The classic blues recordings of the '50s and '60s speak to us today with directness. So much has come under the spell of this early electricity, yet to hear some of the originals carry their bare-wires jolt is to KNOW what the blues are about.
You get that in the Jukin' the Blues series volume Bar-B-Cue'n Blues (Catbone 2003-2). You get some classic but lesser known sides from Billy Boy Arnold, Howlin Wolf, James Cotton, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters and Little Richard. The final cut is an OK bebop single by Jack Millman and it is out of place. But it's less than three minutes in an otherwise sparkling one-two punch of electric blues. Hooker's "Sally Mae" is here again, as it was on a previous volume, and I can only assume that was a programming glitch.
But whoo, just listen to "Dirty Mother Furriers," "Louise," "So Glad I'm Livin," "Built for Comfort" and "I Feel So Good" and you don't have to explain anything. It is THERE.
So get there if you don't know this music! The rest of us are there at the bar-b-que joint, digging on it all, so join us.
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