Best Blues Ever

Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton was Eric Clapton's first fully realized album as a blues guitarist – more than that, it was a seminal blues album of the 1960s, perhaps the best British blues album ever cut, and the best LP ever recorded by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers…

Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton was Eric Clapton's first fully realized album as a blues guitarist - more than that, it was a seminal blues album of the 1960s, perhaps the best British blues album ever cut, and the best LP ever recorded by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Standing midway between Clapton's stint with the Yardbirds and the formation of Cream, this album featured the new guitar hero on a series of stripped-down blues standards, Mayall pieces, and one Mayall/Clapton composition, all of which had him stretching out in the idiom for the first time in the studio…

This legendary blues-jam band is rolling past three decades now, and this fiery swinging collection is one of their most powerful and varied recordings ever. In addition to the "Tower of Power on speed" energies that have earned them various awards, critical accolades, and a devoted following, this collection boasts dashes of funk, soul, the inimitable saxman Rich Lataille, and the crisp guitar excitement of Chris Vachon. At the forefront is the raspy vocal believability of Mac Odom. It's always interesting how the best blues bands can make songs of despair sound so joyous, but Roomful of Blues also takes a few more wistful looks at romance……

Tracking down the ultimate woman blues guitar hero is problematic because woman blues singers seldom recorded as guitar players and woman guitar players (such as Rosetta Tharpe and Sister O.M. Terrell) were seldom recorded playing blues.