Learn Mojo

Lonesome Sundown (his real name was Cornelius Green) had a little bit more Delta and Chicago blues in him than most of his Louisiana labelmates who recorded for producer J.D. Miller. Not that Sundown's sound isn't solidly in the so-called swamp blues tradition, but where Slim Harpo, Silas Hogan, and the other Excello artists worked from a laconic, Jimmy Reed-like shuffle, Sundown quickened the pace (at least for an Excello act) to a nastier level, and with Miller's reverb-laden production, ended up sounding a little bit like Jimmy Reed on speed, particularly on tracks like "Don't Go." Not that Lonesome Sundown couldn't do the patented Louisiana blues shuffle when he chose to, as his signature tune, "I'm a Mojo Man," shows, or even improve on the pattern, as with the loose-limbed and brilliant "I'm a Samplin' Man," but he seemed most at home doing more standard blues fare like the modern-sounding "My Home Is a Prison"…

Live in concert at Blues On The Eastside, L'l Big Horn Saloon in Cambridge, Ontario (Canada), Snooky Pryor gives his audience a taste of the fire that has developed his career along with the Chicago Blues sound. The harmonica master and his band are some 500 miles away from Chicago for this night out. They've brought the right attitude from home, though, as Pryor sings about the kinds of blues that take hold from time to time. He was 80 when this performance was recorded in late 2001. Few can ignite a room the way Pryor does, and it all comes from his experiences as a veteran bluesman. Since 1940, he's turned on Chicago audiences with his special kind of blues magic…