin Wolf from the late 50s and early 60s – almost all of them small combo sides that present the man in all of his raspy, growling glory! The tracks span a space ... LP, Vinyl record album

They're not lying with the title of this one – as the set's a killer collection of rural blues, with a legacy that goes way beyond the glory days of the genre in the 20s and 30s! The collection's a great one from Mississippi – exactly the kind of pre-LP material that the label's been ... LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent work from Jesse Mae Hemphill – a female blues talent who lay undiscovered for many years in Mississippi, then burst forth late in her life with a fantastic run of sounds like this! Most of the tunes are relatively spare – with Jessie Mae playing electric guitar in these ... LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing blues from the Georgia scene of the 70s – music that hardly feels like other versions of the genre coming out at the time – partly thanks to the raw recording quality of these tracks! Most of the music features just a singer and guitar – sometimes just one or the other ... LP, Vinyl record album

A really fantastic little package – one that presents a key look at the farther reaches of Mississippi in the 60s, 70s, and 80s – served up in rare photographs, essays, readings, films, and a great batch of music all collected by William Ferris! Starting in the mid 60s, Ferris sought ... CD

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

One of the rootsiest albums ever recorded by Taj Mahal – a set that begins with a song by Lightnin Hopkins, then seems to have Taj echoing a lot of the spareness of that work! The film's set in the 30s, and the music is very rootsy rural blues – with just Taj Mahal on vocals, steel-bodi ... CD

A great document of an amazing blues tradition – bottleneck guitar, offered up here in a host of original 78s from the 30s! The style is one that was co-opted often in later years, but is presented here at its roots – with a nice, gritty feel overall – and use of the mode that's ... LP, Vinyl record album

The funk-tinged, pyschedelic soul album from Muddy Waters – one that irritated many a blues purist in its day – but it's finally reaching its earned status as a leftfield gem! You know, in the immediate years after this one (and similar funky blues albums on Chess/Cadet) was released, ... LP, Vinyl record album

They got the title right on this one – and the album's a smoking batch of tunes that captures Freddie in all his guitar-driven glory! The set features Freddie working with a tight Atlantic studio group that includes King Curtis, David Newman, James Booker, and Billy Butler – but the ... LP, Vinyl record album

A great return to recording for Son House – a musician who'd stopped playing the guitar in the postwar years, but rose again to fame during the great folk blues revival of the 60s! The style here is every bit as classic as some of Son's earliest music – just recorded a lot better, too ... 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 ... LP, Vinyl record album

A classic bit of indie blues from the Chicago scene – featuring some great players from the second generation after Chess Records stopped picking up the younger local talents! Magic Sam leads the group on vocals and guitar, and he's working here with Mighty Joe Young on guitar, Odie Payne on ... LP, Vinyl record album

Rare recordings of delta blues legend Mississippi John Hurt – captured solo and beautifully well on 3 dates in late 1964, recorded by Gene Rosenthal – with Hurt's distinctive way of a somehow gentle melodic acoustic blues guitar sound, coming from hard-strummed and plucked strings as ... LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic recordings of the legendary Furry Lewis – a musician who may be pictured in a bathrobe on the front cover, but who comes across with all the sharp edges and bold tones of his classic work! The material is part of that legendary George Mitchell series of blues recordings, and may ... LP, Vinyl record album

A 65th Anniversary tribute to the legendary Delmark Records – featuring a set of all-new recordings that give a big nod to label founder Bob Koester, and some of the greats who recorded for Delmark in the 60s and 70s! The label was very close to the ground on the Chicago blues scene – ... LP, Vinyl record album