Arthur James

Though a bit over the top, this album was still powerful and surprisingly melodic, and managed to be quite bluesy and soulful even as the band overhauled chestnuts by James Brown and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. "Spontaneous Apple Creation" is a willfully histrionic, atonal song that gives Captain Beefheart a run for his money. Though this one-shot was not (and perhaps could not ever be) repeated, it remains an exhilaratingly reckless slice of psychedelia.

Though a bit over the top, this album was still powerful and surprisingly melodic, and managed to be quite bluesy and soulful even as the band overhauled chestnuts by James Brown and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. "Spontaneous Apple Creation" is a willfully histrionic, atonal song that gives Captain Beefheart a run for his money. Though this one-shot was not (and perhaps could not ever be) repeated, it remains an exhilaratingly reckless slice of psychedelia.

Some of the most Chicago-sounding bluesmen didn't grow up in the Windy City but rather were people who moved there after growing up in the Deep South. Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, and Howlin' Wolf are perfect examples; all of them were born in Mississippi, but ultimately, Chicago was the place that did the most to shape their musical identity. Despite their Mississippi roots, all of them became closely identified with electric Chicago blues instead of acoustic Mississippi country blues of the Son House/Robert Johnson/Charley Patton variety - and Little Arthur Duncan is another example of a Mississippi native who moved to the Windy City, was greatly influenced by Chess Records, and wholeheartedly embraced the electric blues of his adopted home…