mixtapes for weathers and moods / music for good days and bad days


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A következő címkéjű bejegyzések mutatása: Robin Trower. Összes bejegyzés megjelenítése
A következő címkéjű bejegyzések mutatása: Robin Trower. Összes bejegyzés megjelenítése

2021. május 13., csütörtök

13-052021 FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 1979-1984 (2h 37m)

13-052021 FAVTRAX:MiX ~ 33 FAVOURiTE tracks 1979-1984  >>The Police, Embryo, Alvin Lee, Jean-Luc Ponty, Frank Zappa, Robin Trower, Jack Bruce, King Crimson, R.E.M, David Bowie, The Honeydrippers, Julian Cope<<




 M U S I C  (2h 37m)


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1979-1984


British rock trio with an innovative rock/reggae fusion, superb songwriting, and crossover appeal that shot them straight to international stardom.
Reggatta de Blanc (Stewart Copeland / The Police / Sting / Andy Summers)
It's Alright for You (Stewart Copeland / Sting)
By 1979's Reggatta de Blanc (translation: White Reggae), nonstop touring had sharpened the Police's original blend of reggae-rock to perfection, resulting in breakthrough success. .. Whereas their debut got its point across with raw, energetic performances, Reggatta de Blanc was much more polished production-wise and fully developed from a songwriting standpoint... With Reggatta de Blanc, many picked Sting and company to be the superstar band of the '80s, and the Police would prove them correct on the band's next release.

German band mixed Krautrock with an eclectic world beat over a career spanning decades. 
One of the most original and innovative Krautrock bands, Embryo fused traditional ethnic music with their own jazzy space rock style. Over an existence spanning decades, during which Christian Burchard became the only consistent member, the group traveled the world, playing with hundreds of different musicians and releasing over 20 records.
Strasse nach Asien
Kurdistan
Far East
from Embryo's Reise 1979
"Reise" is the German word for "Travel", and that's exactly what the album has to offer here: a genuine musical journey... to the East. After the band's average jazz/rock/world releases during the second half of the 70's (last good album being 1973's "We Keep On"), EMBRYO's leader Christian Burchard decided to save his baby and brought with him the other members for a long trip, from Middle-East to India. During their journey, they met various local musicians, played jam sessions and recorded tracks in their company...


British blues-rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist who found success fronting Ten Years After before launching a lengthy solo career.
Stealin' (Steve Goulding)
Ridin' Truckin' (Alvin Lee)
No More Lonely Nights (Steve Goulding / Alvin Lee)
from Free Fall 1980
...This band probably should have been called the Lee/Gould band, as former Rare Bird vocalist Steve Gould has at least as much to do with the sound of the band on those first few tracks. About four cuts into Freefall, Lee seems to wake up, and he turns in some really tasty guitar and a nice, energetic vocal on "Stealin'." There are even a few whoops and shrieks thrown in, and that's OK, because the song deserves it. So does "Ridin' Truckin'"... 

2021. március 11., csütörtök

11-03-2021 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1972-1983


11-03-2021 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1972-1983 Rory Gallagher, Koko Taylor,Robin Trower, Junior Wells, The Numbers Band, Otis Rush,Albert King, Peter Green, The Blues Band, Brian Auger, Pete York, Chris Farlowe,Led Zeppelin,Tom Waits


B L U E S    M U S I C

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1972-1983

 

Influential Irish guitarist who played an earthy, stripped-down brand of blues-rock that touched everyone who heard it.
Whole Lot of People (Rory Gallagher)
Used to Be (Rory Gallagher)
from Deuce 1972
Released in November 1971, just six months after his solo debut, Rory Gallagher's second album was the summation of all that he'd promised in the wake of Taste's collapse, and the blueprint for most of what he'd accomplish over the next two years of recording. Largely overlooked by posterity's haste to canonize his next album, Live! In Europe, Deuce finds Gallagher torn between the earthy R&B of "Used to Be," a gritty blues fed through by some viciously unrestrained guitar playing... "There's a Light", too, plays to Gallagher's sensitive side, while stating his mastery of the guitar across a protracted solo that isn't simply spellbinding in its restraint, it also has the effect of adding another voice to the proceedings...



Accurately dubbed "the Queen of Chicago blues" (and sometimes just the blues in general), Koko Taylor helped keep the tradition of big-voiced, brassy female blues belters alive, recasting the spirits of early legends like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thornton, and Memphis Minnie for the modern age.
I'm a Little Mixed Up(Criss Johnson)
What Kind of Man Is This? (Koko Taylor)
from South Side Lady 1973 
Cut during the period when she was between Chess and Alligator, this 15-song selection, cut in a French studio and live in the Netherlands in 1973, is a potent set that finds Koko Taylor ably backed by the Aces, guitarist Jimmy Rogers, and pianist Willie Mabon. Lots of familiar titles -- a live "Wang Dang Doodle," studio remakes of "I'm a Little Mixed Up" and "Twenty-Nine Ways" -- and a few numbers that aren't usually associated with Chicago's undisputed blues queen.


One of rock's prime guitarists due to his uncanny ability to channel the blues-psych, Fender Strat-fueled playing style of Jimi Hendrix
.
Day of the Eagle (Robin Trower)
Bridge of Sighs (Robin Trower)
Too Rolling Stoned (Robin Trower)
from Bridge Of Sighs 1974
Guitarist Robin Trower's watershed sophomore solo disc remains his most stunning, representative, and consistent collection of tunes. Mixing obvious Hendrix influences with blues and psychedelia, then adding the immensely soulful vocals of James Dewar, Trower pushed the often limited boundaries of the power trio concept into refreshing new waters. The concept gels best in the first track, "Day of the Eagle," where the opening riff rockingly morphs into the dreamy washes of gooey guitar chords that characterize the album's distinctive title track that follows. .. One of the few Robin Trower albums without a weak cut, Bridge of Sighs holds up to repeated listenings as a timeless work, as well as the crown jewel in Trower's extensive yet inconsistent catalog.

2021. január 24., vasárnap

EVERY DAY i HAVE THE BLUES BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1965-1975


EVERY DAY i HAVE THE BLUES BLUES:MiX # 33 blues(y) songs from the BLUES circle 1965-1975 # B.B. King, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Cream, Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix,The Allman Brothers Band,Rory Gallagher, Koko Taylor,Robin Trower, Junior Wells


B L U E S    M U S I C

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1965-1975

 

One of the most important electric guitarists in history, whose bent notes and staccato picking style influenced legions to come. Universally hailed as the king of the blues, the legendary B.B. King was without a doubt the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century. His bent notes and staccato picking style influenced legions of contemporary bluesmen, while his gritty and confident voice -- capable of wringing every nuance from any lyric -- provided a worthy match for his passionate playing.
Every Day I Have the Blues  (Peter Chatman / Memphis Slim)
Sweet Little Angel  (B.B. King / Jules Taub)
It's My Own Fault (John Lee Hooker / B.B. King / Jules Taub)
B.B. King is not only a timeless singer and guitarist, he's also a natural-born entertainer, and on Live at the Regal the listener is treated to an exhibition of all three of his talents. Over percolating horn hits and rolling shuffles, King treats an enthusiastic audience (at some points, they shriek after he delivers each line) to a collection of some of his greatest hits. The backing band is razor-sharp, picking up the leader's cues with almost telepathic accuracy. King's voice is rarely in this fine of form, shifting effortlessly between his falsetto and his regular range, hitting the microphone hard for gritty emphasis and backing off in moments of almost intimate tenderness. Nowhere is this more evident than at the climax of "How Blue Can You Get," where the Chicago venue threatens to explode at King's prompting. Of course, the master's guitar is all over this record, and his playing here is among the best in his long career. Displaying a jazz sensibility, King's lines are sophisticated without losing their grit. More than anything else, Live at the Regal is a textbook example of how to set up a live performance. Talking to the crowd, setting up the tunes with a vignette, King is the consummate entertainer. Live at the Regal is an absolutely necessary acquisition for fans of B.B. King or blues music in general. A high point, perhaps even the high point, for uptown blues.


With a style honed in the gritty blues bars of Chicago's south side, the Butterfield Blues Band was instrumental in bringing the sound of authentic Chicago blues to a young white audience in the mid-'60s, and although the band wasn't a particularly huge commercial success, its influence has been enduring and pervasive. 
I Got a Mind to Give Up Living (Traditional)
All These Blues (Public Domain / Traditional)
East-West
from East West 1966
The raw immediacy and tight instrumental attack of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's self-titled debut album were startling and impressive in 1965, but the following year, the group significantly upped the ante with its second LP, East-West. The debut showed that Paul Butterfield and his bandmates could cut tough, authentic blues (not a given for an integrated band during the era in which fans were still debating if a white boy could play the blues) with the energy of rock & roll, but East-West was a far more ambitious set, with the band showing an effective command of jazz, Indian raga, and garagey proto-psychedelia as well as razor-sharp electric blues. Butterfield was the frontman, and his harp work was fierce and potent, but the core of the band was the dueling guitar work of Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, especially Bloomfield's ferocious, acrobatic solos, while Mark Naftalin's keyboards added welcome washes of melodic color, and the rhythm section of bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Billy Davenport were capable of both the rock-solid support of veteran blues players and the more flexible and artful pulse of a jazz combo, rising and relaxing with the dynamics of a performance...

The first and best power trio, whose brand of highly amplified, free-form playing took blues and rock in new directions. Although Cream were only together for a little more than two years, their influence was immense, both during their late-'60s peak and in the years following their breakup. Cream were the first top group to truly exploit the power trio format, in the process laying the foundation for much blues-rock and hard rock of the 1960s and 1970s. It was with Cream, too, that guitarist Eric Clapton truly became an international superstar...
White Room (Pete Brown / Jack Bruce)
Crossroads (Ahmad Jamal / Robert Johnson / Traditional)
Politician (Pete Brown / Jack Bruce)
Born Under a Bad Sign (William Bell / Booker T. Jones)
from Wheels of Fire 1968
If Disraeli Gears was the album where Cream came into their own, its successor, Wheels of Fire, finds the trio in full fight, capturing every side of their multi-faceted personality, even hinting at the internal pressures that soon would tear the band asunder. A dense, unwieldy double album split into an LP of new studio material and an LP of live material, it's sprawling and scattered, at once awesome in its achievement and maddening in how it falls just short of greatness. It misses its goal not because one LP works and the other doesn't, but because both the live and studio sets suffer from strikingly similar flaws, deriving from the constant power struggle between the trio... And in many ways Wheels of Fire is indeed filled with Cream's very best work, since it also captures the fury and invention (and indulgence) of the band at its peak on the stage and in the studio, but as it tries to find a delicate balance between these three titanic egos, it doesn't quite add up to something greater than the sum of its parts. But taken alone, those individual parts are often quite tremendous.


The giant of postwar blues, who eloquently defined Chicago's swaggering, Delta-rooted sound with his declamatory vocals and piercing slide guitar.
I Am the Blues (Willie Dixon)
Rollin' and Tumblin' (McKinley Morganfield)
Blues and Trouble (McKinley Morganfield)
Hurtin' Soul
from After the Rain 1969
...The album mostly featured higher-wattage remakes of a lot of familiar repertoire, including "Honey Bee" and "Rollin' and Tumblin'," and also reintroduced Muddy's own electric guitar, which had mostly been unheard on his recordings of the 1960s (and completely missing from Electric Mud). And on the tracks where he does play lead, they're first-rate representations of his talent as it stood at the tail end of the 1960s, powerful and bold, like a king (or maybe even a god) surveying a blues landscape he had shaped, and ranging across it freely...


In his brief four-year reign as a superstar, Jimi Hendrix expanded the vocabulary of the electric rock guitar more than anyone before or since. Hendrix was a master at coaxing all manner of unforeseen sonics from his instrument, often with innovative amplification experiments that produced astral-quality feedback and roaring distortion.
In From the Storm (Jimi Hendrix)
Hear My Train A-Comin' (Jimi Hendrix)
Ezy Ryder  (Jimi Hendrix)
Red House  (Jimi Hendrix)
from Live in Maui 1970 
...However, they were seasoned pros, and Live in Maui presents in full the two sets they played before the cameras on July 30, 1970. These recordings document Hendrix and his accompanists -- bassist Billy Cox and drummer Mitch Mitchell -- as a well-oiled machine that delivered this material with a confidence and strength that also gave them room to stretch out without losing the plot. Hendrix delivers the guitar pyrotechnics that were his trademark, demonstrating his skills with a clear focus while using the swoops and cries of his Stratocaster to explore the outer limits of his songs. ..


Blending rock, blues, country, and jazz, the godfathers of Southern rock in all its wild, woolly glory.
The Allman Brothers Band 
Statesboro Blues (Blind Willie McTell)
Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ (Gregg Allman)
Stormy Monday (T-Bone Walker)
Graham's left coast venue, the Fillmore West, in San Francisco in January of 1971. They were slotted between openers the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band and Hot Tuna. These three shows are presented in their entirety in a four-disc set. Sourced from original two-track, reel-to-reel soundboard masters, they were held in ABB crew members Twiggs Lyndon's, Joe Dan Petty's, and Mike Callahan's closets for nearly five decades. They were then acquired by archivist Kirk West, who set the painstaking restoration process in motion... A revelation of these recordings is what they say about the Allmans' development and how much more polished they were just six weeks later, which doesn't diminish the earlier dates one iota: These performances are absolutely electrifying. They are wooly and intensely exploratory.


Influential Irish guitarist who played an earthy, stripped-down brand of blues-rock that touched everyone who heard it.
Used to Be (Rory Gallagher)
Whole Lot of People (Rory Gallagher)
There's a Light (Rory Gallagher)
from Deuce 1972
Released in November 1971, just six months after his solo debut, Rory Gallagher's second album was the summation of all that he'd promised in the wake of Taste's collapse, and the blueprint for most of what he'd accomplish over the next two years of recording. Largely overlooked by posterity's haste to canonize his next album, Live! In Europe, Deuce finds Gallagher torn between the earthy R&B of "Used to Be," a gritty blues fed through by some viciously unrestrained guitar playing... "There's a Light", too, plays to Gallagher's sensitive side, while stating his mastery of the guitar across a protracted solo that isn't simply spellbinding in its restraint, it also has the effect of adding another voice to the proceedings...


Accurately dubbed "the Queen of Chicago blues" (and sometimes just the blues in general), Koko Taylor helped keep the tradition of big-voiced, brassy female blues belters alive, recasting the spirits of early legends like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thornton, and Memphis Minnie for the modern age.
I'm a Little Mixed Up(Criss Johnson)
What Kind of Man Is This? (Koko Taylor)
Twenty-Nine Ways to My Baby's Door (Willie Dixon)
from South Side Lady 1973 
Cut during the period when she was between Chess and Alligator, this 15-song selection, cut in a French studio and live in the Netherlands in 1973, is a potent set that finds Koko Taylor ably backed by the Aces, guitarist Jimmy Rogers, and pianist Willie Mabon. Lots of familiar titles -- a live "Wang Dang Doodle," studio remakes of "I'm a Little Mixed Up" and "Twenty-Nine Ways" -- and a few numbers that aren't usually associated with Chicago's undisputed blues queen.


One of rock's prime guitarists due to his uncanny ability to channel the blues-psych, Fender Strat-fueled playing style of Jimi Hendrix
.
Day of the Eagle (Robin Trower)
Bridge of Sighs (Robin Trower)
Too Rolling Stoned (Robin Trower)
from Bridge Of Sighs 1974
Guitarist Robin Trower's watershed sophomore solo disc remains his most stunning, representative, and consistent collection of tunes. Mixing obvious Hendrix influences with blues and psychedelia, then adding the immensely soulful vocals of James Dewar, Trower pushed the often limited boundaries of the power trio concept into refreshing new waters. The concept gels best in the first track, "Day of the Eagle," where the opening riff rockingly morphs into the dreamy washes of gooey guitar chords that characterize the album's distinctive title track that follows. .. One of the few Robin Trower albums without a weak cut, Bridge of Sighs holds up to repeated listenings as a timeless work, as well as the crown jewel in Trower's extensive yet inconsistent catalog.


Swaggering Chicago blues harmonica player, a solo star who also worked frequently with Buddy Guy.
What My Momma Told Me (Junior Wells)
Key to the Highway (Big Bill Broonzy / Charles Segar)
The Train I Ride (Junior Wells)
from On Tap 1975
Underrated mid-'70s collection boasting a contemporary, funky edge driven by guitarists Phil Guy and Sammy Lawhorn, keyboardist Big Moose Walker, and saxman A.C. Reed. Especially potent is the crackling "The Train I Ride," a kissin' cousin to Little Junior Parker's "Mystery Train."






2018. augusztus 13., hétfő

13-08-2018 12:06 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1982-1972


Hound Dog Taylor

13-08-2018 12:06 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1982-1972 # Hound Dog Taylor, Robin Trower, Jack Bruce, Bill Lordan, Tom Waits, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmy Johnson, David Wilcox, Otis Rush, Johnny Shines, Junior Wells, Maggie Bell,  The Allman Brothers Band, Albert King


B L U E S   M U S I C


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BLUES_circle The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 


1982-1972


Alligator Records, Chicago's leading contemporary blues label, might never have been launched at all if not for the crashing, slashing slide guitar antics of Hound Dog Taylor. Bruce Iglauer, then an employee of Delmark Records, couldn't convince his boss, Bob Koester, of Taylor's potential, so Iglauer took matters into his own hands. In 1971, Alligator was born for the express purpose of releasing Hound Dog's debut album. We all know what transpired after that.
Hound Dog Taylor
Crossroads (Traditional) 2:22
Blue Guitar (Hound Dog Taylor) 3:38
from Genuine Houserocking Music 1982
With Alligator label prexy Bruce Iglauer recording some 20 or 30 tracks over two nights everytime the band went into the studio, there were bound to be some really great tracks lurking in the vaults and these are it. Noteworthy for the great performance of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads," (previously only available as a Japanese 45) but also for the "rock & roll" inclusion of "What'd I Say" and Brewer Phillips' take on "Kansas City." No bottom of the barrel scrapings here.


One of rock's prime guitarists, due to his uncanny ability to channel Jimi Hendrix's blues-psych, Fender Strat-fueled playing style. Throughout his long and winding solo career, guitarist Robin Trower has had to endure countless comparisons to Jimi Hendrix due to his uncanny ability to channel Hendrix's bluesy/psychedelic, Fender Strat-fueled playing style.
Robin Trower
Jack Bruce, Bill Lordan
Into Money (Robin Trower) 2:56
End Game (Bill Berry / Peter Buck / Mike Mills / Keith Reid / Michael Stipe / Robin Trower) 5:11
from B.L.T. 1981
It wasn't until the 1980 Victims of the Fury album, seven years into his solo career, that Robin Trower would employ former Procul Harum bandmate Keith Reid to provide lyrics (with Reid probably the only lyricist in history to get band status). Though this is officially a Robin Trower release entitled B.L.T., the marquee giving Jack Bruce and Bill Lordan equal heading above the double-sized name of Robin Trower, the project is shouldered by all talents involved and inhibited by a dreadful cover photo of a white bread sandwich: bacon, lettuce and tomato with -- if you look closely -- raw bacon. All concerned would have been better off titling this a Jack Bruce/Robin Trower project with drummer Bill Lordan...
Robin Trower


A neo-beatnik songwriter who grew weirder and wilder in the '80s, earning a cult following that only grew larger as the years passed.  In the work of American songwriter Tom Waits, swampy blues, Beat poetry, West Coast jazz, Tin Pan Alley, country, 1930s-era cabaret, and post-Civil War parlor songs meet neon-lit carnival music, and the wheezing, clattering, experimental rhythms (often played by makeshift musical instruments from car radios to metal pipes and tin cans -- hence his love of Edgard Varese and Harry Partch) form a keenly individual musical universe.
Tom Waits
Heartattack and Vine (Tom Waits) 4:50
Downtown (Tony Hatch / Tom Waits) 4:44
'Til the Money Runs Out 8Tom Waits) 4:25
from Heartattack and Vine 1980
Heartattack and Vine is Tom Waits' seventh and final album for Asylum. As such, it's transitional. As demonstrated by its immediate predecessors, 1978's excellent Blue Valentine and 1977's Foreign Affairs, he was already messing with off-kilter rhythms even in the most conventionally structured blues and jazz songs, with nastier-sounding guitars -- he plays a particularly gnarly style of rhythm on this entire album. Five of these nine tracks are rooted in gutbucket blues with rock edges and primal R&B beats. By this time, his singing voice had deteriorated to a gasping-for-breath whiskey-and-cigarettes growl that could make words indecipherable from one another, but his jazzman-inspired phrasing more than compensated... In sum, Heartattack and Vine reveals just how much Waits had grown during his tenure with Asylum. Though not perfect in sequencing -- the alternating juxtaposition of rowdy blues and heartworn ballads gets old -- almost every song stands on its own as a dusty gem.

2018. július 19., csütörtök

19-07-2018 12:58 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1989-1978


Charlie Musselwhite
19-07-2018 12:58 BLUES:MiX # 33 blues songs from the BLUES circle 1989-1978 # Charlie Musselwhite, Henry Gray, Snooky Pryor, Chris Thomas King, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray, Pee Wee Crayton, ZZ Top, Hound Dog Taylor, Robin Trower, Jack Bruce, Bill Lordan, Tom Waits, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmy Johnson


B L U E S   M U S I C


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BLUES_circle The player always plays the latest playlist tracks. / A lejátszó mindig a legújabb playlist számait játssza. 


1989-1978


A Mississippi transplant whose rangy, subtle harp playing made a splash in Chicago blues circles beginning in the 1960s. Harmonica wizard Norton Buffalo can recollect a leaner time when his record collection had been whittled down to only the bare essentials: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band. Butterfield and Musselwhite will probably be forever linked as the two most interesting, and arguably the most important, products of the "white blues movement" of the mid- to late '60s -- not only because they were near the forefront chronologically, but because they both stand out as being especially faithful to the style.
Charlie Musselwhite
If Trouble Was Money (D.A.R.) 5:21
It Ain't Right (Walter Jacobs / Little Walter) 3:59
Finger Lickin' Good (Charlie Musselwhite) 4:0
from Memphis Charlie 1989
Charlie Musselwhite earned the nickname “Memphis Charlie” during his years in Memphis, Tennessee, where he learned to play guitar and blues harmonica. Moving to Chicago in 1962 to look for better-paying work, Musselwhite jumped into the blues scene, becoming a regular at blues venues, sitting in and playing with some of the great musicians of the Chicago scene. This album, released in 1989, contains songs recorded in 1971 and 1974 that feature the electrifying blues vocals and harmonica of Memphis Charlie.


This harmoinca player's records were harbingers of the amplified, down-home sound of post-war Chicago blues.  Only recently has Snooky Pryor finally begun to receive full credit for the mammoth role he played in shaping the amplified Chicago blues harp sound during the postwar era. He's long claimed he was the first harpist to run his sound through a public address system around the Windy City -- and since nobody's around to refute the claim at this point, we'll have to accept it! James Edward Pryor was playing harmonica at the age of eight in Mississippi...
Snooky Pryor
Broke and Hungry (Snooky Pryor) 2:36
Judgment Day (Snooky Pryor) 4:16
Key to the Highway (Big Bill Broonzy / Charles Segar) 2:55
from Snooky 1987
An outstanding comeback effort by Chicago harp pioneer Snooky Pryor, whose timeless sound meshed well with a Windy City trio led by producer/guitarist Steve Freund for this set. Mostly Pryor's own stuff ... with his fat-toned harp weathering the decades quite nicely.

Initially known for his audacious fusion of blues and hip-hop, Chris Thomas King reached a whole new audience with the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, not only appearing on the award-winning soundtrack but playing a prominent supporting character as well. Despite the much-celebrated, down-to-earth rootsiness of O Brother's music, King had previously been a determined progressive, hoping to reinvigorate the blues as a living African American art with a more contemporary approach and adamantly refusing to treat it as a museum piece whose "authentic" forms needed careful preservation. King eventually modified that approach to a certain degree, attempting to create a more explicit link between blues tradition and the general musical present.
Chris Thomas King
The Blues Is Back 3:37
Cheatin' Women Blues 4:38
Going Home To Louisiana 3:43
South Side Shuffle 1:45
from The Beginning 1986
Recorded at Reel To Reel Sound Factory - Baton Rounge, La.

Albert Collins - The embodiment of the Texas blues guitar style, with non-standard tuning and slashing blocked chords. 
Johnny Copeland - An influential blues guitarist since the 1950s, journeyman hit critical paydirt in the 1980s. 
Robert Cray - The guitarist who brought blues back to the charts in the '80s via songs that defined blues themes but added modern and personal twists. 
Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, Robert Cray
T-Bone Shuffle (T-Bone Walker) 4:58
The Dream (Unknown Blues Band) 5:32
Blackjack (Ray Charles) 6:34
from Showdown! 1985
More cooperative than competitive in spirit, Showdown! ranks above other blues ‘supergroup’ sessions in the cohesiveness of the music, as three of the top names in blues of the 1980s shared the spotlight with a tight rhythm section in support. There were still plenty of hot guitar licks, though, from Collins, Cray and Copeland, with Albert even taking a turn on harmonica. T-Bone Walker’s T-Bone Shuffle provided a common ground for the triumvirate to kick the album off, and the rest of the program consisted of originals and lesser-known covers of Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, Texas legend Hop Wilson and others....