[jpr703]

I'm looking for some good blues albums. I like that authentic Mississippi delta style, but I'd like to find stuff that's decently recorded. Any suggestions?

 

[gratefulshrink]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpr703 I'm looking for some good blues albums. I like that authentic Mississippi delta style, but I'd like to find stuff that's decently recorded. Any suggestions?

John Lee Hooker is my all-time fave -- all his albums are great.

I also like Lightnin' Hopkins and Son House.

For true blues roots, make sure you hear Robert Johnson.

 

[Csericks]

Junior Kimbrough & The Soul Blues Boys - "All Night Long" is a great "Authentic" Mississsippi disc. Fat Possum/Epitaph 80308-2. If you let me know some things that you enjoy I could probably make some other suggestions.

 

[Todd R]

Muddy Waters "Folk Singer" On MoFi is scary good!

Keb Mo albums always sound good.

 

[jpr703]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I'll have to check out as many of them as I can.

Anyone familiar with R.L. Burnside? I saw him on a documentary recently and though his music sounded very authentic.

 

[Absorbine_Sr]

Just today I received in the mail a CD by Hubert Sumlin named "About Them Shoes". It was a sugestion on Amazon. Mr. Sumlin has played with James Cotton, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf. And guests on this album include Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Levon Helm and others. It was recorded in 2004.

I'm listening to it right now and it is smokin'. The blues duet between Richards & Sumlin on track 2 is just killing me! A well spent few dollars!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Fencoding=UTF8

A_Sr.

 

[Csericks]

R.L. Burnside is excellent! Too Bad Jim is a very nice disc. The Junior Kimbrough is Mississippi Juke Joint blues along similar lines as R.L. Burnside.

 

[Davey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpr703 Anyone familiar with R.L. Burnside? I saw him on a documentary recently and though his music sounded very authentic.

Yeah, love Burnside. Is the documentary the Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads DVD from the early 90s? That's a great film and some really authentic music. Man, I gotta get a copy of that, haven't seen it in a long time. Burnside has done some very cool stuff in recent years, working with Beck's producer and also with Jon Spencer at one point. Kind of a punk blues or techno blues on some of that, but when he does the authentic blues, it doesn't get much better. He has a SACD out of the First Recordings compilation from the 60s with a couple later bonus tracks, but it's a pricey one as it's through MFSL. But if I was gonna just pick one, I'd look for a copy of the mid 90s one called Too Bad Jim on Fat Possum. Choice, with a nice bluesy feel and mostly showcases Burnside and his guitar.

That Keb Mo debut that someone else mentioned is really nice too. He went kind of MOR after that, but that first one is a nice acoustic bluesy set and sounds pretty nice.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Lots of good suggestions here. I love RL, and also Lignnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker and Keb Mo. Of all the Burnside recordings, I think "A A** Pocket of Wiskey" is my favorite. (Note that I had to censor myself: ss is correct rather than **, and also "A" instead of "An" which I always thought was a cool misspelling). The SACD that Davey mentioned is basically just RL with an acoustic guitar in his living room. It's an early 60's recording but is quite listenable. It's nothing like his later material, and more on the lines of Folk Singer in terms of style. It's quite good for it's rawness of emotion if nothing else, but it's not where I'd start with RL.

Another blues dude that I like alot, but has never made it big, is Nobby Reed. He's put out at least 5 CD's on some small East Coast label. They keep getting better and better, although none of them are spectacular. His voice is listenable but unremarkable and most of his songs are the typical 3-4 minutes with fairly simple lyrics. But there is something about the overall sense of groove that always keeps me interested from the beginning to end of each disc. It's got a lot of punch and is not overproduced. My favorite is probably, "It's All About the Blues." They might be hard to find but Google is our friend.

Edit: Not hard to find at all. http://www.nobbyreed.com/ As I expected, these discs aren't cheap but "Guitar On My Back" is on sale for $10 plus $2.50 shipping. In a sense that that might be the place to start anyway since it was their first release, but this blues trio keeps getting tighter and tighter so I'm expecting their most recent release called "Moonlight Drivin'" (2004) to be the best yet.

 

[jpr703]

I don't remember the name of documentary but I caught it on cable (the Independent Film Channel I think) a few nights ago. Great interviews with R.L., Iggy Pop, the guys from Fat Possum Records, Members of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and several authentic Mississippi Bluesmen as well. It was starting just as I turned the TV on so I was really lucky to catch it.

Fat Possum has a website that you might want to check out. They've got some good bios, tour dates and pretty reasonable prices on blues CDs.

http://www.fatpossum.com/home.html

 

[Davey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus Of all the Burnside recordings, I think "A A** Pocket of Wiskey" is my favorite. (Note that I had to censor myself: ss is correct rather than **, and also "A" instead of "An" which I always thought was a cool misspelling).

Yeah, I love that Ass Pocket of Whiskey with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Very cool LP, and I do have it on vinyl. Most of his 90s stuff has a lot going for it, but most of it isn't that pure delta blues either. Jon Spencer gives him that punk edge I mentioned, and I do like it.

There's a ton of stuff out there, mostly on little indie labels. CDBaby has a nice selection and lots of sound clips. Check out Bryan Himes at http://cdbaby.com/cd/himes3

 

[SemperFidelity]

Mapleshade Records has a blues sampler that you might be interested in. They record quite a few blues artists, and the recordings are of superb quality. Thirty second samples of some pieces are available at their web site.

I bought a more general sampler, and wound up buying Whop Frazier/Bad Influence because of his version of Alberta (Corrina, Corrina pretty much) the Harlem ARC Choir, and the J Street jumpers as a result.

The recordings are outstanding for demo purposes if you're so minded.

 

[Wilson]

Albert King
Otis Rush
Robert Cray

 

[BillC]

For some contemporary, well recorded but "authentic" Missippi blues try Richard Johnston's "Foot Hill Stomp"

www.foothillstomp.com

Awesome.

 

[HollisBrown]

Skip James recorded some stuff in the 30's and then resurfaced in the 60's to record some of his classics like "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" and "Devil Got My Women". He's really got a creepy voice and a unique fingerpicking style. The songs are very authentic but the recording quality is way ahead of his songs from the 30's. Check him out.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Fencoding=UTF8