John Mayall Collection

This "Live from Austin Texas" set is also incredible and features Collins with a superlative Texas-based band. The performance is fantastic and should be heard in 5.1 sound! The set was filmed just about two years before he died, October 1991. He was still a vital performer. This set was originally released from a video tape by Vestapol as "Texas Blues Guitar" in conjunction with the Stephan Grossman Guitar Workshop. "Iceman", "Light's Are Out" and "Head Rag" were included in that DVD transfer. I knew this complete DVD would be great! On this show the picture quality is excellent and the sound fantastic.

Mustard is the second solo album by Roy Wood, who wrote and produced every track and painted the cartoon-style cover. It was completed and released about the same time as he disbanded his group Wizzard. He played all the instruments, and contributed all vocals apart from guest appearances by Annie Haslam, Phil Everly, ex-Move and Wizzard bassist Rick Price, and co-engineer Dick Plant.

CD pressing of this 1972 album from the British Blues great. Alexis Korner, along with John Mayall, could be called the "father of British Blues". Even though he himself is not necessarily a well known name, he helped launch the careers of many top Rock and Blues stars from the 1960s. Bootleg Him! is a 20 track collection of odds & ends from his early career. Musicians appearing with Alexis on this album include Robert Plant, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Charlie Watts, Graham Bond, Paul Rodgers, Andy Fraser, the list goes on and on.

One of the toughest, most talented female singer-songwriter-guitar slingers on the contemporary blues scene today is Debbie Davies. On Love the Game the former sidewoman to John Mayall and Albert Collins spices up her collection of insightful, slice-of-life stories (some of which were penned by her longtime bandmate Don Castagno) with stinging licks and down-home soul. Produced by the wily blues vet Duke Robillard, Debbie’s seventh overall and third for Shanachie features special guest appearances from guitarist Jay Geils, pianist Bruce Katz, saxophonists Doug James and Gordon Beadle and longtime guitar colleague Coco Montoya, who lays out some ferocious licks alongside Davies and Robillard on the aptly named three-way shuffle jam “Fired Up.” Debbie’s autobiographical words on “Can’t Live Like This No More” hit home to anyone over “a certain age,” while the feelings of futility she sings about on her melancholy slow blues “Down in the Trenches” would register with anyone who has ever felt love slip away. Castango offers a sly sense of earthy humor on “Worst Kinda Man,” “Keep Your Sins to Yourself” and the album’s lone acoustic number, “Was Ya Blue”.

Unlike Boulders, Mustard is designed as a full-fledged album instead of a collection of pop vignettes. Outside of Wood's love for Brian Wilson there's no concept, yet it flows smoothly and attractively, since each song sounds like an epic pop extravaganza in miniature.

Its been forty odd years since Little Walter passed away. Let after all the years, his musical legacy still burns bright. Shortly after his death, George 'Harmonica' Smith did a marvelous tribute CD with the Muddy Waters Band of the time that had Smith providing his own take on some of Walter's better known recordings. It was a fine effort that alas today is a collector's item. Now, East Coast harmonica wizard, Dennis Gruenling, has turned his attention to a marvelous tribute to Little Walter, I Just Keep Lovin' Him - A Tribute to Little Walter

The Band Du Lac is Gary Brooker's brainchild. A random collection of concerned musicians and celebrities both past and present, these good-natured guys and gals get together under the famous keyboardist's tutelage for various charitable events, playing before black-tie crowds in hopes of coercing a few extra pounds out of their pockets.