Brownie Mcghee

Recorded for Prestige's Bluesville subsidiary in 1960 and reissued on CD for Fantasy's Original Blues Classics (OBC) series in 1990, Lightnin' is among the rewarding acoustic dates Lightnin' Hopkins delivered in the early '60s. The session has an informal, relaxed quality, and this approach serves a 48-year-old Hopkins impressively well on both originals like "Thinkin' 'Bout an Old Friend" and the familiar "Katie Mae" and enjoyable interpretations of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee's "Back to New Orleans" and Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "Mean Old Frisco." Hopkins' only accompaniment consists of bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Belton Evans, both of whom play in an understated fashion and do their part to make this intimate setting successful. From the remorseful "Come Back Baby" to more lighthearted, fun numbers like "You Better Watch Yourself" and "Automobile Blues," Lightnin' is a lot like being in a small club with Hopkins as he shares his experiences, insights and humor with you. - Alex Henderson (AMG)

Although the acoustic blues duo of Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan can often be entertaining with their particular brand of wry-humored blues, on Too Much Fun their antics are…well, too much. Instead of appearing to the listener as the accomplished musicians and music business veterans that they are, songs such as "Chicken Ala King" and "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away" make the duo come off as a couple of juvenile drunks at a local bar. As on any Ball & Sultan album, there are moments, the instrumental "American Medley" being one of them, but overall the album is more slapstick than substance.

Over the years, the Nighthawks have done their share of label-hopping. 1991 found them briefly recording for Powerhouse, a small Florida label that Ichiban was distributing at the time. Trouble, which the Nighthawks dedicated to Doc Pomus, was their only album for Powerhouse — and it is a solid blues-rock outing that sometimes detours into blue-eyed soul and early rock & roll. Whatever the style, the Nighthawks bring a lot of grit and enthusiasm to the material, which ranges from Lieber and Stoller's "The Chicken and the Hawk" to Bobby "Blue" Bland's "(I Wouldn't) Treat a Dog." The band also turns its attention to Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee's "Ride and Roll," a song that blues lovers associate with the Piedmont, GA, school of Southern country blues…….