Readers Respond: More Blues
*Your* essential blues albums
Inspired
’s “Essential Blues Albums Picked by Essential Blues Artists — and me” (Read it here), I offered 5 blues records essential to my development as a music listener, fan, and player.
Muddy Waters At Newport 1960
B. B. King Live in Cook County Jail
Eric Clapton Il Blues Di Eric Clapton
Various Artists The Story of the Blues
The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East
My post elicited a fair amount of commentary here on the blog and on social media, I decided to share the list with y’all.
Essential blues records according to the readers/followers of Long Live the ABB
had 4 live records on his list:
John Lee Hooker Live at Cafe Au Go Go
B.B. King Live at the Regal
Stevie Ray Vaughn and Albert King In Session
B.B. King and Bobby Blue Bland Together for the First Time
Albert King Blues Power
affirmed my list of 5 records and shared this comment with gem from Brother Ray, “It makes my soul feel totally at home.”
Dig it
offered:
1. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer
2. Lightin’ Hopkins - Goin' Away
3. Taj Mahal - Labor of Love1
4. Albert King - Live Wire/Blues Power
5. John Lee Hooker - It Serves You Right To Suffer
@jcgsbg wrote It’s tricky bc many of the great blues sides pre-dated the LP and were only compilation albums. This compilation—McKinley Morganfield aka Muddy Waters (Chess 1971) is my go-to, containing the earliest electric recordings (“Louisiana Blues” “Rollin’ Stone”) thru the late 60s stuff. There was a similar 2 LP set for Sonny Boy Williamson This Is My Story (Chess 1972) that I can’t even find a photo of.2 This stuff is essential!
Junior Wells and Buddy Guy: Hoodoo Man Blues Perhaps the tightest and most packed blues album of 3 (or so) minute songs. Derek has a T-shirt with this album cover on it (see below). It has a You Don't Love Me.4
Otis Rush: Live in Europe This is the blues album I'd recommend to ABB fans. Lots of long jamming and a very tight, intricate rhythm section. (There is a live album from 1976 and the studio album "Cold Day in Hell" featuring the same band.)
Etta James: Rocks the House A very raw live set (in contrast the the smoother studio work of hers.) There are still some pop covers, but Etta also really opens up a vein on some of these tracks. Check out the Sweet Little Angel.
Buddy Guy: Stone Crazy This album was cut live in the studio during a European tour in the late 70s and Buddy simply tears it up.
Magic Sam: The Essential Magic Sam: The Cobra and Chief Recordings 1957-1961 A seriously underrated player that tragically died young when he was first starting to get attention. He had a wonderful tone.
Luther Allison: Where Have You Been? Another great west side player. (He later went to Motown and working more funk into his playing. ) This album has highlights from two decades of live shows: “Gambler’s Blues” “Little Red Rooster” “The Same Thing” “Bad Love.”
Earl Hooker: Two Bugs and a Roach Hooker was a guitarist's guitarist—his slide technique was incredibly clear. The title track refers to his struggle with Tuberculosis which eventually took his life.
Andrew BB" "Big Voice Odom" guested on many albums during the late 60s and 70s, and is, IMO, the greatest blues singer EVER. He makes chords with his voice-- sort of like Bobby Bland on steroids. A couple of tracks of his to get started: “I Don’t Know” & “I Made Up My Mind”
Jimmy Dawkins: Hot Wire 81 Jimmy Dawkins was another major player in the West Side circuit, and had a very rugged, electric style. He had a great drummer for this session.
Some odds and ends.
Junior Wells “I Could Have Had Religion” This isn't really a long, but an unbelievably heavy 3 minute groove I never tire of. This truly "changed the way I listened to music"- and is what hooked me on the West Side sound. (Although, to be honest, the album is called "Southside Blues Jam")
Buddy Guy “One Room Country Shack” REALLY wish the ABB gave this a treatment like Dreams—it has a meditative, triplet driven groove that I get lost in.
Eddy Clearwater “Black Night Is Falling” makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Odetta “House of the Rising Sun” is unreal. An acoustic backing, but she provides the electricity with her voice.
Time to get to listening!
Lots to dig into here.
Thanks for reading y’all.
I appreciate you being here. Please tell others. I’ll make it easy for you and give you a button:
P.S.
Don’t forget to tickle the Amazon algorithm, which tells others about Play All Night! Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East
The only new album on any of these lists. Y’all remember Taj as the inspiration for Duane to pick up slide.
He did, as you can see above.
He and I go way, way back. We’ve been talking/discussing Allman Brothers and related bands/music for decades. He’s also the person who I got my first Sea Level (Jaimoe solo drums!!!) tapes from.
NB: Pretty sure that was the inspiration for the ABB’s cover version on At Fillmore East.
This is very cool.