Jeannie & Jimmy Cheatham Sweet Baby Blues (1985) {repost}

Rudy Rotta, blues guitarist extraordinaire, pays hommage to the Beatles - and presents their greatest hits in compelling, soulful blues versions.

Die ultimative Blues Kollektion vom Mississippi bis in die Metropolen. In dieser Box befinden sich die Aufnahmen von 100 legendaren Bines Grossen. Die Stile, die Ausstrahlung, die Geschichten und naturlich die geniale Ausubung ihrer Kunst machten sie einzigartig und beeinflussten Generationen nachfolgender Kunstler. Die altesten Mitglieder wurden Ende des 19ten Jahrhunderts geboren, die jungsten unter ihnen spielen noch heute live in ausverkauften Hausern. Die Musik in dieser Box wird Sie befliueln oder erden, zum Tanzen oder Weinen bewegen. Egal oh Zweisamkeit oder in einsamen Stunden: eines ist sicher: Der Blues lebt weiter!

This 52-disc (no, that is not a typo) comp, ABC of the Blues: The Ultimate Collection from the Delta to the Big Cities, may just indeed live up to its name. There are 98 artists represented , performing 1,040 tracks. The music begins at the beginning (though the set is not sequenced chronologically) with Charlie Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson, and moves all the way through the vintage Chicago years of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, with stops along the way in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, New York, and all points in between. Certainly, some of these artists are considered more rhythm & blues than purely blues artists: the inclusion of music by Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Bo Diddley, and others makes that clear.

30 Greatest Hits zeroes in on Aretha Franklin's prime recording period for Atlantic, from her breakout in 1967 with 'I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)' through the end of 1974, during which the Queen of Soul truly reigned over the charts she averaged over one pop hit every two months. This two-disc set delivers all of her classics ('Respect,' 'Do Right Woman, Do Right Man,' '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,' 'Chain of Fools,' 'Think,' 'Spanish Harlem,' 'Rock Steady'), plus much more excellent material for those who won't recognize much more than the songs (and there are quite a few) that have entered the cultural consciousness ('I Say a Little Prayer,' 'The Weight,' 'Spirit in the Dark,' 'Day Dreaming'). It's a great foundation to any collection that has yet to be equaled by a pair of Rhino sets, the two-volume Very Best of Aretha Franklin from 1994 and Aretha's Best from 2001.

This four-disc, 68-track collection paints a broad definition of the blues, with cuts ranging from vintage country blues (Robert Johnson's “Cross Road Blues,” Son House's “Death Letter Blues”) to uptown jazz blues (Nina Simone's “Blues for My Mama,” Billie Holiday's “Billie’s Blues”), Chicago blues (a live version of “Howling Wolf” by Muddy Waters), British blues (Jeff Beck's “JB’s Blues”), and contemporary acoustic blues (“Am I Wrong” by Keb' Mo'), with plenty of stops in between, making for a random but varied playlist that circles the different approaches and musical definitions of the genre.