2120 Blues Corner

Yeah, I agree that the blues seems to be a little under-covered here.
I don't know a great deal about the genre, but I did enjoy the Martin Scorse presents series that was fairly recently on the telly & dvd.
Can I also add Keb 'Mo's Just like you, & some of Stevie Ray Vaughan's stuff like Stormy Weather & Texas Flood, or is that not pure enough blues?
matt.

May I also add two of my firm fav's...

Blind Wille McTell-Statesboro Blues

and

John Lee Hooker-Blues Is My Middle Name

You can't miss out:

Robert Johnson King of the Delta Blues Singers Volumes 1 and 2
Howlin' Wolf The Wolf is at Your Door
and Moanin' at Midnight
Big Bill Broonzy London Sessions
Buddy Guy I Was Walking Through the Woods
Elmore James The Sky Is Crying: The History Of Elmore James

Mark

A non-purist's list, stretching the genre somewhat but they all do it for me.

BB King - of his more recent recordings I would pick out Blues Summit and Blues on the Bayou. Also BB at 80 has a fab version of Thrill with EC.

Robert Cray - Bad Influence, especially the opener Phone Booth.

The Blues Band - the best british blues band bar none. Homage and Brassed Up are particular favourites.

Larry McCray - Ambition. Modern, urban blues from Detroit.

Buddy Guy - Blues Singer. Crawlin' Kingsnake, Black Cat Blues, Sally Mae and a dedication to John Lee Hooker.

Muddy Waters - Hard Again. A full throttle, powerful approach. I love the live in the studio feel it has.

John Lee Hooker- Mr Lucky. Along with Blues Summit a really great "star guest appearance" album.

Clapton- From the Cradle. EC set standards with this that later blues inspired albums like Me and Mr Johnson sadly have not matched.

Allman Brothers- Duane Allman at his best on their first album. Whipping Post is a succinct 5 mins 16 seconds.

ZZ Top- Tres Hombres for Billy Gibbons guitar on Jesus just left Chicago and Deguello for Dusty Hill's bass on Cheap Sunglasses.

Little Feat- Sailin' Shoes. Not really a blues album, but this is probaly their most strongly blues influenced album and has some of Lowell George's finest songwriting.

Olly

Some crackers in there. Bad Influence by Robert Cray is a fantastic album with the first 4 tracks absolute blinders, especially 'The Grinder'

ZZ Top Tres Hombres is also a superb album. Othe examples of Billy Gibbons sublime guitar can be found on 'The First Album' - Just Got Back From Baby's and also 'Blue Jean Blues' from Fandango

Great choices

Mark

Billy Gibbons

His greatest IMO is Ten Dollar Man on Tejas.

Olly

In no particular order:

Bessie Smith - Woman's Trouble Blues
Leadbelly - The Very Best Of
Jimmy Reed - Big Boss Man
Charley Patton - Screamin' and Hollerin' The Blues
Robert Johnson - From Four Till Late
Son House - Original Delta Blues
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Backwater Blues
Big Bill Broonzy - I Feel So Good
Lightnin' Hopkins - Very Best Of
John Lee Hooker
T-Bone Walker - Blues Masters
Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' In The Moonlight
J B Hutto - Hawk Squat
Buddy Guy - Buddy's Blues or Sweet Tea
Junior Wells - Blues Hit Big Town (early 50's Chicago Blues)
Hound Dog Taylor
Duster Bennett - Bright Lights Big City
Precious Bryant - Fool Me Good
Elmore James - History of

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Texas Flood & everything else he recorded.

Buddy Guy - D.J. Play My Blues, Damn Right, I've Got The Blues, Stone Crazy.

Mance Lipscomb - Texas Songster.

Guitar Slim - The Things That I used To Do.

B.B. King - Live At The Regal.

Little Axe - Hard Grind.

Muddy Waters - King Of The Electric Blues.

Some names that appear to have been missed:
Terry Evans, Robert Ward, Earl Hooker, James Cotton, James Blood Ulmer and I guess it's hard not to have Janis Joplin in there.

Surely someone's going to mention Rory Gallagher - certainly the period up to, and including Calling Card.

Some really great music - Blues with a distinctive Irish flavour too - not simply mimicking, but extending the tradition.

Rory's bottleneck - whether on acoustic, electric or resonator - is simply sublime.

James

quote:

Surely someone's going to mention Rory Gallagher -

Happy to oblige, fantastic blues talent. Much missed.

I would like to see John Mayall mentioned here too. Anyone who would like to know why should try the sampler "Steppin' Out".

Regards, Steve.

quote:

I would like to see John Mayall mentioned here too. Anyone who would like to know why should try the sampler "Steppin' Out".

Indeed a great conduit for the best British blues talent, not least Peter Green.

Mark

I agree with all the above. I have several hundred blues CDs and it's hard to pick favourites. I will mention Doug Macleod, of whom I have 2 CDs on JVC XRCD, which are excellent. On the same same label Jimmy Rogers "Bluebird" is excellent. "The Real Folk Blues" albums of both Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf are fabulous. The MFSL gold CDs are both audition discs for me.

For modern blues, I am a big fan of the Alligator label. Owner Bruce Iglauer has revived the careers of several blues stalwarts and brought us a lot of new talent too.

It's a wonderful genre!

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Kelly:
For modern blues...

Thanks Chris, for prompting my mind - I was thinking automatically of 'old' blues!!

I look forward to trying the Alligator Label. I have also found there is some very good music published by Blues Matters!

Of 'their' artists I am a particular fan of Egypt, the members of which have all - at some time or other - been part of The Groundhogs. They perform around East Anglia regularly, and are always a great joy to hear - especially if you can find them on the same billing as Tony (TS) McPhee, when there is a wonderful performance of classic Groundhogs' numbers (Eccentric Man, Split, Cherry Red, etc).

Egypt's newer cd, 'Midnight Sun', is definitely bluesier than rockier compared with their previous 'Preserving the Dead'. Eric the guitarist/singer plays some wonderful bottleneck. Definitely worth a spin - on cd, or better still live if they're coming to a venue (usually a pub!) near you...

James

There was a discussion about rap music recently, either here,or on another forum.
I cannot find any rap I enjoy.I find it repetative, stagnant & derivative with little or no progression.OK, my loss.
Now similar criticsisms could also be levelled at the blues.You know, its only 3 or so chords, mainly in similar key & tempo, lyrically irrelevant to a white middle class man, who's never (yet) had the repo man around/had his wife run out on him/dog run over, etc etc.
So why is it that one technically basic style of music is just SO much more enjoyable to me than the other?
matt.

matt, I am sure there is a idealogical answer to this question but I'm gonna settle with..cause it is.

or perhaps becuase you are one vowel away from being murdered you appreciate the blues?

(your location) case you think I'm mad

Try this................location.......


http://www.ferngullygraphics.com/~edman/cdreview.html

Why I listen to the Blues

I think it is probably the same reason why we still listen to/watch lyrically irrelevant opera - it tells us something that we can relate to about the human condition.

I might be middle class with wife, 2 dogs and no repo man on the doorstep, but I'm as much a wage slave as the "blue collar" assembly line workers or sharecroppers that provided the inspiration for much of what we currently understand as the blues. I can certainly envision a "call centre blues" - I'll steal the first line from Lowell George "Well my telephone was ringing.."

Olly