A handy and generous double-disc (one live, one studio) compilation of Gary Moore's four Virgin label blues albums is predominantly an excellent introduction to this showy hard rocker turned midlife third-generation bluesman. The 31 tracks liberally sample from his relatively short five-year association with Virgin (roughly 1990-1995) but ignore his excellent 2001 Back to the Blues release on Sanctuary. Still, there are more than enough hot licks here to prove that Moore could be a convincing blues musician if he decided to give up his more ostentatious shred rock profession and focus on blues full time…
This was the most unusual, and probably the most difficult to assemble of MCA's Chess Box series, mostly because of the unusual nature of Willie Dixon's contribution to Chess Records. To be sure, Dixon rates a place in the history of the label right alongside that of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter, but his role was more subtle than that of a performer (indeed, two of the half-dozen recordings here that feature Dixon as a singer were previously unreleased)…
When blues fans Jerry Del Giudice and Edward Chmelewski started the Blind Pig label as an outgrowth of the live venue of the same name in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1977, there was no way they could have known the home they were creating for blues and Americana music would have over the next four decades. The number of legends who have recorded for the label is staggering, and their finest moments are collected on the brand new Blind Pig Records 40th Anniversary Collection. With 34 classic tracks on 2 CDs, the collection spans 40 years of blues history. This wide-ranging compilation, which boasts more than 2 hours of music, is a study in the genre, from current titans like Popa Chubby, Albert Cummings and Victor Wainwright & The WildRoots winners of Best Band at the 2016 Blues Musics to no fewer than 13 legends enshrined in the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis, with James Cotton, Otis Rush, Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Otis Clay and Magic Slim among them, not to mention a classic live recording by the one and only Muddy Waters.
Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Little Walter, Elmore James, Albert King, Howlin' Wolf, J.B. Lenoir, Sonny Boy Williamson, Buddy Guy, and Otis Rush.
People call Chicago The Home Of The Blues. It may not be where the blues came from but it s where the blues came to live. It’s the place where Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Jimmy Reed laid down the songs that inspired the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds. The blues was the bedrock on which Jimmy Page created Led Zeppelin, the band that helped to change pop music forever. Chicago was the mecca for Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Elmore James and a host of others who arrived in the city to make their fortune. The process had begun decades earlier, when record companies first came to town.