Sonny Terry & Brownie Mcghee Mfsl

In a way, this is the veteran duo's version of Fathers and Sons, a meeting of old black bluesmen with young white admirers that Muddy Waters and Otis Spann cut with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield…

This showcase for different varieties of blues, from the acoustic harmonica/guitar work of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee to the electric band work of Ray Charles and Arbee Stidham, is more substantial than its 23 cuts, divided between five performers, would lead one to expect. There's no shortage of Lightnin' Hopkins recordings - and even of great Lightnin' Hopkins recordings - but he is in such fantastic form on the first four cuts of this multi-artist collection that it's worth the price of admission just for his acoustic playing on "Buck Dance Boogie," and when he jumps to electric blues on "Hello Central," his work is even more impressive. Ray Charles may only do three numbers, but he shows off some surprising attributes, his singing overpowering everything around him for the first two tracks, "Why Did You Go?" and "I Found My Baby There"…