1 comments about Deep in the Well.

1. If you like the gutsy blues of Leadbelly, Muddy Waters and Josh White, you'll love this new CD. This guy is really good, and I look forward to more from him in the years ahead.

1 comments about His Recorded Legacy: The 29 Songs.

1. This collection is much better than "The Complete Recordings." I don't need two takes of the same song. This CD includes only the best version of each song, and I agree with their selections.

3 comments about Rounder Records 25th Anniversary.

1. Soundscape of incomparable depth and breadth - miles of music - full of suprises - used it as the soundtrack for my big L party - no one went away dissapointed - listen to it again and again and find some new delight every time - the booklet was missing on my copy but them lovely folks at Rounder sent me one through the post after I told them about it.



2. Rounder Records has done at least four "25th Anniversary" sets, and this box set includes four of the sets. I first discovered the Rounder sets when I bought "Hand-Picked 25 Years of Bluegrass on Rounder Records." I've given that set to several people as an introduction to Bluegrass.
   
   This box set includes the following CDs that are also available on Amazon.
   
   Hills of Home: 25 Years of Folk Music
   Louisiana Spice: 25 Years of Louisiana Music
   Deep Blue: 25 Years of Blues on Rounder Records
   Hand-Picked: 25 Years of Bluegrass on Rounder Records
   
   This set is a good value and a great selection of american music.



3. This is eight CD's (plus bonus if you have what I have) of great American folk/blues/bluegrass/zydeco. Rounder has done it year in and year out better than any. Let them choose the songs. There are many favorites here for me: When God Dips his Pen of Love into my Heart, Never Will Give Up, We Believe in Happy Endings, and I Ain't Broke (But I'm Badly Bent). I heartily recommend this set. Every CD is worth a listen and will contain a treasure. Depending on your taste, several will be listened to whole again and again. Way to go Rounder!!

4 comments about Zion Crossroads.

1. I've been an on-again-off-again fan of Corey Harris for the last 10 years. I liked his previous work, but I thought he was sort of plateauing in terms of musical development. But with this release, I stand corrected!
   
   'Zion Crossroads' is Corey's first attempt at reggae and it's really good. Good new reggae is really hard to find today, especially the more traditional-sounding stuff. This isn't that horrible dancehall or reggaeton; it's just good old-fashioned reggae that is hard to dislike.
   
   I didn't think Corey would be this daring in his musical genre shiftings, but I'm certainly glad he did it. I love the addition of the reggae musicians to Corey's usual sparse instrumentation.
   
   Corey easily passes for a reggae musician. His vocals fit right into the music well. This sounds like it could have been recorded in the late 60s in Jamaica.
   
   'Zion Crossroads' is one of the most relaxing, chillout, good-times albums of the year. I like listening to this in rush-hour traffic and mellowing out. I am hopeful for more of his blues/meets/reggae material. I hope this album does well; it deserves to.



2. If white musicians can embrace the black blues,and even mimic the inflections of Southern black dialect, why can't a young black musician dig into the broad spectrum of the African-American musical experience? Harris started as a country blues player and quickly rose to the top of the genre. Should he have locked himself permanently into the music from the 1930s? I met and interviewed him when he released "Greens from the Garden". He indicated to me that he had no intention of standing still. Amen! Since then he has mixed African-American, African and Caribbean influences into a wild amalgam. This album is seemingly offensive to some blues purists who demand the same old twelve bar blues and seem to look at musical diversity as a setback. Harris has long ago left them behind. He is not a racist, but he does want to keep his music appealing to the black community and the world community. He will not be relegated to the confines of only playing the old blues demanded by a small white audience, but considered to be irrelevant by contemporary black audiences. Unlike most black blues musicians, he has consistently maintained a diverse audience, with a large black following. This album is the real deal, vibrant, lively, exciting and true-hearted to the bone. Harris combines the depth of his world view and social consciousness with wonderful, hot beat reggae. As a an early fan and on-going enthusiasts of Harris' trailblazing musical adventurism , I celebrate this great record with JOY! It reminds me of the best musicians I had ever seen live-Bob Marley.



3. Corey Harris used to be an innovative blues singer. On this release he sounds like countless monotonous reggae artists including altering his vocal style to accommodate this recording. Sadly its reggae pulp.



4. i saw him in concert touring with the 'back porch blues' 8 years ago and his sound was haunting, authentic southern blues, he obviously did his homework. as he did in albums linking the blues to other african american music around the world. this time he links the blues to real jamaican reggae and its no stretch to hear that he has once again done his homework. "Walter Rodney" is a standout song. he is obviously a great student of music and this is a solid cd.

5 comments about Come on In.

1. The Eelectric Blues never sounded so good. R.L. Burnside is very talented and Tract 3 "Let my Baby Ride" is one of my frvorite songs EVER.
   
   This album was produced, engineered and mixed by Tom Rothrock and I enjoyed it all the way through. This is an excelent album!



2. This is bad bad bad. I am certainly a purist and hate to see cultural icons and forms such as this melded so poorly. It doesn't work. I love R.L.'s pure blues. They are top notch and tough to find better but electronica and blues doesn't cut it. I am a Depeche Mode fan as well but some things are best left alone. I will be selling this back to a CD store.



3. Thank you Sirius Radeo and Amazon for bringing us RL Burside. Too bad the local "music (??)" Channels and stores still haven't got a clue in what great music really is.
   Its easy to see why "It's Bad You Know" is the most requested song on Sirius Blues.



4. This album is kind of like wasabi: it takes some getting used to but if you do, you have a friend for life. You're in for a big surprise if you're expecting traditional blues from this old bluesman. This is techno remix blues, which obviously won't please some, but he pulls it off. Best-known and probably the best tune is "It's Bad You Know", played on WXRT in Chicago, who turned me on to the album. Most of the cuts are musical loops, not all of which work, but overall pretty solid and recommended for anyone wanting something different. Die-hard blues purists need not apply.



5. Dear Mr. Yates: Are you one of those turtle-neck wearing folks with plenty of money and a nose in the air? Are you one of those that believe that the Blues must adhere to some unforgiving rules that you made up? Get off yo' high horse and put down that pipe! The Blues have always been a "blasphemy", a walk downtown, a soulful melody, a harsh reality.... etc... The Blues NEVER did adhere to any rules of musical education. The Blues is the Blues because of a feeling, an attitude. This album has all of that attitude, irreverent as it is. Take off that turtle-neck sweater and listen to these grooves. Blues grooves. The only other artist to take the Blues to this level this decade has been G. Love. No, it's not your daddy's Blues.... but it is Blues.... fun Blues.... New Orleans Blues... Blues the way it was supposed to be: Fun, Exciting, Soulful and NOT standard! Blues with a capital "B".

5 comments about Blue Yule: Christmas Blues and R&B Classics.

1. Score one more for Rhino. This label really does know how to find obscure cuts and bring them into standout various artist collections. The only gripe I could have is this disk sounds a bit monaural in a mix, but I'll still use it--it's fun to mix up a little blues with the typical sugary Christmas sentiment.
   
   What can I say about this collection that has not been said? Just add Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Canned Heat and the rest of the crew in and you've got a mix that'll make your season funky.



2. if, like me, you make bizarre anthologies of Christmas music, this is a great addition to your library. Raucous and gutsy, a lot of these songs will shake up your celebration and possibly offend the people you want to bother. Some of them belong right alongside my long-time favorite, "Marry Christmas from the Family" by Robert Earl Keen, which is available on Tinsel Tunes, another excellent collection on Sugar Hill (which means it's mostly bluegrass/acoustic).



3. I've had this CD before. There are quite a few blues christmas albums out there. This is definately one of the better ones. Allot of older blues christmas tunes. If you love the blues, this one's for you



4. Blues musicians don't record Christmas songs that often, but Rhino Records managed to find 18 Christmas blues songs for this CD. Charles Brown's definitive recording of "Merry Christmas Baby" is well known, but the rest of the tracks are pretty obscure. There are a lot of good songs here, with my personal favorites being the ones by Eddie C. Campbell and Canned Heat. If you have any interest in the blues, this is the Christmas CD to get.



5. Well, let's see. As I write this review, the date is December 8th, 2004, and it's another two weeks and three days till Christmas finally arrives on the 25th. Since virtually every place in Creation started playing Christmas music on November 1st, you've had 38 days to become thoroughly SICK of the same dozen songs played over and over again from every radio station and retail establishment. Want some relief? How about an album chock-full of great Christmas BLUES music, that truly sounds more like blues that like standard, overplayed holiday ditties? Well, folks, get this CD!! It's nice and long (18 tracks) and only one or two numbers are overly familiar (and one of those, Charles Brown's immortal "Merry Christmas Baby," is usually considered the top Christmas blues recording of all time!) Standouts include Canned Heat (Their song is straightforward blues, not the novelty track they spun with ALvin and the Chipmunks), Detroit Junior with his hard-driving boogie "Christmas Day", the Pilgrim Travelers and their delightful, close-harmony doo-wop gospel classic, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," and the always-irrepresible Louis Jordan with "Santa Claus, Santa Claus." There's not a bad number in the bunch, but the pick of this holiday litter must go to Edddie Campbell and his delicious take on the Junior Wells masterpiece, here titled "Santa's Messin' With the Kid". So don't delay! Order today, there's still time to get it rushed to you by Christmas. Do it, and the best yuletide blues and r and b will be home to you, if not by Christmas, then by New Years night.

3 comments about King Bee.

1. The last of Muddy Waters' four Blue Sky albums is often considered the least as well, but you wouldn't know it listening to this superbly remastered and expanded reissue.
   
   Originally issued in 1981, "King Bee" was recorded at a time when Muddy Waters, then 65, was slowing down because of health problems, and his band was losing money because they were gigging less, finally causing them to quit en masse.
   Guitarist Bob Margolin's candid liner notes are much more brief and a lot less jolly than the warm and often humorous mini-essays he wrote for the reissues of "Hard Again" and "I'm Ready", and while his fondness for Muddy Waters is very obvious, it is equally obvious that he did not have a good time recording this album, Muddy Waters' last.
   
   Because of the tensions in the studio preceding the breakup of the Muddy Waters Band, producer and occational guitarist Johnny Winter felt the sessions had not produced enough solid material to yield an entire album, so he padded "King Bee" with outtakes from the 1977 "Hard Again" sessions (and this 2004 edition adds two more previously unreleased numbers).
   But there is certainly nothing wrong with the songs that did make the cut. "King Bee" is as lean and mean an album as Muddy ever made, and though the guest stars from the first two Blue Sky albums are missing, the "regular" Muddy Waters Band is every bit as competent as any all star combo. Muddy may have been ailing, but his voice is still strong and confident, and the rhythm section of Calvin "Fuzz" Jones (bass) and drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith is rock-solid, digging a train track groove on each and every song. Well, except the drum-less acoustic workout "I Feel Like Going Home", a wonderful re-recording of one of Muddy's earliest waxings.
   
   Muddy Waters and his killer ensemble lifts relatively lightweight numbers like "Deep Down In Florida", "My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble" and "Champagne And Reefer" high above mediocrity, and songs like "No Escape From The Blues", the swaggering "Too Young To Know" and the gritty title track pack an immense wallop.
   There are no weak songs here, actually. The re-recording of "Sad Sad Day" should be a blueprint for all slow blues numbers, and the two bonus tracks are by no means throwaways.
   Muddy recorded James Oden's "I Won't Go On" (which is suspiciously reminicent of "I Feel So Good") way back in the 50s, and here it is again, rough and tough and sung in a deep, manly baritone by Waters. And the slow grind of "Clouds In My Heart" is one of the finest songs on the album, featuring a sublime soulful lead vocal, masterful drumming, and some tremendous lead guitar playing courtesy of "Steady Rollin'" Bob Margolin.
   
   Johnny Winter plays excellent slide guitar on several songs (although that is Muddy himself wielding the bottleneck on "Sad Sad Day"), and there is not a glimmer of rock commercialism in his playing, it is pure blues. His abilities as a producer are equally fine, and while "King Bee" doesn't usually get the attention of "Hard Again" or Muddy's classic Chess sides, it should be considered a must-own for any semi-serious Muddy Waters-fan, especially in this expanded edition.
   4 1/2 stars. Highly recommended.



2. This CD lacks the feel-good, party-time atmosphere of the rest of Muddy's Blue Sky period. According to Bob Margolin's liner notes, the somber atmosphere of these recordings were due to a discontent between Muddy and the band over money. Some of the tracks are actually outtakes from 1977 sessions to complete the album. The band quit, and Muddy carried on performing live until his death in 1983.

   The two outtakes are excellent additions and worth upgrading this CD in your collection. But if you'd rather listen to a blues band having a great time in the studio, buy Hard Again or I'm Ready instead. They are both a better listen than King Bee.




3. This final document from the end of his storied career is a blend of studio tracks that were not quite finished for what would have been his third CD with Johnny Winter at the helm, plus a few additional tracks from the previous two years' sessions. While this did not garner the acclaim on its initial release that the other 2 CDs did, it may actually, in its remastered form, be the best of the bunch. Haunting in a way that Johnny Cash's last CD is, this is the sound of a man who knows he has come to the end of the crossroads, as it were.
   From the previous sessions you have the full band at full throttle and the intensity is devastating. From the uncompleted sessions, the songs are more introspective, more intimate, perhaps truer to his cotton field roots than he had been in a very long time, and they are positively spiritual. But what trily sets this apart are the final two bonus cuts that somehow wrap and sum up the legacy of Muddy Waters: "I Can't Go On" amd "Clouds in My Eyes" are so upsetting because these are in fact his very last songs recorded. They are his best as well. Odd that inadvertenetly he would save the very best for last, but these two songs will haunt your soul much as Cash's rendition of "Hurt" does. Columbia and Johnny Winter and the remastering team have done the world of music a very great service in preserving and restoring these tracks.
   Bob Margolin penned intimate and heartfelt liner notes for each of these reissues that are so to the point that they bring you inside the world that Muddy lived. For this last session, they all knew the end was near and somehow drew strength inspite of the oncoming sorrow from their leader's bravery and integrity and deep down grit. Muddy Waters was an ontological and existential hero of the first order, and his coda is as powerful a departing testament as Beethoven's last string quartet, as Tchicovsky's No 6, as Mahler's 9th. This is African American Blues-Gospel-Spiritual requiem in all its soulful acquiessence to a more pwerful Creator. Positively, this was both his most intimate and his most powerful collection of music and it will haunt you the rest of your life.

5 comments about The Best of Friends.

1. Though Hooker is a legend, someone with a little more time, could have certainly put together, something better than this. If I was John Lee, I certainly would have wanted something a lot stronger, and wilder, to be my swan song. One song in particular makes me want to use some magical power to get it off the CD, and that's "Tupelo". Being forced to listen to that, is like listening to your 6th grade teacher sloooowwwllly scratch her nails on a blackboard. If your image of Hooker, is him, playing a song, in the original "Blues Brother's" movie, stomping his feet in the street, shaking up, the entire city of Chicago, then don't get this CD, because it will ruin your memories of him!



2. For anyone who likes Jazz and Blues, what a wonderful CD. I enjoyed from beginning to the end.



3. This is another old school guy's cd that's got to be had by any true blues fan



4. Author Stephen Thomas Erlewine once said something like this about "The Best Of Friends":
   "This is for people who like to think they like Hooker, but really just want to hear Eric Clapton wail away."
   
   It sounds a bit like the point of view of an old blues purist, perhaps, but one with a lot of truth to it. Many people who aren't attracted to John Lee Hooker's raw, gritty 40s, 50s and 60s recordings will certainly find these guest star-heavy re-recordings much more accessible, and who knows...maybe some of those who got to know John Lee Hooker when he suddenly popped up on MTV at age 73 can use this music as a "gateway" to the REAL blues.
   
   This is a compilation of songs from the Hook's last five guest star-heavy albums (plus a couple of previously unreleased recordings). There is really nothing here to match Hooker's magnificent VeeJay-recordings, his best ever band backed material, but this is certainly not bad music...with the possible exception of two stylistically challenged numbers, "Chill Out" and "The Healer".
   Van Morrison appears on two numbers, "I Cover The Waterfront", and a slow, soulful "Don't Look Back", playing guitar and singing a verse or two, and his contributions are really the only ones which add something new to the songs.
   Eric Clapton plays relatively restrained guitar on a pretty good "Boogie Chillen", and "This Is Hip" and "Dimples" get a nice swaggering groove going, although neither of them come anywhere close to surpassing the original recordings.
   
   "Burnin' Hell" is marred by the monotonous guitar playing of Ben Harper, and "Baby Lee" and "I'm In The Mood" are too slick, but "Tupelo" is classic John Lee Hooker, just the Hook himself and his guitar and a piece of plywood to stomp on! And "Big Legs, Tight Skirt" is really good as well, although not as good as Hooker's definitive rendition which he cut for VeeJay in the mid-50s.
   Again, this is a pretty good album, especially for "casual" blues listeners, but it does fall a little flat when compared to the gritty and powerful waxings Hooker made when he was in his prime.



5. Absolutely a gem no doubt about it. You will not go wrong with this cd.

2 comments about Cowboy Songs of the Old West.

1. Most of these songs I had heard a long, long time ago, and really enjoyed hearing them again.



2. My parents had an LP with songs 1 - 12 on it, and I loved it then, and love it now. It's great to have those extra songs on it. This is real American folk music, with guts, heart, soul, and humor. My kids like me to sing them to sleep with songs from this CD, and I'm not even a good singer!

3 comments about Tradition Runs Deep: Blues, Folk & Jazz.

1. Very nice collection of traditional jazz.
   
   Correction in track listing. Amazon lists track #14 as
   
   14. Bayou Blues - Pete Fountain
   
   Is is actually
   
   14. Red Sails in the Sunset - Erroll Garner
   
   Is it possible there are versions of this CD? I wanted the one with Pete Fountain on track 14.



2. With The "O,Brother" soudtrack becoming album of the Year, this CD should be a no-brainer for those who own it (or even those who think it's become a bit too commercial). This is authentic roots music. It veers from deep Delta blues to some sweet full-band jazz. Lightnin' Hopkins pulls the soul from his pine-top and Odetta lets the blues sing her. This is where it began. The Blues. Folk. Country. Soul. Jazz. This is the Muddy Waters that birthed them all. Buy it. Put it into your heart and let it marinate in your soul.



3. Where's this stuff been hiding? I didn't even know about the label. I do now!