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The Outsider
(more) »rank: 12710by: Walter Trout
:Album Description:The Outsider has been all about commitment: From Walter's desire to create songs that speak to the soul as well as the mind, the producer (John Porter), who added his musical experience creating a partnership in finding the best possible expression for Walter's intentions, to the musicians who each in their own expert way added a unique and strong statement - there has been a unique sense of team work throughout, filling Walter with a thankfulness to be able to surround himself with people of so much talent. Walter Trout is a blues guitarist, singer and songwriter of his own band.
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Just Like You
(more) »rank: 9550by: Keb' Mo'
: :Keb' Mo's 1995 Grammy-winning eponymous debut firmly lodged the Los Angeles-born singer-guitarist in the contemporary blues pantheon. His sophomore effort, Just Like You, is slick in comparison to the virtuosic, bare-bones Keb' Mo', but it's nevertheless an irresistible and accomplished album. While songs such as 'Perpetual Blues Machine' and 'You Can Love Yourself' are classic Mo', with their canny lyrics and facile slide and acoustic guitar licks, the sapfest 'Just Like You' (with guests Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne) and the clichéd 'The Action' are hard to stomach. Toward the end of the disc, however, the gospel-laced 'Hand It Over' and folksy 'Momma, ...
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The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
(more) »rank: 2288by: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
: :A slew of albums by young white men out of their minds in love with music made by older black men came from both sides of the Atlantic during the mid-1960s, but two records really laid the groundwork for the decade's blues revival--the self-titled releases by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers out of London and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band out of Chicago. Both bands were led by harmonica-blowing vocalists; both featured ascending guitar gods--Eric Clapton with Mayall and Mike Bloomfield with Butterfield. Butterfield's ensemble, however, came of age closer to the roots of the music. The rhythm section heard on the group's 1965 debut ...
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Solos, Sessions & Encores
(more) »rank: 5461by: Stevie Ray Vaughan
: :The blues-rock guitar hero's studio vaults were nearly empty when he died in an August 27, 1990, helicopter crash. This set unearths a 1978 Austin session track of 'You Can Have My Husband' with Vaughan as second fiddle to his then girlfriend, singer Lou Ann Barton, but it's undistinguished compared to the previously unreleased live performances that compose this disc's heart. Vaughan contributes teeth-baring pentatonic solos to Lonnie Mack's 'Oreo Cookie Blues' at Atlanta's Fox Theatre in 1986 and brings his bullish tone to the late blues piano stomper Katie Webster's 'On the Run' at the 1988 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. ...
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From the Cradle
(more) »rank: 6239by: Eric Clapton
: :The full-tilt blues album that Clapton had been promising for years, From the Cradle proves the guitarist's enduring devotion to a form he had long relegated to merely a flavor in his music rather than the main ingredient. Clapton's singing on the album is somewhat mannered; he tries to compete with original versions of these songs by Muddy Waters, Charles Brown, and others, and there's no way he's going to win that battle. Still, you can feel the emotional connection Clapton has with these songs, and guitar aficionados will swoon over his fretwork on songs such as 'Third Degree,' 'Someday After a While,' ...
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My Blueberry Nights
(more) »rank: 17513by: Original Soundtrack
: : My Blueberry Nights Photos Amazon.com:Cinephiles will know My Blueberry Nights as Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's first American movie; music fans will know it as Norah Jones' first movie, period. Not only does she play one of the leads, but she also contributes a new song, 'The Story,' to the soundtrack. Backed by brushed drums, a stand-up bass, and a cool piano, Jones is at her jazziest and sultriest, oozing a sly honky-tonk, come-hither sensibility. Ry Cooder's score is represented by a trio of tracks; the best, 'Ely Nevada,' is a spooky little thing that feels lifted from a David Lynch movie, ...
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Keep It Simple
(more) »rank: 6848by: Keb' Mo'
: :'I can't even crack a frown since the blues slipped out of town,' sings Keb' Mo' on 'Prosperity Blues,' with a patented big wide grin you can practically hear. It's a witty and accurate assessment of his approach to the often lowdown genre. Even on the album's title track, where Mo's tough National steel slide playing is most prominent, he's concerned with the daunting amount of coffee choices at his local java emporium. Call it the middle-class blues then, as Mo' wraps his grits-and-honey voice around another set of gently rolling, melodic, and warm compositions. Similar to, say, James Taylor, he spins beautifully ...
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Raisin' Hell
(more) »rank: 4857by: Elvin Bishop
: :'I can't even crack a frown since the blues slipped out of town,' sings Keb' Mo' on 'Prosperity Blues,' with a patented big wide grin you can practically hear. It's a witty and accurate assessment of his approach to the often lowdown genre. Even on the album's title track, where Mo's tough National steel slide playing is most prominent, he's concerned with the daunting amount of coffee choices at his local java emporium. Call it the middle-class blues then, as Mo' wraps his grits-and-honey voice around another set of gently rolling, melodic, and warm compositions. Similar to, say, James Taylor, he spins beautifully ...
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Live at Carnegie Hall
(more) »rank: 9768by: Stevie Ray Vaughan
: essential recording:The series of Stevie Ray Vaughan concert albums that began with Live Alive (1986) and continued after the guitarist's 1990 death is far from the catalog-bloating cash-in you'd expect from the record company of a platinum seller cut down at a career peak. Instead, each disc gives a distinctly different view of the Texas blues-rocker's stage strengths. Where Live Alive captured Vaughan and his band Double Trouble in full arena roar and In the Beginning recorded a looser early club gig, Live at Carnegie Hall finds the outfit broadening its range with guest shots from Dr. John and the Roomful of ...
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In Session
(more) »rank: 9633by: Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughn
:Album Description:Originally recorded for Canadian television. The two blues g uitar legends jam on 'Stormy Monday', 'Don't lie To Me' and 'Pride and Joy'. 1999 release. Standard jewel case. :Recorded for a television program of the same name back in 1983, In Session bills itself as the only known recording of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King, who was Vaughan's idol and mentor, playing together. That leads to some heavy expectations, which fortunately aren't disappointed, at least if you aren't expecting the customary over-the-top performances Vaughan was famous for. His playing here is much more laid-back and controlled, which is actually a recommendation--the ...
