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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Box Of The Blues (Rounder)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale
With 2003 being dubbed "The Year Of The Blues," there's been a lot of material, both new and archival, released in recent months, but you'd be hard pressed to find a collection more comprehensive or more consistently excellent than this 60 song compilation from the archives of America's premier independent roots label, Rounder Records.
The range includes classic Delta performances, some of the best of the electric Chicago style, blues based R&B and other selections from places expected and unlikely. The performers range from the masters of the past to the best contemporary performers. There's practically no style left unrepresented, and while no collection from a single label can offer every important performer, the Rounder roster is impressively wide ranging and totally satisfying if not totally complete.
The whole thing is handsomely packaged and includes Rounder's usual excellent song by song annotation. It may not be a complete collection, but it's an essential starting point.
Disc One: Mississippi Fred McDowell/61 Highway * Babe Stovall & Herb Quinn/See See Rider * Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim & Big Bill Broonzy/I Could Hear My Name Ringin' * Robert Nighthawk/Cheating And Lying Blues * Johnny Shines w/Robert Lockwood, Jr./Lonesome Whistle * Etta Baker/Broken Hearted Blues * Buster Brown/I'm Gonna Make You Happy * Boogie Bill Webb/Dooleyville Blues * Cephas & Wiggins/One Kind Favor * Otis Spann/Blues For Martin Luther King * David 'Honeyboy' Edwards/Wind Howlin' Blues * Blind Willie McTell/Dying Crapshooter's Blues * Big Joe Williams/Screamin' And Cryin' * Mississippi John Hurt/Candy Man * Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee/The Red Cross Store
Disc Two: Gatemouth Brown/One More Mile * Carey Bell/My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble * Champion Jack Dupree/Give Me Flowers While I'm Living * Eddy 'The Chief' Clearwater/Cool Blues Walk * Phillip Walker/Port Arthur Blues * Johnny Copeland/Nobody But You * Willie Cobbs/Jukin' * Johnny Young/Johnny's Jump * Larry Davis/Goin' Out West (Part 1 and Part 2) * Jimmy Rogers/Walking By Myself * Lowell Fulson/Blues And My Guitar * J.B. Hutto & The New Hawks/Eighteen Year Old Girl * Luther 'Guitar Junior' Johnson & The Magic Rockers/I'm From Mississippi * Lonesome Sundown/This Is The Blues * Smokey Wilson/The Man From Mars
Disc Three: Anson Funderburgh & The Rockets/Change In My Pocket * Marcia Ball/Blue House * Geoff Muldaur/Meanest Woman * Andrew Jr. Boy Jones/Make Some Changes * Tarbox Ramblers/Down South Blues * Chris Duarte Group/How Long * Candye Kane/I'm The Toughest Girl Alive * Corey Harris/Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning * Rory Block/Frankie And Albert * Duke Robillard And The Pleasure Kings/What That Means To Me * Roomful Of Blues/Let Me Live * Little Jimmy King And The Memphis Soul Survivors/Lovin' Someone Else * George Thorogood/John Hardy * Smokin' Joe Kubek w/Little Milton/One Night Affair * Michelle Wilson/Shifting Sand
Disc Four: Ruth Brown/A Good Day For The Blues * Wilson Pickett/Outskirts Of Town * Bobby King & Terry Evans/Live And Let Live * Johnny Adams/Roadblock * Otis Clay/I Can Take You To Heaven Tonight * Solomon Burke/Got To Get Myself Some Money * Paul Kelly/Nowhere To Hide * Little Buster & The Soul Brothers/What Can I Do (Somebody Tell Me) * Theryl 'Houseman' de Clouet/Two Wrongs * Charles Brown/I Stepped In Quicksand * Ann Peebles/Ain't No Business Like Your Business * The Holmes Brothers/Promised Land * Irma Thomas & Tracy Nelson/You Don't Know Nothin' About Love * Ted Hawkins/Bring It On Home Daddy * Walter 'Wolfman' Washington/Out Of The Dark
© 2003 - Shaun Dale