Your favorite blues album?


I would like to know what you think to be your favorite blues album. I have several compilations, some Big Joe Turner, and several Chicago local blues artists, but am looking for more. Please include why you like the album. I'm trying to expand my "Blues" horizons, and I know I have come to the right place. I look forward to your comments.

Bean
limabean683
Lots of good stuff here so far. Keep'm coming. I have just started to listen to the blues masters collections. The harmonica classics, Vol 16 is outstanding.

Bean
The duet you are seeking is off of John Lees "the Healer" cd. The song you ssk is "in the mood"( I think)
Indeed the duet is "In the Mood" by John Lee Hooker with Bonnie Raitt. Although it's kind of pop (not old fashioned hardcore) it's probably my fave blues disc. It has many different artist on their with JLH such as Santana, Bonnie Raitt, George Thorogood and Robert Cray, all great guitar players in their own right might I add. Another disc similar to it is the B.B. King, Deuces Wild. It is very sad that John Lee passed away but he did leave us many presents to remember him by.
Tough call. I'll vote for Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, "Live at Montreux." Might be hard to find. I have only got a tape of it, which I recorded around 1980. I don't have a tape player in my system right now, so haven't heard it for awhile.

This is the album that made me realize that I wasn't actually a Junior Wells fan as much as I was a Buddy Guy fan (but check out Junior Wells "On Tap" on Delmar records). Went on to see Buddy Guy 4 or 5 times in the mid-80s. Often in clubs with 10 or 20 people in the whole place (boy have times changed - now he headlines festivals).

I don't think any of his recordings capture the amazing stage presence Buddy Guy had in those days. A favorite trick of his was to play and sing softer and softer, until you could hardly hear, and even 5 or 6 feet away you were straining to follow him. He completely controlled the crowd, you could hear a pin drop.

That kind of thing doesn't translate very well to record, and unfortunately his early records (Chess set, for example) were usually attempts to make him into a sort of pop star. The over-rated (IMHO) "Damn Right I've got the Blues" is very well-recorded (so it's nice to listen to), but has an insistently up-tempo rock and roll feel that doesn't really reflect his best playing. Not to put that down (Buddy is great at it), but it's best when mixed in with slow and/or quiet stuff, and then rips loose, only to get throttled back again.

Some of his best recordings are as a member of the band. I heard a great Big Mama Thornton album where he is a young studio musician doing his job (can't remember the name).

Well, this turned into sort of a rant. Anyway, would be curious if anyone has heard and enjoyed this album.

- Eric