So80's (So Eighties) is a triple-disc set of classic new wave and '80s hits selected by the German DJs Blank & Jones. The pair offer a non-stop mix of hits on the first disc while the other two discs round up original extended 12" mixes of the hits. Those looking for a thumping nonstop party will prefer the former, while those that grew up hunting down 12"s in record stores will prefer the latter pair of discs.
Chicago Blues Session! features a session pianist Willie Mabon cut on Independence Day 1979 with guitarist Hubert Sumlin, guitarist Eddie Taylor, bassist Aron Burton and drummer Casey Jones. The album was originally released on the German L&R label, mainly because American labels were shunning the blues……
Other than jazz and classical, there are few other musical genres where vocals don't dominate, but Ronnie Earl sets out to prove that blues can be another. This entirely instrumental album never lags for a second of its hour-and-a-quarter playing time, all without a word being sung. Instead, Earl uses his magnificent guitar tone – a stinging combination of Santana, Hubert Sumlin, Mike Bloomfield, Otis Rush, and Albert King – and command of dynamics to wring more soul from his material than all but a handful of vocalists could ever achieve. He does this without the blinding speed or enhanced volume of the most popular blues six-stringers, but by the sheer intensity of his playing on these 11 tracks.
May as well call this "Chess Greatest Hits (Except for Chuck Berry)". A great collection.
This was the most unusual, and probably the most difficult to assemble of MCA's Chess Box series, mostly because of the unusual nature of Willie Dixon's contribution to Chess Records. To be sure, Dixon rates a place in the history of the label right alongside that of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter, but his role was more subtle than that of a performer (indeed, two of the half-dozen recordings here that feature Dixon as a singer were previously unreleased)…
Gigantic eight record box, this comes the closest to documenting the wide breadth of blues recordings done by Sam Phillips at the Sun studios in Memphis during the early 50s. A landmark achievement.
This multi-disc set has most of the major blues classics of the late 1940's and 1950's that went on to spawn the rock era; from Ike Turner and Rocket 88 to Howlin' Wolf's best sides. Sam Phillips and Sun Records got every major player south of Chicago to record there sooner or later–and even some who had done work in Chicago came back to do work in the landmark Memphis studio (which is a GREAT tourist destination!).
Although the titles are all familiar (most of them a little too much so), Cotton and his all-star cohorts (guitarists Jimmie Vaughan, Matt Murphy, Luther Tucker, Hubert Sumlin, and Wayne Bennett, with the omnipresent Perkins on keys) pull the whole thing off beautifully. Cotton's cover of Wolf's "Moanin' at Midnight" is remarkably eerie in its own right, and he romps through Muddy Waters' "Blow Wind Blow" and "Sugar Sweet" with joyous alacrity.