This album was put together after the premature death of the great Luther Tucker. It features his unique guitar playing, which really doesn't sound like the guitar work of anyone else. The seventeen minute interview at the end of the disc really provides great insight into Luther's life, career in music, huge admiration for Robert Junior Lockwood, and some Chess Records stories about Little Walter and Leonard and Phil Chess, which is quite amusing…….
Muddy Waters eldest son Mud Morganfield presents his unique brand of charismatic Chicago blues, a mix of Muddy s epic songs and his own original material!
Celebrating sixty years since the launch of one of the most successful independent record labels in US Popular music. Received wisdom would have us believe that before Motown, no black-owned record company had made a significant impact on the US mainstream. However, the actuality is something else entirely. Way back in the early 50s, long before Berry Gordy had written his first song, VEE-JAY RECORDS - a black, family owned and run, Chicago-based label - was establishing itself via a steady stream of Blues, R&B, DooWop and Gospel hits.
It won't take long for even a fan of U.K. blues-jazz guitarist Matt Schofield to realize that this is his most focused, blues-oriented album to date. The opening track, "What I Wanna Hear," sets up an easygoing shuffle landing somewhere between Texas and Chicago as Schofield's laid-back yet emotional voice digs into the sparse, insistent groove, propelled by Jonny Henderson's organ. When the guitarist lets loose, it's a solo that's wired from the heart, plowing into the arrangement with a lean, mean tone that slithers and glides above the walking bass beat. It's a six-minute tour de force that fades out, leaving the listener wanting more……
First the good news, which is really good: the sound on this 340-song set is about as good as one ever fantasized it could be, and that means it runs circles around any prior reissues; from the earliest Aristocrat sides by the Five Blazers and Jump Jackson & His Orchestra right up through Muddy Waters' "Going Down to Main Street," it doesn't get any better than this set. The clarity pays a lot of bonuses, beginning with the impression that it gives of various artists' instrumental prowess. In sharp contrast to the past efforts in this direction by MCA, however, the producers of this set have not emasculated the sound in the course of cleaning it up, as was the case with the Chuck Berry box, in particular.
For fans of the American blues-rock Good Whiskey Blues - just a gift. Cool melodies, captivating rhythms, original things … and what voice !? Bluesmen such as Bleu Jackson, Freddie & The Screamers, Sy Clopps, would look absolutely win-win next to any superstar, and slide guitar of Michael Henderson is not worse than, say, the same Dave Hole.