A second on ebm's Muddy Waters suggestion. Some other essentials are best of collections of Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Big Joe Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Johnson, Lowell Fulsom, Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, the three King's (Freddie, Albert, and B.B.), John Lee Hooker, Mississippi Fred McDowell, T-Bone Walker, Son House, Memphis Slim, Amos Milburn, Big Mama Thornton, and Lightnin' Hopkins. That will be a good Blues starter kit. It will also show you from whom all the mid-60's onward white would-be Bluesmen (and women) stole their stuff!
