No comments about Rare Country Blues, Vol. 3: 1928-1936.

1 comments about Greatest Hits 1946-1953.

1. Extensive collection of Dinah singing blues, some jazz. A LOT of the first cd has a lot of hissing and pops and crackles. The second cd has much better sound quality overall. Good cd for people looking for an extensive collection, but there are better selections for the casual listener.

No comments about Soul Blues.

No comments about Lefty Frizzell - Saginaw Michigan.

3 comments about Popular Songs of Christmas & New Year's.

1. This is actually a very interesting album, Christmas aspect aside. Fahey, as always, is the master of tunes in standard and waltz time. (I actually believe he could not play a note out of tempo if he wanted to.) His affinity for waltzes is well evidenced here with "The Waltz you saved For Me" standing out as one of his all-time best efforts ever in this genre. Another jewel is his read of "I'll be Home for Christmas", which he transforms from the usually smalzy, maudlin treatment into an almost disturbing lament. This shift of sentiment is pure Fahey. Even when he plays the over commercialized "Chirstmas Time Is Here" he manages to get a little past the unavoidable echoes of the chipmunks to reveal the tune in it's more Germanic influences.

   On the whole I think Fahey gets well beyond the Chistmas genere on this disc, and that may explain its unpopularity. (I picked it up for four dollars recently in a cutout bin) Very under rated. Four bucks well spent.




2. Very under-rated CD. I'm not normally a big fan a Xmas CD's but this one has universal appeal. It's refreshing & unique without being hard to listen to. Here are tunes that I was fairly sick of (I thought), but in this CD they suddenly regained all the magic, warmth, soothing peace, & jaunty cheer, & grace of the Xmas spirit. And it's done with a wonderful easy charm.



3. But you can't blame the guy. He's got to eat just like the rest of us. Back in 1968 he noticed that Christmas records just sell and sell and sell, so he recorded one ("The New Possibility") and wouldn't you know, it became his best seller - not Blind Joe Death, not Railroad, not The Yellow Princess or any of those other masterpieces. So he put out more Christmas albums over the years (I think I count five) and this is the ickiest one of the lot - can you stand "The Skater's Waltz" or "Do You Hear what I Hear"? The music is mostly duets with Terry Robb, and most mellifluous they are too. And I guess guitarists will like the arrangements. But as a Fahey record, this is for completists.

5 comments about House of the Blues.

1. John Lee Hooker is in my opinion the first true Detroit rock and roll artist that follows in a fine tradition of the Stooges, The MC5, and Motown. The music on this album is probably the heaviest type of blues of ever heard. A little more ferocius, and darker than most stuff I've heard. If you like your blues squeeky clean like something Eric Clapton would record these days then you'll probably feel like the reviewer below that only gave this album two stars. But if you're like me and can just appreciate an individual with a lot of soul then this album will shake the foundation.



2. This album is awesome! Listen to the music not the recording quality! Probably half of the greatest music was recorded poorly. Buy this and feel the music. John Lee rules.



3. This album is awesome! Listen to the music not the recording quality! Probably half of the greatest music was recorded poorly. Buy this and feel the music. John Lee rules.



4. I don't know why 'music fan' 's review below me takes such offense to this fine album.. it's funky , it's dirty, just the way I like my blues. I kinda dig the doubletracking done on his voice, it gives the recording very much kind of a creepy quality . you may dig it too. this is the first album from JL Hooker that I 've listened too, so my discoveries are just beginning. check it out



5. John Lee Hooker is, of course, The Man, but you'd never know it from listening to this collection. The Man's performances are good as ever, but the engineering and production are appaling.

   Some damned fool got the bright idea to somehow double Hooker's vocals so he seems to be dueting with himself. Stupid! Some other damned fool (or maybe the same one?) got the equally bright idea to overdub a sped up guitar on a few tracks so it sounds like some sort of half-***ed mandolin. Stupid! Stupid! The vocals in some tracks are so distorted by overloading that they are unintelligable. Bad, bad, bad!

   Skip this one. Get the much superior "John Lee Hooker Plays And Sings The Blues".

   Two stars instead of one only because it's The Man.

1 comments about Sissy Man Blues: Straight & Gay Blues.

1. The music merits 5 stars and are well worth having. (Listen carefully to the lyrics of "Ain't That A Mess.") That being said, there are major mistakes and omissions in song identification of which you need to be aware before purchasing:
   
   -The first song is incorrectly attributed to Connie McLean's Rhythm Blues when it is actually Kokomo Arnold;
   -Speckled Red's "Dirty Dozens" is not on this CD, so all but the last of the titles/artists need to shift up one;
   -Song 24 is "Stew Meat Blues" by Lucille Bogan, and is not credited anywhere on the CD.

5 comments about The Real Folk Blues.

1. This was the first Howlin' Wolf CD I ever bought. I paid about $8.00 for it about 8 or so years ago. It is the best album I own! For starters, the sound quality is phenomenal (about 300% better than the other 2 no-name Howlin Wolf CD's I've bought since). There are about 2-3 songs I don't particularly care for (Hidden Charms, 300 lbs) but they are overshadowed by Killing Floor, Louise, My Country Sugar Mama, Smokestack Lightning. So I would not rate it a 10 for song selection, but it's a 12 on a scale of 10 overall. This album will blow your mind, yes it's that good.



2. The only thing "wrong" with this disc is that almost all of this material is available on MCA/Chess's main Howlin' Wolf-compilations "His Best", "Hist Best vol. II" and the magnificent "Chess Box".
   
   In terms of rarities, "More Real Folk Blues" is the more interesting of Wolf's two "Folk Blues" albums (neither of which are the slightest bit folkish), but the fact that "The Real Folk Blues" and "More Real Folk Blues" are now in print only as a twofer-CD which features all 24 tracks makes that kind of a moot point, I guess.
   And there is absolutely nothing wrong with what is here. "The Real Folk Blues" opens with two of Wolf's best and most powerful mid-60s numbers, the self-penned "Killing Floor" and "Louise". "Killing Floor" is one of the finest songs in Chester Arthur Burnett's lenghty catalogue, perhaps the finest, and the lesser-known but thoroughly impressive "Louise" is a driving powerhouse of a song, all blaring saxes and a scorching solo by Wolf's lead guitarist Hubert Sumlin.
   
   Other highlights include...well, the rest of what is here, really, although Willie Dixon's novelty-thumper "Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy" is something of an acquired taste. But most of these songs (9 out of 12, actually) ar Wolf originals, and numbers like the muscular grind of "My Country Sugar Mama", the swinging shuffle "Poor Boy", and the somber "The Natchez Burnin'" are particularly superb.
   This is nothing like a thorough Wolf retrospective, of course, just a sample of his mid-50s to mid-60s Chess waxings, but that doesn't make it any less great. You need this material in one form or another!



3. Some of these tracks are among Wolf's best; others aren't. Those that fall into the "aren't" category include Willie Dixon's "Three Hundred Pounds of Joy," a number that confirms Dixon's reputation, in the eyes of some, as the Chet Atkins of the blues. (Blues-politan?) I'm not saying that this is good or bad, but the track is not among Wolf's best. But my review policy regarding Wolf is simple and, I think, absolutely fair, my policy being that Wolf never recorded anything worth fewer than five stars. Period. If a collection of coughing and sneezing by the great man were released as a CD, or part of one, I would issue five stars to it. This is based on the theory that anything Mr. Burnett committed to tape (or disc) was, and remains, magnificent. Regardless of what it was.

   At any rate, there is nothing but music on this CD, the best tracks being "Killing Floor," "Poor Boy," "Sittin' on Top of the World," and the almost-experimental "Nachez Burning," a 1956 side unlike anything else I've heard by this great artist. Blues rock is linked with any number of "Chicago" (i.e., transplanted Southern) bluesmen, but Wolf practically invented the 1960s version of that music. Proof herein.

   I almost forgot. Five stars.




4. Essentially this is the same Howlin' Wolf heard on the previous recordings, 1959's Howlin' Wolf and 1962's Moanin' in the Moonlight (both of which were compilations of singles, many of which are classics, released by the Wolf throughout the 1950s). 1966's The Real Folk Blues, recorded in the early to mid 1960s features the larger than life growling voice and riffs, as well as the monster swagger of those amazing earlier recordings and the fact that Wolf is writing all of his own material instead of recording Willie Dixon`s songs subtracts little quality. Still, this is second rate Howlin'' Wolf when compared to those recordings. The newly added horn section, which adds little and removing much of the Wolf's impeccable grit, is the main reason. Howlin' Wolf's first two LPs are available on one disc, if you like those then I recommend you check out this album.



5. For a number of racist reasons, the mainstream media has always branded American blues a form of folk music-as if the life's work of a genius like Charley Patton or Lightnin' Hopkins was the result not of artistic exploration, but of simply aping licks and tunes handed down to him from previous generations of noble savages. This is patently bull****, as is evidenced by Howlin' Wolf's entry in Chess Record's mistitled "Real Folk Blues" series. Here, the Wolfman & co. are very much electric and contemporary(late 50s-mid 60s). Mr. Burnett himself is generally more subdued than on his earlier work, but Hubert Sumlin's whacko guitar playing and Willie Dixon's R&B flavored arrangements shine throughout. The material is almost uniformly superb. To be honest, I've never particularly cared for the much loved novelty "300 Pounds of Joy," but two other tracks Dixon contributed to these sessions-"Taildragger" and "Killing Floor"-rank among the most potent and durable songs in modern blues(and rock) music. All said, "Real F--k Blues" stands as an excellent-though by no means comprehensive-introduction to The Mighty Wolf. Awooooooooooo!

2 comments about Cream.

1. While 'The Cream' may sound like a greatest-hits record, it's actually not. It's John Lee Hooker just jamming with his group during a concert in California in late 1977. You get some of his finest songs here.
   
   Among the sides: A stunning live version of 'When My First Baby Left Me,' a killer version of 'Tupelo,' and a mighty fine version of 'Rock Steady.'
   
   Hooker's band is also mighty fine as well. I don't know the exact personnel, but they just jam along with John Lee Hooker.
   
   Overall, if you've never purchased a live album from John Lee Hooker, this is a mighty fine album to start with.
   
   Highly recommended for any John Lee Hooker fan. A classic. ENJOY!!!



2. This is one of the sweetest sounding Johnny Lee live CD's I have ever heard. The sound quality is excellent, and Hooker's voice is so great it scares me. This is a must for anyone who likes down home smokin & drinkin blues to the bone. Damnnn!!

No comments about Last of the Great Mississippi Blues Singers.