Sam Payne

Magic Sam Blues Band - Black Magic (1969) {2015 Delmark Deluxe Edition DE 620}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 423 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 159 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 54 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1969, 2015 Delmark Records | DE 620
Blues / Rhythm & Blues / Soul / Chicago Blues / Electric Blues

Recorded on October 23 and November 6, 1968 Black Magic was released only days before Magic Sam's untimely passing on December 1, 1969. He was only 32! The album went on to win a W.C. Handy Award in the classic blues album category. This Digipak Deluxe Edition contains more than an hour of west side Chicago blues at its finest, re-mastered from the original analog tapes. The 16-page booklet contains never before seen photos at the recording session, additional color photos from the Ann Arbor Music Festival, the original liner note from the LP and a new note by producer Bob Koester.

Magic Sam - West Side Soul (1967) {2011 Delmark Deluxe Expanded Edition DE 615}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 318 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 103 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 27 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1967, 2011 Delmark Records | DE 615
Blues / Chicago Blues / Electric Blues

To call West Side Soul one of the great blues albums, one of the key albums (if not the key album) of modern electric blues is all true, but it tends to diminish and academicize Magic Sam's debut album. This is the inevitable side effect of time, when an album that is decades old enters the history books, but this isn't an album that should be preserved in amber, seen only as an important record. Because this is a record that is exploding with life, a record with so much energy, it doesn't sound old. Of course, part of the reason it sounds so modern is because this is the template for most modern blues, whether it comes from Chicago or elsewhere.