Charlie+musselwhite

Music Club has done it again with this amazing retrospective of blues guitarist and harmonicat Charlie Musselwhite. The Mississippi-born, Memphis-raised, and Chicago-trained bluesman has issued so many strong recordings it's a wonder that this isn't a box set. But if you have to boil it down to a single disc for a budget price, this is the one to have without question. Contained within its 20 selections are tracks from his two 1970s Arhoolie albums, Takin' My Time and Goin' Back Down South, from 1971 and 1974, respectively; The Harmonica According to Charlie Musselwhite, issued first on Kicking Mule and later on Blind Pig in 1978 and 1994, respectively; and finally from his Alligator albums, Ace of Harps (1990 and a Grammy winner), Signature (1992 and Grammy nominated), and In My Time (1994, also Grammy nominated).

"I Ain't Lyin'…" is all Charlie - original tunes penned by this Grammy winning master that resonate with the South itself - rising from the Mississippi, crossing the levy, dancing through the streets and cutting to the heart of all that matters. Charlie Musselwhite’s journey through the blues was literal from his birth in Mississippi to Memphis, Chicago and California. Arriving in Chicago in the early sixties, he was just in time for the epochal blues revival. In 1966 at the age of 22 he recorded the landmark Stand Back! Here Comes Charlie Musselwhite’s Southside Band to rave reviews. A precipitous relocation to San Francisco in 1967, where his album was being played on underground radio, found him welcomed into the counterculture scene around the Fillmore West as an authentic purveyor of the real deal blues.

"Rambler's Blues," the shuffling hip-shaker that opens Charlie Musselwhite's The Well, is the most autobiographical statement he's ever made – until you listen to the rest of the record. Despite his large catalogue, this is his first record of all original material. Musselwhite's back with Alligator after a sojourn of 14 years, during which he recorded some stellar material for various labels, including the stellar Delta Hardware for Real World in 2006. Musselwhite is accompanied here by a stellar band: guitarist Dave Gonzales, bassist John Bazz, and drummer Stephen Hodges. His own harmonica playing and vocals are everywhere and top-notch. The most compelling thing about The Well is its lack of pretension; Musselwhite has risen to the task of recording a completely autobiographical album that refuses easy cliches, or resting on laurels; its energy is infectious.

Music Club has done it again with this amazing retrospective of blues guitarist and harmonicat Charlie Musselwhite. The Mississippi-born, Memphis-raised, and Chicago-trained bluesman has issued so many strong recordings it's a wonder that this isn't a box set. But if you have to boil it down to a single disc for a budget price, this is the one to have without question. Contained within its 20 selections are tracks from his two 1970s Arhoolie albums, Takin' My Time and Goin' Back Down South, from 1971 and 1974, respectively; The Harmonica According to Charlie Musselwhite, issued first on Kicking Mule and later on Blind Pig in 1978 and 1994, respectively; and finally from his Alligator albums, Ace of Harps (1990 and a Grammy winner), Signature (1992 and Grammy nominated), and In My Time (1994, also Grammy nominated).

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bishop and Grammy-winning harmonica great Musselwhite join forces for a fun and historic collaboration of front porch blues. Among the most famous bluesmen in the world, with over five decades each of recording and performing, Elvin and Charlie have scanned over 600,000 units combined, despite over two dozen of their releases coming before the advent of Soundscan. Elvin and Charlie are joined by guitar and piano master Bob Welsh (of Elvin's Big Fun Trio) for an infectious set of warm, funky, down-home blues. The relaxed, spontaneous nature of the recordings reveals a unique musical chemistry on nine originals and three well-chosen covers, as the two trade licks and vocals on one of the finest, most memorable recordings of either artist's career.

This 20-track collection of Musselwhite's early days shows that even back then the man could blow effectively in a variety of settings. In addition to the groundbreaking recordings he made with his own group, this also includes Musselwhite backing John Hammond on two tracks and a duet with Walter Horton from the Chicago, The Blues Today! sessions – nice additions. Highlights include "Chicken Shack," "Cristo Redemptor," "Cha Cha the Blues," and "I Don't Play." A nice introduction to this blues veteran.

As authentic as the lines on his forehead and his droopy eyes, veteran bluesman Charlie Musselwhite gets better with age. (At 62, he's a respected survivor with dozens of albums to his credit.) On Delta Hardware the journeyman musician pays tribute to, and revels in, his Mississippi roots. Although he's spent time in Chicago and on the West Coast, for this album of churning swamp and deep Southern blues he taps his formative years in the town of Kosciusko. Musselwhite's poignant voice and crying harmonica convey loss and sadness on the tense, swirling "Black Water," one of two tracks dealing with Hurricane Katrina.

Calling this retrospective by Charlie Musselwhite a "deluxe edition" may be a little misleading. Twelve of the album's 14 tracks come from three albums he recorded for Alligator in the early '90s. There are four each from Ace of Harps (1990), Signature (1991), and In My Time (1993). The sequencing is beautifully done and representative. The true curiosities are two unissued cuts. The first is "Lotsa Poppa," an outtake from the In My Time sessions. The cut itself isn't such a revelation, but Musselwhite's harp playing and singing is. His delivery is signature in that he is always slow and relaxed yet just underneath.