Last Time Around – Live At Legends is a fitting farewell to the late, great Junior Wells and his partnership, friendship and kinship with Buddy Guy that lasted decades. The album is a historic release in many ways. It reunites two blues legends who began their unique association in the 1950s. The album was recorded live in March 1993 at Buddy Guy's world-famous Chicago blues mecca Legends, and it's an acoustic document of many classic songs that made both Wells and Guy legends in their own right, such as "She's Alright" and "I've Been There," along with other classic blues standards such as "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Key to the Highway," all delivered with a looseness and power that define both Guy and Wells. It also marks the last time the two ever played together.
Hoodoo Man Blues is considered by most blues aficionados and fans to be one of the best blues albums of all time. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and was chosen by the readers of Living Blues magazine as a top ten Desert Island Blues disc. Recorded on September 22 & 23, 1965 Hoodoo Man Blues was the first studio album to capture a working Chicago blues band doing essentially what they did on stage without time constraints to accommodate the singles market…
Four Chicago harmonica greats, one eminently solid album. Teamed with Junior Wells, Billy Branch, and Carey Bell, Cotton sings Willie Love's Delta classic "Little Car Blues" and Charles Brown's "Black Night." Wells trades harp solos and vocals, standing front and center on a fine rendition of Sonny Boy II's "Keep Your Hands Out of My Pockets" and the tailor-made "Somebody Changed the Lock" and "Broke and Hungry," obviously relishing the camaraderie between himself and his fellow harmonica giants. Meanwhile, Branch's showcases are the apt original "New Kid on the Block" and a deft cover of Little Walter's "Who."
The historically monumental concert performance by blues legends Buddy Guy & Junior Wells! Recorded 1978 in the gorgeous seaside town of Montreux at the foot of the Swiss Alps, this show cemented Guy & Wells’s reputation as the most significant, undeniable blues duo in music history! The audio has been digitally remastered for the highest audio quality possible!
Recorded on Halloween night in 1979, this pairs up Wells and Guy in a fashion that hasn't been heard since Hoodoo Man Blues, their first, and best collaboration. Solid backing by the Philip Guy band (Buddy's brother) makes this album a rare treat.
The music Earl Hooker and Junior Wells made together demonstrates the blues in transition, still upholding its traditions but recasting them in a format that reflected the musical taste of contemporary black society. Shortly after these records were produced, the Blues Boom shifted the music’s focus on to young white audiences. The tracks featured here represent some of the last instances of Chicago blues being produced for the artists’ own community.
Wells sings with a salty edge and clarity that are convincing and engaging, and he maintains his good humor even when saddled with less than first-rate material. He provides winning renditions of Ray Charles' "The Train," Merle Haggard's "Today I Started Loving You Again" and Jimmy Reed's "Honest I Do," plus a good reworking of his own "Messin' With The Kid" and "Goin' Home." But the song that tears the house down is "Oh, Pretty Woman," featuring flashy, exciting guitar from Rico McFarland and Wells' swirling harmonica adding secondary fire. Indeed, Wells' harp playing's another bonus; it's focused and aggressive here. This is pretty good for a 1990s session.
“Living Blues (9-10/94, pp.76-77) - "…excellent band….Wells is still one of the least cliched harp players around, and he can…still generate the kind of excitement that makes blues more than a musty and bloodless museum piece…" – Customer Review on dose.mymusic.com
A rare gem from one of the greatest blues duos in the history of music, vocalist Junior Wells and guitarist Buddy Guy! This live recording has long circulated among hardcore blues afficionados but gets it's first ever complete release here! 2 discs of the grooviest, most dynamic blues playing you'll hear all year including such memorable classics as "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Snatch It Back And Hold It," "Messin' With The Kid" and lots more!