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Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of a 4CD clamshell boxed set by Climax Blues Band, “The Albums 1973-1976”. This release is the second collection of Climax Blues Band albums and features their work issued between 1973 and 1976, a period of commercial and concert success for the group which saw the release of the albums FM Live, Sense Of Direction, Stamp Album and Gold Plated.
Formed in Stafford in 1968 by Colin Cooper, the band (originally known as the Climax Chicago Blues Band) recorded their first live album, FM Live, in New York City at the Academy of Music. The album was originally released as a single LP in the UK by Polydor Records, but issued as an entire performance by Sire Records in the USA. The version in this set is the original US double album running order (with the full version of Goin’ to New York)…

Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton was Eric Clapton's first fully realized album as a blues guitarist – more than that, it was a seminal blues album of the 1960s, perhaps the best British blues album ever cut, and the best LP ever recorded by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Standing midway between Clapton's stint with the Yardbirds and the formation of Cream, this album featured the new guitar hero on a series of stripped-down blues standards, Mayall pieces, and one Mayall/Clapton composition, all of which had him stretching out in the idiom for the first time in the studio…

This fabulous blues duo has existed for more than 20 years. The harp and guitar has been a traditional format in the blues history, and they are giving you the best of what they consider is the best of the acoustic blues tradition. Their music goes back to the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. The Jumper and Moe play in different styles like the Mississippi slide or harp style, or the sweet Piedmont way of guitar picking. We can find memories of Blind Blake, Mississippi John Hurt, Bo Carter, Leadbelly, Lightning Hopkins, Blind Willie McTell, Bukka White, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, BB King, Mississippi Sheiks, The Memphis Jug Band, Robert Johnson, and many more of the oldtimers in their music.

Universal's '2 For 1' series, compiling the albums 'Blues Dimension' (1968) and 'B.D. Is Dead, Long Live B.D.' (1969). The band was formed in Zwolle, Overijssel (The Netherlands) in 1966 by Leen Ripke. It was one of the first Dutch groups playing blues and rhythm & blues with horns. They were also one of the few bands in the 1960's that had a respectable three albums out! The band was troubled by the fact that another local band, the more popular Cuby & The Blizzards consequently stole musicians from Blues Dimension. Their biggest hit 'Get Ready' was a cover from Rare Earth. In 1969, the group's breakup was announced in the title of their last album.

In Search of The Lost Chord (1968). "In Search of the Lost Chord" is the album on which the Moody Blues discovered drugs and mysticism as a basis for songwriting and came up with a compelling psychedelic creation, filled with songs about Timothy Leary and the astral plane and other psychedelic-era concerns. They dumped the orchestra this time out in favor of Mike Pinder's Mellotron, which was a more than adequate substitute, and the rest of the band joined in with flutes, sitar, tablas, and cellos, the playing of which was mostly learned on the spot. The whole album was one big experiment to see how far the group could go with any instruments they could find, thus making this album a rather close cousin to the Beatles' records of the same era…

Blues singer Big Pete Pearson was born on October 4, 1936, in Jamaica and raised by his grandparents in St. John's, TX, near Austin. He began performing in bars in Austin at the age of nine, learning to play guitar and bass, and went on to a lengthy career playing in house bands in Austin. He played on recording sessions at Peacock Records and toured with T.D. Bell & the Cadillacs. He first began performing in Phoenix, AZ, in the late '50s and settled there in the '60s, becoming famous locally. His first album under his own name, One More Drink, was released by Blue Witch Records in 2001. On February 13, 2007, Blue Witch released his second album, I'm Here Baby. Southwest Records released Finger in Your Eye on July 7, 2009, and Modesto Blues Records released The Screamer on August 25, 2009.

This Dutch blues band was formed in the Hague around 1967, becoming a regular outfit from 1969. The early line-up included Bjorn Toll (vocals), John Lagrand (harmonica), Ted Oberg (guitar), Ruud Fransen (bass) and Niek Dijkhuys (drums) but although the name remained wholesale changes soon took place, bringing in a new singer, Nicko Christiansen, and new bass and drums, Peter Kleinjan and Beer Klaasse, the latter pair being swiftly replaced by Gerard Strutbaum and Cesar Zuiderwijk, while keyboard player Henk Smitskamp was added. Other changes followed through the 70s, by which time the band’s repertoire was more inclined towards rock. Musicians involved included bass players Ruud van Buuren, Jan van der Voort, Jaap van Eijk and André Reynen, drummers John Lejeune, Herman van Boeyen, Cor van Beek, Michel Driessen, Kenny Lamb and Arjen Kamminga; the latter pair played in the band simultaneously for a spell…

Rice Miller (or Alec or Aleck Miller – everything about this blues great is somewhat of a mystery) probably didn't need to take the name of the original Sonny Boy Williamson (John Lee Williamson) to get noticed, since in many ways he was the better musician, but Miller seemed to revel in confusion, at least when it came to biographical facts, so for whatever reason, blues history has two Sonny Boy Williamsons. Like the first Williamson, Miller was a harmonica player, but he really sounded nothing like his adopted namesake, favoring a light, soaring, almost horn-like sound on the instrument…