In the mid 1960s, Chess Records released a series of The Real Folk Blues albums that compiled singles from the careers of some of its greatest artists. John Lee Hooker’s The Real Folk Blues differed from many of the other compilations as it featured newly-recorded sessions for the label. These legendary 1966 recordings capture the essence of his signature sound and approach to the blues. Standout tracks include “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” “Stella Mae” and “I’m In The Mood.”
Bring home the sound of America’s greatest blues label in high fidelity with the Chess Records Acoustic Sounds Series. These audiophile reissues of classic albums and compilations from the Chess discography are remastered from the original analog tapes and pressed…
Category: blues
Fondly referred to as “The Rockin’ Chair Album” due to the depiction of a rocking chair on its cover, Howlin’ Wolf by Howlin’ Wolf is rockin’ in more ways than one. This record captures the true sound of the electric blues with a compilation of singles previously released between 1957 and 1961. Featuring the talents of Chess mainstays including Willie Dixon, Hubert Sumlin, Sam Lay, and Jimmy Rogers, the album delivers a powerful sound. Standout tracks include “Little Red Rooster,” “Spoonful,” and “Back Door Man,” among others.
Bring home the sound of America’s greatest blues label in high fidelity with the Chess Records Acoustic Sounds Series. These audiophile reissues of classic albums and compilations from the Chess discography are remastered…
J.P. Reali’s Grateful Blues may not seem a wholly original thought, at least upon a cursory glance, given Luther Dickinson and Datrian Johnson’s vividly wrought Dead Blues Volume I, released late in 2025.
But the veteran Delaware guitarist, long a staple of the Washington, D.C. music scene, puts a distinctive twist on his concept for this six-song EP. Rather than do what the NMA co-founder and his compatriot did, that is, assemble blues material covered by the iconic band, Reali and company arrange a discerning selection of Dead material in a largely authentic style.
Given that slant, it should come as no surprise that the late Ron ‘Pigpen’ McKernan figures heavily in the mix. Reali doesn’t sound quite…
The charismatic Albert Castiglia is one of our most preeminent blues-rockers, a certified badass, an engaging entertainer, and an underrated guitarist. As we learn on his 13th solo album, Grits & Glory, he’s also an unapologetic songwriter in touch with our chaotic times. It’s by far his most expansive album, as one of the few roots-blues artists who covers The Beatles and John Coltrane on the same record.
There are several threads here. He recorded live at Abbey Road Studios, working in the same space where The Beatles recorded their White Album and Pink Floyd laid down Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. For the first time, Castiglia demonstrates an affinity for jazz in a searing take of Mongo Santamaria’s…
GA-20 co-founding guitarist Matthew Stubbs was two decades away from being born when Charlie Musselwhite released his 1968 debut album Stand Back. But the young Stubbs joined the singer/songwriter/harmonica master’s band in 2008, traveling the world for a decade. He then recorded two discs with his Antiguas outfit before forming GA-20 in 2017, releasing that band’s first single two years later.
So it’s not unusual that, after the group’s success in the raw Chicago-styled blues field plowed by his former boss, he would reconnect with mentor, and elder statesman Musselwhite for Blues Now. At 82, the elder icon remains not just active but productive, recently releasing the fine Look Out Highway, somewhere around his…
Swampy surf rock, psychedelic Peruvian chicha and ambient blues – within Brian J. Gitkin’s global genre-hopping, guitar-twanging discography, these are the elements that keep coming back around. And they’re here again on his fifth album, together with touches of New Orleans music and gospel. Although he plays most of the instruments here himself, Gitkin’s real speciality is in his composition, where he pulls on the threads of these different styles and reweaves them together so confidently that the blend feels entirely natural. What really binds it all is the atmosphere. There is a nostalgic but slightly unreal quality across the album’s six instrumentals and four songs, the guitar ripples and organ reverbs evoking romantic and somewhat dreamlike images…
There is nothing ordinary about Fantastic Negrito. From his given Christian name of Xavier Dphrepaulezz to his career revitalization as a roots artist combining blues, soul, funk, and rock along with album titles ‘Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?’ and ‘Please Don’t Be Dead’ (3 nabbed GRAMMY’S), Negrito avoids following any existing blueprint.
That’s especially apparent when listening to Fantastic Negrito Alive, released July 17 via Storefront Records. Compiled from a recent tour’s most earth-quivering performances, this is the epitome of how a concert album should sound. Its 13 tracks veer way off-course from their studio versions, feeding off the audience’s energy, which then ramps up his own. His eclectic nature is fully exposed for this generous hour and…
There are plenty of rags to riches stories in the blues but few, if any, compare to the interesting career of singer/songwriter/harmonicist Chris O’Leary. His is a much different story than the rags to riches type. He fought in the Middle East as a Marine during the Gulf War. He guarded nuclear weapons as a Federal police officer, and yet his love for the blues landed him as the frontman for Levon Helm and the Barn Burners, including stints in New Orleans. The characteristics of discipline, confidence, aggression, poise, and passion are all part of his makeup. Discerning listeners will find these in his songs.
His self-produced Blue Collar is O’Leary’s seventh release and second for Alligator Records, following 2024’s The Hard Line. This high…
Since 1980 at the very latest, guitarist Kim Simmonds and whatever group of ringers he chooses to call Savoy Brown have been playing bad, late-’70s boogie rock disguised as the blues. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an “original” or a cover, Simmonds and Savoy Brown sound tired on virtually every cut of this set, which covers the years 1992-2007. And his playing, while capable, is simply a reflection of the guitar god imagery of the ’70s. Check out his Robin Trower-ized version of Lowell Fulsom’s classic “Monday Morning Blues,” both the author and Trower (a true electric bluesman) should be insulted. In Simmonds’ hands, the tune becomes a generic, wah-wah-pedaled, psychedelicized blues number with a hint of faux soul thrown in, as does his reading of Willie Dixon’s…
1925 was a landmark year for US recording studios, marking the introduction of electronic microphones to replace the huge gramophone horns previously used to harvest the sound of singers and musicians. This brought about a dramatic leap in sound quality and established 1925 as an effective year zero for modern compilations.
The 32 tracks selected here by the author and musicologist Dick Spottswood draw on 1925 releases from Paramount, Columbia and Vocalion – then the industry’s three giants – but also from smaller and more adventurous labels, such as OKEH and Gennet.
Spottswood’s choices provide us with a rich and thoroughly enjoyable mixed bag of light-hearted trad jazz (including one of…
Tenor saxophonist and vocalist Greg Piccolo has been leading his own band, Heavy Juice, since 1994, yet longtime blues lovers likely mostly associate him with the frontman of Roomful of Blues, a role he held for 25 years. This new effort, Who Knows What the Future Holds, may surprise those same people. This is a singer-songwriter record, consisting of unpublished tunes that Piccolo has written over the years.
Piccolo teamed with producer and engineer Terry Manning, whose resume extends from Stax and Ardent studios in Memphis to mixing Led Zeppelin III to The Fabulous Thunderbirds, ZZ Top, and Shania Twain. Piccolo and Heavy Juice traveled to the famed Sonic Ranch, outside of El Paso, TX, to record. Unfortunately, Manning…
Any discussion about Datura4 will focus on its frontman/founder Dom Mariani.
Although not a world-renowned, or even familiar, name to all but the most dedicated rock fan, Mariani is an award-winning icon of the Australian roots music scene. He has led, or been involved with, a dizzying array of bands over a career extending back to the early ’80s.
Those familiar with the sounds from down under may recognize groups such as The Stems, The Someloves, DM3, The Stonefish, The Summer Suns… and there are more. Mariani has been connected with them all, some as frontman, others as a hired hand for a while or tours. There is a full Wikipedia page dedicated to his eventful, colorful career for those who want to learn more.
To his credit, Joe Bonamassa has never been shy about his influences, consistently paying tribute to them in concerts and studio recordings.
From British blues rock icons like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin, a few acts he covered on 2018s ‘British Blues Explosion Live,’ to reimagining classic soul with singer Beth Hart and helming a stunningly assembled homage to B.B. King, Bonamassa uses his popularity to attract attention to those who played a major role in his musical development.
Longtime fans remember JB’s 2000 major label debut kicked off with a version of Rory Gallagher’s “Cradle Rock,” an early indication of how significant the Irish guitar legend’s music was to him. Bonamassa often cites Gallagher’s…
…The deluxe edition of the album unveils six tracks that were previously only available via a limited-edition boxset at the time.
Like a heavy weather warning, there’s not much you can do once Beth Hart decides she’s coming through. The assumed shorthand for Beth Hart is blues siren, but she’s far more than that, even if this latest album opens with the fiery ‘Savior with a Razor’, which struts in like a cowboy kicking open saloon doors before Slash comes in through the window like Paul Kossoff with a grudge against his Gibson Les Paul.
Very good it is too, and no one would blame you if at that point, a light bulb went off above your head and you thought, ‘I get it; Beth Hart, blues siren’. Because when Hart throws back…
Let’s recite five famous blues clubs, present and past – Checkerboard Lounge, Buddy Guy’s Legends, Kingston Mines, Blue Door Cafe, and Theresa’s Lounge. The educated guess is that you’ve heard of at least four of them.
Surprisingly, our subject club, the long shuttered Theresa’s Lounge, which is probably one of the best-known of the five, has had the fewest live recordings, only one: that of Junior Wells Live at Theresa’s (1975). Yet, the storied club was where so many legends cut their teeth.
The basement club was the haven of legends – Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, Hubert Sumlin, Earl Hooker, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Hound Dog Taylor, Otis Rush, Magic Slim, Little Walter, Otis Spann, and countless…
…featuring 8 bonus tracks including rare studio recordings + iconic live performances.
Kaleo (a Hawaiian word for “the sound”), are a group of talented young rock/blues musicians from (where else would you expect?) Mosfellsbaer, outside Iceland’s capital of Reykjavik, and only recently relocated to Austin, Texas, in 2015.
Having riled up a significant following in their home country as well amassing a horde of streams on Spotify, the band signed with Atlantic Records, and now we have their first complete gift to American listeners.
A/B sounds like a greatest hits album. In a way it kind of is, as it draws from Kaleo’s Icelandic self-titled debut and the handful of singles that have been released in America.
Looking for a relaxing evening after a rough day? Turn the lights down, sit back in your favorite cushy chair and let the calming, soothing sounds of George Thorogood and his Destroyers, recorded in concert, waft over you for an hour’s worth of introspective, peaceful, tension-releasing music. OK…just kidding…. you’ve no doubt guessed, that’s not what we have here.
As the title The Baddest Show on Earth: Greatest Hits Live implies, this eleven song traipse through some of Thorogood’s roughest, toughest, sweatiest, most heart-palpitating music, recorded live at various venues from 1978 until 2024, is not for those looking to achieve a Zen meditative moment. The pounding beat of the opening cover of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love,”…
When Samantha Fish plays your town, or someplace nearby, on one of her 250 or so yearly dates, it’s to do one thing; kick out the jams.
She makes that clear covering the MC5 classic starting most of the shows on last year’s ‘Paper Doll Live’ tour promoting her recent release. It was also opened her previous run, sharing billing with roots rocker Jesse Dayton. This document of a typical gig, recorded at Knoxville, TN.’s Bijou Theater, exemplifies why Fish has become one of the finest and most vibrant contemporary blues/rock acts, of either gender, currently grinding out endless one-nighters.
Paper Doll is the first album she has recorded with her road band, the same three musicians on these shows. They are not only tight and…
…Cream’s third album Wheels of Fire was originally released on 14 June 1968 in the US; less than a month later, the three-piece – Ginger Baker (drums, vocals), Jack Bruce (bass, lead vocals) and Eric Clapton (guitar, vocals) – announced that they were going their separate ways…
The 5CD super deluxe edition features a 2026 remaster and a previously unreleased phase-corrected version of the entire album. The latter version was achieved by using software to reverse the Haeco-CSG effect originally applied to the album. This was a ’60s audio processing technique intended to make stereo recordings compatible with mono turntables but had a side-effect of ‘blurring’ the stereo imaging. The first CD offers the remaster of the original…
What began as a rather bizarre concept has fully blossomed, seven chapters in. Arguably, The Claudettes are the only band to successfully meld soul, rock, punk, and cabaret into an intoxicating stew. The juxtaposition of the two words in the title of Garage Glamour sums it up as succinctly as possible. The Claudettes take the raw, unabashed grit of rock n’ roll with a punkish flair, and combine it with a glitzy club vibe and even shady noir songs, seemingly right out of a soundtrack. In fact, Johnny Iguana, the band’s composer/pianist, is the co-composer of the original score of the Emmy-winning FX/Hulu series The Bear. His co-creator of that score, JQ, joined him to produce two tracks on this album, and Grammy-winning…