Essential Blues

Here are 3CDs of essential blues from the legendary artists who started it all, Featuring 60 classic recordings grom the likes of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Lowell Fulson, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and many, many more.

Without a doubt, Two Steps from the Blues is the definitive Bobby "Blue" Bland album and one of the great records in electric blues and soul-blues. In fact, it's one of the key albums in modern blues, marking a turning point when juke joint blues were seamlessly blended with gospel and Southern soul, creating a distinctly Southern sound where all of these styles blended so thoroughly it was impossible to tell where one began and one ended. Given his Memphis background, Bobby "Blue" Bland was perfectly suited for this kind of amalgam as envisioned by producer/arranger Joe Scott, who crafted these wailing horn arrangements that sounded as impassioned as Bland's full-throated, anguished vocals. It helped, of course, that the songs were uniformly brilliant…

Mississippi-born but Texas-based Omar Kent Dykes understands a fundamental fact about the blues. He knows there are only a handful of rhythms and themes in the blues grab bag, and he uses them all over and over again in slightly different guises, which is far from a bad thing. It is the fundamental conservatism of the blues and its limited palette that has kept the form alive long after its colorful offspring (R&B, soul, rock & roll, etc.) flew the roost, taking a large part of the audience with them. But Omar understands all this. He has had a 30-year career playing these rhythms, and he knows how to keep it all simple, direct, and powerful, and how to build new songs out of the fabric of the old songs without destroying their familiarity.

He may not be a household name, but die-hard blues fans know Little Milton as a superb all-around electric bluesman – a soulful singer, an evocative guitarist, an accomplished songwriter, and a skillful bandleader. He's often compared to the legendary B.B. King – as well as Bobby "Blue" Bland – for the way his signature style combines soul, blues, and R&B, a mixture that helped make him one of the biggest-selling bluesmen of the '60s (even if he's not as well-remembered as King). As time progressed, his music grew more and more orchestrated, with strings and horns galore. He maintained a steadily active recording career all the way from his 1953 debut on Sam Phillips' legendary Sun label, with his stunning longevity including notable stints at Chess (where he found his greatest commercial success), Stax, and Malaco.

Like each of the entries in the Classic blues catalog, The Essential Bill Gaither summarizes the artist's contribution to musical history by tapping into his complete works as reissued by Document in five volumes a few years prior to this collection's appearance in 2001. Gaither, whose recording career began in 1935 and was interrupted then ultimately terminated by the Second World War, operated under the combined influences of Leroy Carr, Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy, Jazz Gillum, Peetie Wheatstraw, and Big Maceo Merriweather. Most but not all of his records were made with Indianapolis pianist Honey Hill, and the producers of this collection were thoughtful enough to include Hill's only known piano solos, "Boogie Woogie" and "Set ‘Em"…

Various Artists - Essential Memphis Blues (2012) {2CD Not Now Music NOT2CD447}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 538 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 333 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 21 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 Not Now Music | NOT2CD447
Blues / Traditional Blues / Delta Blues / Electric Blues / Memphis Blues

If you love the Blues, these sets provide some of the greatest songs all in one collection. You need these in your collection. It's very hard to characterize "Memphis blues," even though all blues started at Memphis. This is more delta blues, but still a good collection. Some of what we call "Chicago blues" is more of "toned up" Memphis blues. Not so much of that here, and it should've been included. Old school Blues with a large selection of music and great artist,enjoyed it.