Elmore James Dust My Broom

The various white lead guitar gods who began to garner so much critical press during the rock explosion of the late '60s owe more than a lot to Elmore James. While working as a radio repairman in the early '50s, James spent hours rewiring speakers and amplifiers so that they would deliver the kind of harsh and distorted sound he favored when he played electric guitar through them, and that act of rebuilding amps alone would have made him an unsung hero to rock guitarists everywhere a decade or so later, but James also happened to be a pretty damn good player himself, and there may well not be a more powerful and exciting sound on Earth than James' trademark "Dust My Broom" slide guitar riff, which bottled megawatts of power, energy, and passion into one swooping rush…

An intensely powerful singer and guitarist, Elmore James did not start his recording career until he was 33, and he only lived to be 45, but he made a very strong impact during his dozen years on records. Some of his finest work was cut for the Fire label during 1959-1961, roughly half of which is included on this single CD. Other than a final outburst of selections during February 1963, these were James' last studio sessions, and he is heard at the peak of his powers throughout. Among the best-known performances are the hit "Shake Your Moneymaker," "The Sky Is Crying," and a remake of his famous "Dust My Broom," but all 16 selections are full of passion and fire. This is an essential acquisition for blues collectors, at least until a more complete James on Fire reissue comes out.

Mississippi born and raised, Elmore James learned his trade in the Delta in the 1930s, emerging in the early 1950s as the godfather of modern electric guitar, and no guitarist who ever plugged an instrument into an amp is free of his influence. Not only did he create the template for electric slide players everywhere, he also reworked his amps until they delivered a raw, overdriven sound that became endemic in pop and rock music a decade later, and no punk band ever sounded more ragged or passionate than Elmore James in full stride. James recorded for some dozen labels during his short recording career (he died in 1963 of a heart attack at the age of 45), and he is one of those rare artists whose recorded output was seamless from the first to the last…

With the confusing plethora of Elmore James discs out on the market, this is truly the place to start, featuring the best of his work culled from several labels. Highlights include James' original recording of "Dust My Broom," "It Hurts Me Too," "T.V. Mama" (with Elmore backing Big Joe Turner), and the title track, one of the best slow blues ever created. Slide guitar doesn't get much better than this, making this particular compilation not only a perfect introduction to Elmore's music, but an essential piece for any blues collection.

This 2CD set contains the A and B side of every 78 and 45 released in the period 1952 to 1962. It features original releases from Trumpet, Meteor, Flair, Checker, Modern, Chief, Vee Jay, Fire and Enjoy. The recordings were produced mainly in Chicago and New York with others made in Mississippi, New Orleans and Los Angeles and constitutes as formidable a body of work as could be found anywhere in blues history.

This 19-track compilation focuses on Elmore James' crucial sessions recorded for the Modern Records subsidiaries Meteor and Flair between 1952 and 1956. At the time of these recordings, the distorted amplified sound of James' slide guitar with his unmistakable electrified Robert Johnson lick was helping map out the postwar blues idiom with such classics as "I Believe," "Blues Before Sunrise," "Wild About You," "Mean & Evil," and the extraordinary reworking of Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom" into "Dust My Blues." Even though roughly half of these tracks appear on the equally recommended 1986 Ace release Let's Cut It: The Very Best of Elmore James, this set is a great introduction to the dynamic slide guitarist's earliest recordings.

Cut of the same cloth as his famous father, Elmore James, Jr. is a legitimate blues man in the best sense. He plays electric guitar and sings quite well, not with the intensity of his dad, but that shouldn't be expected. What he has become is a seasoned professional with the right attitude, consistently interpreting Chicago-style 12-bar blues without watering it down. In a world where contemporary pop and soul have invaded authentic blues, what James is laying down is definitely the real thing. It's also commendable that he borrows from a repertoire of well-known songs, while adding others that have a certain flair and originality, keeping the fire of his legendary father burning brightly on both ends.