Memphis Minnie Queen of the Blues (Columbia Legacy) Memphis Minnie was a "Force of Nature." She sang and played guitar blues in a style all her own from the 1920s to the early 1950s when a stroke silenced her career. In addition to her talent she was strikingly good looking, flamboyant and determined to succeed in a very rough and tough world at a time when women were expected to accept a secondary role in society. In the face of unthinkable odds, Minnie earned the recognition and deep respect of her mostly male peers and became a bona-fide star. I particularly like some of the later tracks from the 1940s on this eighteen track collection which feature her third husband, Ernest Son Lawler, on electric guitar. When You Love Me, played in first position “D” by Lawler is a favorite. This one really swings.

Junior Wells - Blues Hit Big Town (Delmark Records) Blues Hit Big  Town contains the historic first recordings of Junior on the States label. He was only 19 years old when the first of these recordings was made in 1953. The 17 tracks that make up these sessions, and the ones to follow, find Wells in the company of Louis and Dave Myers, Freddy Below, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Odie Payne and Johnny Jones, all Chicago blues legends in their own right. I particularly like tracks like Lord, Lord, Blues Hit Big Town, 'Bout the Break of Day and Hoodoo Man. Pete Welding wrote in Downbeat that in these recordings in their power, directness, unerring taste and utter consistency of mood, you will find the perfectly distilled examples of Junior Wells' finest recordings. This album is an absolute must for anyone interested in blues harmonica music and Chicago blues of the early 1950’s.

Howlin' Wolf Moanin at Midnight The Memphis Recordings (Fuel 2000 Records) These seminal recordings have serious "stomp down" attitude and to my way of thinking could easily be considered the beginnings of rock 'n roll. However, let me be clear, these eighteen tracks are better than anything rock 'n roll ever produced. What I love about these recordings is guitarist Willie Johnson, drummer Willie Steele, Ike Turner on piano and of course, The Wolf. Willie Johnson has always been one of my favorites. He has to be considered the father of electric amplified guitar distortion. What an unbelievable style he created mixing everything together to perfection. This is the personification of "bad ass" attitude mixed with a style of "deep Southern" juke joint blues that was totally new at the time. It has a flavor like no other. These recordings are quite possibly one of the first examples of anarchy in modern music. 

Sonny Boy Williamson  -  His Best (20) The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection According to Dick Shurman, who wrote the liner notes for this collection, Sonny Boy's (Rice Miller)youth was so rough he didn't want to discuss it with interviewers. There will never be another like him. Fortunately for the blues, and what I would call the quintessential American music, he was an extraordinarily resourceful man. He was a musician who not only survived unimaginable oppression, but created one of the blues’ transcendent bodies of recordings, capped by his decade at Chess when most were calling him an old man. He was also a major mentor to the musicians most consider mentors of blues harmonica players such as Howlin' Wolf, Junior Wells, James Cotton, Junior Parker and Little Walter. Sonny Boy’s music has gone on to become a fundamental part of the blues foundation. Sonny Boy, along with Little Junior Parker, was the first harmonica player on record that I tried to learn from. Sonny Boy sang, wrote amazing songs and played harmonica with the best of them and did so in his own unique style.  Every track in this collection is a jewel from top to bottom. Sonny Boy's music is one of the primary reasons why I am a blues musician today.

Roy Hawkins The Thrill is Gone (Ace Records - The Legendary Modern Recordings) During the late 40’s and early 50’s, Hawkins scored several top ten hits for the Los Angeles based Modern Records. His songs were later covered by artists such as B.B. King, Memphis Slim, Ray Charles and James Brown. Hawkins, originally from Texas, made his first recordings in Oakland at the age of forty four for Bob Geddins. In 1951, Maxwell Davis, the noted arranger and extraordinary saxophonist, oversaw Hawkins recordings and contributed to his success. Davis brought in pianist Willard McDaniel from T-Bone Walker’s band. The first track they cut was The Thrill is Gone (Modern 826). This masterpiece reached #6 on the r&b charts. Shortly after, Davis brought in Johnny Moore on guitar and some of those sides are amongst my favorites. It is also important to note that the sonic quality of these recordings is as good as it gets in my book. My favorite tracks are Trouble Makin’ Woman, I Walk Alone, Real Fine Woman, I Don’t Know Just What To Do, and the title track. For my money Roy Hawkins is one of the best blues singers ever. You add Maxwell Davis, Johnny Moore, Willard McDaniel into the mix and blues records just don’t get any better. This record is a must have for any serious collector of blues music.

The Best of Big Maceo - The King of Chicago Blues Piano (Arhoolie Productions) The rare talent as a piano player and vocalist that Big Maceo Merriweather brought to the studio in 1941-46 earned him fame but little fortune in a career marked by irony, calamity and culminating in tragedy. He was thirty six when he made his first recording session and only forty one when a severe stroke ended his career. These recordings have always been among my favorites because many of the sessions represented on this album also feature one of my idols, Tampa Red. Tampa Red’s career began way back in the 1920’s and he continued to record into the 1950’s. Tampa Red and Big Maceo were both consummate blues musicians. If you want to better understand the blues styles of early 1950’s Chicago blues giants such as Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rodgers, Little Walter, Otis Spann and others, listening to this material is an absolute must.

Johnny Moore's Three Blazers Featuring Oscar Moore Los Angles Blues - Complete Recordings 1949-50 Not all the songs on this two CD, thirty one track package are winners, but there are others that are so good they exemplify the best of west coast blues. In their day the guitar playing brothers Johnny and Oscar Moore were stars whose music had more of an impact on both the blues coming out of Memphis and Chicago than most people realize. In fact, I think their influence was PROFOUND. If you listen carefully, you can hear their influence in every blues as well as jazz guitarist who was anybody in the 1950’s and up through the early 1960’s. I love tracks like Rock With It, Johnny’s Guitar Blues and Jumpin Jack. It saddens me that the Moore brothers have been all but ignored by music writers over the past forty years. They gave so much to the genre, yet have been treated very poorly by the historical revisionists who tend to exclude the huge west coast scene in general. Both in Los Angeles and in the East Bay communities of Oakland and Richmond there was a thriving blues scene that included not only the Moore brothers but T-Bone Walker, Joe Liggins, Percy Mayfield, Lloyd Glenn, Charles Brown, Roy Milton, Lowell Fulson, Roy Hawkins, Floyd Dixon and so many others. These transplants to California from mostly Texas, as well as Oklahoma and Louisiana, and their music collectively dominated the jukeboxes and airwaves across the country. Their music was heard by more people than their contemporaries from Chicago. If you are a student and fan of the electric blues guitar, this two disc, thirty one track collection is a must for your music library.

Otis Spann Walking Blues (Candid Productions Ltd) Otis Spann was only thirty years old when this album was made, but he was already in full command of his music as these recordings attest. I included this album on my list for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that Spann is the prodigy of Big Maceo who is also on my list. I also wanted to demonstrate that blues in its classic form is almost always derivative. This is a criticism I have heard a lot by the modern day blues journalists. For the most part these self appointed experts do not know what the fuck they are talking about. Another reason this album is on my list is that it includes the guitar playing of Robert Junior Lockwood who can be heard on the Sonny Boy Williamson recordings included on this list. I am absolutely infatuated with his style of guitar playing. He fully understood how to accompany a harmonica player. I simply love the stripped down sound of piano, guitar and vocals as well as the outstanding sonic quality of these recordings. This is truly the next generation from Big Maceo and Tampa Red. If you think this is derivative, you are damn right it is and it is right as rain to be exact. I love Spann’s voice. I also believe that because he spent a great deal of his career in the shadow of Muddy Waters, he never got his just due as a vocalist.

Lightlin’ Hopkins The Gold Star Sessions Volume One (Arhoolie Records) Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins was the successor to Texas pioneer blues man Blind Lemon Jefferson. In his early twenties he left home and began a hard life roaming the  Texas countryside getting work as a farm hand and playing at social gatherings such as “suppers”, house parties and in juke joints. He ended up in Houston’s Third Ward playing for change. After the Aladdin recordings, which he cut in Los Angeles, Hopkins returned to Houston to record on that city’s independent Gold Star label. To me this twenty two track collection exemplifies the very best of Lightnin’ Hopkins. In the early 1970’s I lived in Chicago and spent as much time as possible at Louis Meyers place on Calumet Avenue. I listened to him play the guitar and harmonica. I tried to learn everything I could about the blues. He would often play me his versions of Lightnin’ Hopkins tunes on guitar. I had, by this time, been listening to Hopkins’ music for over a decade, but through those experiences with Myers began to appreciate what an influence his music had on blues men everywhere. I always loved 40’s and early 50’s country blues on both guitar and harmonica and you can clearly hear that influence in my recordings. I attribute that to growing up in Oklahoma in the 1950’s. Lightnin’ has always been my man! In the late 70’s The Hollywood Fats band would often back him when he came to the West Coast to perform. He loved harmonica and he loved our band. We had the ability to put his music right where he wanted it.

J.B. Lenoir Vietnam Blues (Evidence Records) This set, which was re-issued by Evidence, combines the final two albums prior to Lenoir’s death in 1967. These two albums originally were released on the L&R Records label and produced by Willie Dixon. The original releases were entitled Alabama Blues, which was released in 1965 and Down In Mississippi, which came out in 1966. These acoustic sessions represent the epitome of beautiful simplicity. The recordings have had a profound influence on how I think about this music and how I approach my guitar playing. Lenoir, along with Lightnin’ who I mentioned, along with Lil’ Son Jackson are the guys for me. Lenoir’s legacy was dealt a blow as he never had a chance to have the prolific career so many others enjoyed. He died at the age of 38 from a heart attack that came in the wake of a very serious automobile accident. Lenoir also is somewhat different from so many blues men, as this album title suggests, in that he wrote topical songs that often had socially conscious lyrics. This alone sets him apart from his peers and predecessors. These sessions feature his guitar playing with the occasional accompaniment of Fred Below on drums often using brushes which sound just magnificent. Lenoir showed me you don’t have to exhibit great virtuosity to make a powerful statement.