CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

The Definitive Collection

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
by: Bo Diddley

Release Date April 17, 2007
The last time I had occasion to mention the late Bo Diddley in this space was in connection with a series of interviews and performances along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard and others in Keith Richards Chuck Berry tribute film Hail, Hail Rock and Roll. The talk centered, rightly, on the dismal fate of many black recording artists who developed what would become Rock and Roll when the white artists like Elvis took it over and reaped the benefits of a mass audience. Well, those interviews occurred a while ago, back in the 1980's, but Bo's sense of not having been properly recognized I believe remained until his death. Yet, when one thinks of the sounds created by the founders of Rock and Roll can anyone deny that Bo's primal beat was not ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Pinetop Perkins

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
by: Pinetop Perkins & Friends

Release Date June 03, 2008
The last time I had occasion to mention the late Bo Diddley in this space was in connection with a series of interviews and performances along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard and others in Keith Richards Chuck Berry tribute film Hail, Hail Rock and Roll. The talk centered, rightly, on the dismal fate of many black recording artists who developed what would become Rock and Roll when the white artists like Elvis took it over and reaped the benefits of a mass audience. Well, those interviews occurred a while ago, back in the 1980's, but Bo's sense of not having been properly recognized I believe remained until his death. Yet, when one thinks of the sounds created by the founders of Rock and Roll can anyone deny that Bo's primal beat was not ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Riding with the King

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
from: Reprise / Wea

Release Date June 13, 2000
Great compilation of relaxing blues toons. Unfortunately relaxing is all you'll get here. I would have enjoyed it a little more if it had included a couple of toons that had made me want to get up and move a little though.

CD-Charts Position 4
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Hoodoo Man Blues

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
by: Junior Wells

Release Date June 10, 1993
HOODOO MAN BLUES by Junior Wells is a GREAT blues album. If you like Chicago electric blues, you've GOT to have this CD! The CD also has some out-takes that were never on the original album. These are great too. Junior Wells is my favorite bluesman of all time. His harp playing is fantastic as are his vocals. I almost forgot to mention that Buddy Guy plays absolutely fantastic guitar on this album!

CD-Charts Position 5
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His Best

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
by: Sonny Boy Williamson

Release Date May 20, 1997
Sonny Boy II is not my favorite. I like more honk from the harp and less undercurrent of menace from the vocals, and I like Little Walter's and Paul Butterfield's ways of extending the blues melodically without losing the Chicago of it. But Sonny Boy grows on me, and this album has a lot of great stuff for a guy like me to hear who's trying to pick up journeyman skills on the harp.

CD-Charts Position 6
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The Definitive Collection

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
by: Muddy Waters

Release Date May 23, 2006
There is a huge amount of Muddy Waters-compilations out there, and while MCA/Chess's two-disc, 50-track "Anthology 1947-1972" is certainly more definitive than this Geffen compilation, it does offer a very good overview of Muddy Waters' career.

Opening with the classic 1948 single "I Can't Be Satisfied", this CD takes you through (most of) the highlights from the 1950s and 60s. "Hoochie Coochie Man", "I'm Ready", "I Just Wanna Make Love To You", "Mannish Boy", and "Got My Mojo Working" are here, of course, and in the original versions, too, but it's a shame that some slightly lesser known (but equally fine) singles like "I Love The Life I Live, I Live The Life I Love", "She's Nineteen Years Old" and "I Want To Be Loved" are missing.

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CD-Charts Position 7
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The Sky Is Crying: The History of Elmore James

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
by: Elmore James

Release Date April 06, 1993
Love the blues? This is for you. One of the early up from Mississippi to Chicago bluesmen (I think he died in '43). "Madison Blues" and "The Sky is Crying" the way 'lonesome George' heard them first.

CD-Charts Position 8
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His Best : The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
by: Bo Diddley

Release Date April 08, 1997
Another legend was taken from us on June 2, 2008. One of the greatest and most influential bluesmen has left us at the age of 79. The breadth of his influence can hardly be described in a few words. It is best heard in the music he left behind for us to share and in the musicians who were inspired and influenced by it. The first big hit for the Rolling Stones, after all, was a Buddy Holly song revved up with that Bo Diddley beat. The song was "Not Fade Away." The Stones also covered some of Bo's originals like "Crackin' Up" and "Mona" and again, utilized that beat on their own "Please Go Home." George Thorogood has made a career out of "Who Do You Love" and what bar band in the world has not run through "Roadrunner" a half a million times? Creedence and Clapton covered ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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His Best :(Little Walter)The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
by: Little Walter

Release Date June 17, 1997
Picture yourself in a crowded juke joint or blues bar on the southside of Chicago in the late '40's. Muddy Waters is about to play. He's already gone electric; I mean, he had to, to be heard over all the talking and yelling and what not. His harp player has about blown out a lung trying to be heard over all that din. Walter Jacobs has been doing a bit of experimenting himself, in an attempt to amplify the sound of that little instrument. Tonight he actually grabs the microphone off the stand, bumping it up close enough in his clasped hands to touch the harp. He cranks up the volume and starts to blow. The sound coming out of the amp is unlike anything anyone's ever heard. It's got a deep, heavy, honking, sexy wail, nothing at all like the unamplified harmonica sound of "country" blues. Men and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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Trouble Is...

CD-Charts > Music > Chicago Blues
by: The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band

Release Date October 07, 1997
This is the first KWS CD that I have purchased and it was promoted by listening to Blue on Black on a streaming electric blues audio station. I was hoping the rest of the CD was going to be good electric blues rock and I was not dissapointed. I thought the entire CD was darn good!