Our Blues Roots: 10 important, influential albums

[Don D.]

This one is a little different because I spent a lot of time putting together a list of 10 of the albums that meant the most to me for the 10 album thing on Facebook. It took a lot longer than I had thought it would, at some point I realized it might keep me from preparing the usual Blues Roots. I almost immediately realized it might make one of the most interesting Blues Roots posts for some people (but I have also seen people say they don’t like these 10 “best” lists). There’s very little technical info, but I did include some.

They aren’t in any particular order (except the first one and the last one were particularly important to me) and I twisted the parameters so there are more like 20. I’m also preparing 10 runners-up that will definitely include John Lee Hooker and Elmore James (they could both easily be here in place of almost anyone), which I’m just going to post as a single list in a comment.

The links in the album titles most often go to discogs.com, the links in artists’ names often go to playlists I’ve put together. If they interest you, check out the playlist descriptions there for additional links.

Please add your own 10 favorites or one favorite or 100 favorites.

Thanks for checking this out. The usual Blues Roots will reappear on Thursday, June 22, and I’ll be picking up Jontavious Willis’ Recommendations next week.

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Posting 10 albums that mean something to me, that I still listen to, if only sometimes. This is the first one I’m posting because it’s the first one I thought of when thinking of favorite records. I play “Theme For Lester Young” (Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”) in A minor.

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DAY 1 Charles Mingus, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus by Charles Mingus was recorded in 1963, and it goes back to early 1989 with me, around the same time I started playing guitar in earnest. It was my favorite record for a long time—probably longer than any other record. It ruined a lot of other records for me, they didn’t stand up. Jay Berliner plays guitar on the second, third and fifth song, but he’s barely audible.

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DAY 2 Ann Peebles, Greatest Hits means so much to me, it was one of the main records I bonded with the love of my life over. “I Can’t Stand the Rain” was a song I’d heard and liked until it came into the context of our friendship and love when she put it on a tape for me. It then revealed its full majesty. I learned so much from Barbara.

The album, which I inherited, contains lots of other great songs. We both wore it out.

This is the very same Hi Records band that backed Al Green.

The first song here, the title song, is also the first song on Greatest Hits; the rest is gravy (just about every song is great).

On the last day of February, I found all the videos were deleted from YouTube. Here’s the complete Greatest Hits album. Albert King does a notable cover of “Feel Like Breaking Up Someone’s Home.” Bobbly Blue Bland first made “I Pity the Fool” famous.

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DAY 3 My much-older brother gave me Eric Burdon Declares “War” (and John Mayall’s Empty Rooms) for my 11th birthday, when both records were under a year old. It took me over a year to start listening, but when I got into it, it began to shape my musical taste, opening doors the Rolling Stones, Animals and Traffic hadn’t. The Memphis Slim suite included his “Mother Earth” (in A minor) which I loved, not that I began to look for his music, but when I finally heard it, I was predisposed to liking it, actually loving it now.

Everything about this record is STRONG, title, artwork, music, lyrics. If you’ve never heard it, it is still probably worth a listen.

This is also where I first heard Jelly Roll Morton, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s names mentioned, in a song that mentions slavery and the Middle Passage. And the last song, “You’re No Stranger,” is just a jewel, some doo-wop heaven.

My favorite song was “Tobacco Road” and listening to it this morning reminded me of why, and how much this record freed me from fear.

So much more I could say—ounce for ounce, cut for cut, this may have been the very most influential record in my life.

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DAY 4 Rip Rig + Panic, I Am Cold I realized if I’m going to get to the music I really love, I’m going to have to skip over the preludes, but I Am Cold, the 1982 double 45 set that I found my way to in 1983 was my pivot out of the worst noise I ever loved, including all the vile skronking pogoing DIY punk rock I was listening to from the time I found Johnny Thunders, the Dead Boys, the Cramps, Wire, Pere Ubu, the Fall, the Contortions, the Monochrome Set, PIL and a host of other bands mostly joined by what they weren’t. I truly loved that stuff, it had its virtues, and it gave my 17-year-old self a sense of purpose and release.

I picked up almost all their other releases once I became a fan, finding the last record of theirs that I got, a 7″ 45 “Bob Hope Takes Risks”/”At Night She Gets So Hungry She Eats Her Jewelry” in 1987 in Iowa. I also had both of the Pop Group’s LPs and a few by Float Up CP and another couple related bands whose names are I’ve forgotten but whose records are still tucked away somewhere; Pregnant is one name I couldn’t forget.

Rip Rig + Panic were named for a very nice Rahsaan Roland Kirk record and included a varied instrumentation played by some virtuosos and other less-skilled players. It all came together in a funky, moody way. This record included a guest appearance by the lead singer Neneh Cherry’s stepfather Don Cherry on pocket trumpet, which increased the virtuosity and moodiness and led me directly to Ornette Coleman’s early quartet records and shortly after his later work with Prime Time.

From there I was back to swing and a Duke Ellington record I got from my friend Ed, and Ahmad Jamal with Voices, Arthur Blythe’s Illusions with James Blood Ulmer (who had a connection with some of the New York No Wave musicians), Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and after that, I kind of lose track of what I listened to when. Jazz or zzaj is not a long stretch from 1-chord rock. I know Billy gave me Thelonious Monk’s Monk’s Dream not too long after I moved to New York in 1988 and it became one of my very favorites. It’s a high point for all the musicians involved. [Many of the records I mentioned here are still favorites.]

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DAY 5 Howlin’ Wolf’s Evil was the first record I played on the June 1988 evening I arrived in New York to stay. It wasn’t even my choice; I asked my friend Ed, who drove me and my belongings in his van, to choose one. He picked it from Barbara’s records (mine were still in cartons).

I play the guitar parts of the first 3 songs on Evil, “Forty Four,” “Evil” and “Smokestack Lightning,” and I know parts of a few others. It’s a sometime goal to learn them all and play them in order. I truly love all of them. Howlin’ Wolf was one of a dozen or so bluesmen I was cognizant of as a child. I had his London Sessions record as a teenager but didn’t play it all that much.

This was a reissue of his 1958 album Moanin’ in the Moonlight (with the songs in a different order).

I’m posting Moanin’ in the Moonlight because Evil isn’t available; see discography for song order on Evil (even though I have both albums, I’m more accustomed to the song order on Evil).

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DAY 6 Earl Hooker, Don’t Have to Worry, along with Andrew Big Voice Odom’s Further On Down the Road and Johnny Big Moose Walker’s Ramblin’ Woman and a couple others by Earl Hooker were pivotal in lifting me from an emotional slump so miserable that I didn’t even feel like listening to music (see comments for several of the albums mentioned). I bought these back in the early-mid ’90s, probably for under $5 each. They’re all flea market finds that I picked up on spec, having heard from a friend that John Lee Hooker’s cousin Earl Hooker was a fine blues guitarist. I bought them, listened a little bit at the time, and filed them away with a couple hundred other blues albums that I liked but didn’t listen to much (like books, finding the good ones and buying them is the easy part). I’d also picked up Earl Hooker’s Simply the Best CD compilation that was new at the time and listened a couple times when I first got it, marveling especially at Willie Dixon’s profound recasting of Earl Hooker’s 1953 “Blue Guitar,” adding the “You Shook Me” lyric that Muddy Waters sang—despite the brilliance and convenience of having it digitally, it didn’t go into heavy rotation until 2014.

Both Johnny Big Moose Walker and Andrew Big Voice Odom, mentioned above, appear on this album; album credits as they appeared on the sleeve can be found in the playlist description. Playlist, discography and further remarks in comments.

There’s a little paradox here, because this isn’t my favorite Earl Hooker album, which (today I would say) is Two Bugs and a Roach, but it is the one that really introduced me to his brilliance, so I love it.

These days, blues are about all I can listen to for more than 10 minutes, and these are some of my very favorites. I remember the feeling of finding these on the shelf. Exhilaration at a time when I didn’t feel much of that. I’d begun checking out music during my downtime at work and was already knocked out by Earl Hooker’s incendiary 1969 remakes of “Cross Cut Saw” and “Wipeout” at the AFBF. “Thank the hell outta yuh!”

There’s also a killer version of “The Sky Is Crying” on here.

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DAY 7 I broke with the format and listed 4 records today; one thing they all have in common is the presence of Eddie Taylor on guitar (Eddie Taylor discography in link). Each discography appears in 2 places (both places titles with links appear).

Eddie Taylor was all over some of my most-loved records (and here acknowledging his deep and invaluable presences and contributions to Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker and Elmore James’s records, and, in Jimmy Reed’s case, even some of the concept), and one of my favorites of his was a collection of his singles, others are his records with his band, which I have 7 of.

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The 6 Steve Wisner-produced Kansas City Red cuts on Original Chicago Blues (recorded in one day, a Monday, March 14, 1977) show everyone at their best. The sound of these songs is phenomenal too; it’s one of the best-sounding records I know of (the 3 George Paulus-produced Joe Carter cuts would be great on their own, but my focus is on Kansas City Red’s with Eddie Taylor).

6 Kansas City Red songs on Original Chicago Blues (1977), only are two available on YouTube

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Big John Wrencher, Big John’s Boogie with Eddie Taylor and the Blueshounds (recorded and mixed between February and April 1974) is another example of Eddie Taylor’s incisive playing, and one of the records I’ll start right over when it’s finished.

Big John Wrencher, Big John’s Boogie (1974)

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Eddie Taylor is great everywhere on Carey Bell’s Last Night (released in 1973 on BluesWay, couldn’t find recording date), but I especially appreciate his ostinato-like playing on “Leaving In the Morning,” showing how to accent repeated phrases.

Carey Bell, Last Night (1973)

Guitar on here is just perfect.

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This record is first among equals, last but not least, and I don’t own it—not yet, I will someday–but Easy Baby and His Houserockers’ Sweet Home Chicago Blues is one of my all-time favorite records, in part because it’s such a good document of some of Eddie Taylor’s best playing. I’ve listened to the YouTube upload dozens of times and have bid on the album, so far without luck. Recorded two weeks to the day after the Kansas City Red record, with Kansas City Red back on drums, it was also recorded in a single day, March 28, 1977 (at Acme Studio in Chicago, IL, produced by George Paulus).

Easy Baby and His Houserockers, Sweet Home Chicago Blues (1977)

Here’s a fifth record that I added as a comment, Lucille Spann’s brilliant Cry Before I Go (1974); of course, Eddie Taylor plays on it.

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DAY 8 Robert Nighthawk, Bricks In My Pillow

Robert Nighthawk is one of the main people who brought blues forward into modernity. He was a descendant of Tommy Johnson and the ancestor of virtually every player I revere. I first heard him on the Drop Down Mama compilation years ago; those 4 songs were good, to say the least, but it wasn’t until I started checking out YouTube at work and heard his many, many great songs and bought the Delmark reissue of his United/States sides from the early 1950s that I was able to hear what I now love. I picked up a whole bunch of his recordings and listened to them all, but night after night, I looked forward to putting on the Bricks In My Pillow compilation.

For anyone who doesn’t know, this story will give you a small glimpse of Robert Nighthawk’s stature (from the invaluable Sunday Blues website):

“One of the musicians he knew particularly well was Muddy Waters. In an interview with Jim O’Neal he had this to say: ‘I knew him before I could pick nary a note on the guitar.’ They first met in Clarksdale as Waters elaborates: ‘We had one round circle—we all swam in that circle. Now he definitely knew Robert Johnson, because they all grew up around Friars Point way, from Friars Point over to Helena (Helena is just over the river in Arkansas), and I stayed from Clarksdale down to Rosedale, and Duncan, and Hillhouse, Rena Lara, and all them places. We had a circle we was going in.’ Nighthawk even played at Muddy’s first wedding in 1932: ‘Robert Nighthawk played at my first wedding.’ The proceedings got so raucous that Muddy’s floor collapsed.” [end of quote]

There is so much that I could say about the effects this music had on me, and all the other people it affected, but if you listen, you’ll probably understand. It revealed itself to me as a vital link in all that I listen to. “Seventy-Four” is one of my favorite songs of all time. Every song on here is great, and several others are also among my favorites, songs I find myself singing. Songs I want to hear again and again.

Roosevelt Sykes, Curtis Jones and Bob Call were the pianists on these records, Ransom Knowling was the bassist, Jump Jackson was probably the drummer (when the drummer was known). There was an unknown second guitarist on “Maggie Campbell” and “U/S Boogie.” There was an unknown drummer on those two, plus “Bricks In My Pillow,” “You Missed a Good Man,” “The Moon Is Rising” and “Seventy-Four” (the 6 songs Curtis Jones played piano on).

Kansas City Red (not on this album), who was one of the main contributors to my Eddie Taylor album picks yesterday [above], was Robert Nighthawk’s friend, and one of his favorite drummers. Robert Nighthawk is the man who showed Earl Hooker something about playing slide. That would justify his inclusion here, and although Earl Hooker’s technique sometimes eclipses Robert Nighthawk’s, nothing eclipses Robert Nighthawk’s greatness. Thank you to all the people involved in perpetuating his legacy.

I’ll note personnel to the best of my ability. This lineup for all songs, except where noted. As I have no experience with Bob Call’s playing, I can’t make the distinction, this sounds like Roosevelt Sykes to me.

With Roosevelt Sykes or Bob Call (piano), Ransom Knowling (bass) and probably Jump Jackson (on drums).

As above

With Curtis Jones on piano, Ransom Knowling on bass, unknown drums.

As directly above, plus unknown second guitar.

With Curtis Jones on piano, Ransom Knowling on bass, unknown drums–perfection. This is one of my favorites.

“Nighthawk Boogie,” song 6 on the album, a 2-1/2-minute long instrumental is not on YouTube. The 1967 Testament Masters of Modern Blues version with Houston Stackhouse isn’t the same song, at least not by my definition. I like both, and sometimes prefer the later one (I’m going to post a couple of those George Mitchell/Norman Dayron/Pete Welding songs further down the thread; that album with Peck Curtis is another favorite that I’ve listened to a lot).

With Roosevelt Sykes or Bob Call (piano), Ransom Knowling (bass) and probably Jump Jackson (on drums).

With Curtis Jones and Ransom Knowling lineup, the unknown drummer sounds a lot like what Jump Jackson has been playing on the songs he’s credited.

As directly above, even the guess about the drummer.

Alternate version with Curtis Jones, Ransom Knowling, unknown drummer. I love the opening, his timing is perfect!

With Curtis Jones, Ransom Knowling, unknown second guitar and drums, October 25, 1952. Many thanks to Sliptrail, a pottery artist and one of my favorite YouTube channels–check out his other posts and subcribe.

Alternate version with Curtis Jones, Ransom Knowling, unknown second guitar and drums.

The last song on the Delmark CD, an incomplete, previously unissued version of “The Moon Is Rising” is absent from YouTube; it’s just under 2 minutes long.

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Here’s Michael Bloomfield’s 1964 interview with Robert Nighthawk (ninth video in playlist), followed by Honeyboy Edwards’ and Ernest Lane’s reminiscences (numbers 10 and 11 in playlist).

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Here’s another really great album with a lot of tracks by Robert Nighthawk. These are not the best versions of the songs though. Look up the 3-CD set called And This Is Maxwell Street (link in reply, the “soundtrack” accompaniment to the 1964 movie And This Is Free).

This album has the best sound and information.

This is the Robert Nighthawk topic on YouTube.

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DAY 9 Albert King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, and last but definitely not least Magic Sam (see other links in playlist descriptions). Reaching the end–even with 10 runners-up planned–I see that the person who scoffed at doing a “10 most influential records” was right.

All of these records are imbued to overflowing with the vibrant force of their makers. I don’t have the time today to do them justice, but I trust the reason for my excitement is evident to anyone who’s heard them. If you haven’t, this is my strongest recommendation–if you love the blues and buy one of these for yourself and you don’t like it, I will buy it from you.

I heard all of these long before my current dive into the blues, in the early ’90s, so I’ve lived with all of them for a while. I inherited two of them from my dear Barbara, the Albert King and Freddie King records. Although most of her records were R&B, soul or disco, the ones that weren’t were interesting and often very high-quality; we mostly agreed on music even when we weren’t listening to the same stuff at the same time, and we had about 8 or 9 overlaps in our collections when we combined them. (These weren’t her only blues albums, she had over a dozen [my choice on day 5, Howlin’ Wolf’s Evil belonged to her]; while she was in high school, she traveled to the north side to study harmonica with Corky Siegel.)

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The first time I heard Albert King’s Live Wire/Blues Power in its entirety was early ’90s, her copy. I was blown away. I’d heard Born Under a Bad Sign previously but this was even more intense (coincidentally, the last thing we ever watched together was the Albert King-SRV concert, broadcast on PBS after a movie we were watching; at the time I had NO idea it would be our last night together–if I may, if you love somebody, treat them like you may never see them again).

Albert King, Live Wire/Blues Power (1968)

1970

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Freddie King’s My Feeling for the Blues was also hers, and it was a very welcome introduction. I wasn’t familiar with Freddie King before hearing this, aware of him, yes, but I mostly knew covers, not his originals. His size and the size of his collars could easily represent the enormous spirit of his buoyant original music.

Freddie King, My Feeling for the Blues (1970)

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Truckin’ With Albert Collins is a collection of his early singles, mostly instrumentals with a few choice vocals. It was about the 4th or 5th album I got and it fulfilled the promise of all the ones I bought before it–these tightly wrapped songs were masterpieces.
Truckin’ With Albert Collins (1965)

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Magic Sam’s West Side Soul and Black Magic were both records I picked up at the flea market. Although I liked them both, West Side Soul was more than enough for me at the time and I gave my Black Magic to Robert Ross, a guitar tech and a nice guy who really wanted it. He had the cover of West Side Soul hanging on his wall.

Magic Sam, West Side Soul (1967)

One day to go and only one special album to fill it. I’m looking forward to naming the 10 runners-up, hoping I won’t have to do 11-20 to feel satisfied. Elmore James belongs on here, though, among the first five, but choosing from the records that influenced me as a kid felt like the right thing to do too. I am having fun, but if I didn’t take it seriously too, it wouldn’t be what it is. Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Memphis Slim, Eddie Boyd, John Lee Hooker, Homesick James, Johnny Shines, Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Hound Dog Taylor, Jimmy Dawkins, Pee Wee Crayton, T-Bone Walker, Lowell Fulson, and some people I’ve just learned about recently but who will no doubt be favorites for the rest of my life, such as Lafayette Thomas and Johnny Fuller, to name two, any of these people could have been on this list if my outlook had been a little different in the last week.

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DAY 10 The Essential Otis Rush, the Classic Cobra Recordings 1956–1958 (one of several titles this music is sold under, see link) is one of my most-played records, along with Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (my pick on day 1, May 12) and Monk’s Dream (both recorded in 1963) from my 20s, and Exile On Main Street and Smokin’ from my youth, one of the recordings I’ve played more than the rest.

Most of the songs on here have been my favorite, right now “Three Times a Fool” is one I play a lot. I gave several CDs and cassettes of this album as gifts and dubbed many a copy. There are very few records as powerful as this one. Every song was powerful; even the fun songs, like “Sit Down” and “She’s a Good ’Un” had an edge (all except “Violent Love,” which he didn’t seem too interested in).

I first heard Otis Rush on volume 2 of the Sam Charters-produced masterpiece series Chicago/The Blues/Today!, where his songs were split over 2 sides. It was the good-time feel of “Rock” and “Everything’s Going to Turn Out Alright” that won me as a child, but I wasn’t immediately a big-time fan (“Rock” is also done as “Universal Rock” by Earl Hooker on Don’t Have to Worry [my day 6 pick, above], where he’s given writer’s credit, he’d done it earlier with Junior Wells in the 1950s, and both received writing credits, does anyone know?). I think segregation and racial prejudice had something to do with it. None of my friends were fans and it took me a little while to break free of their influence. By 16, I was on my own and able to more or less make my own decisions, but there was nothing wrong with the rock I loved. For me, the love of blues just grew over time, it wasn’t something I immediately identified with.

I got my first Otis Rush album in 1986. Cold Day In Hell became my favorite along with the Japanese concert record, So Many Roads; both were recorded in 1975, which had to have been a high point, he is so good on both of these records. Even though it wasn’t important at the time, Cold Day In Hell was my introduction to Johnny Big Moose Walker and Mighty Joe Young (later on, sometime in the last 4 years, when I knew who they were, I was thrilled to see their names there when I pulled out Cold Day…). Otis Rush, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker and a few others were my main portal into the blues. I didn’t realize just how wide and deep the blues were. Their share of Tower Records was dwarfed by the jazz section, which kind of mirrored (or fed) my perception.

There’s so much more to say about Otis Rush and his many great records, but for now I’ll have to end with mentioning that Barbara and I heard him live two different tours in the ’90s when he played at Chicago B.L.U.E.S. (New York). The room was ecstatic, there was the feeling something important was happening—that was my sense anyway—and I’ve carried a little of that feeling with me ever since.
The Essential Otis Rush, the Classic Cobra Recordings 1956–1958 (various release dates)

Chicago/The Blues/Today! Vol. 2 (1966)

Cold Day In Hell (1975)

Don D.

[sunjamr]

Don, you deserve an honorary PhD for this monumental work. I’m looking forward to getting into it.

Sunjamr Steve

[Don D.]

Thanks, Steve, I dunno about PhD, but I’ll take whatever they give you for getting all the links right first time (I did have to fix about half a dozen things after it posted (gets hard to see when it’s all type and code).

I’d love to hear what your important or favorite records were, even some of them.

Don D.

[JohnStrat]

Here Her Steve! Thanks Don Regards jonStrat

[Don D.]

Hey John, my pleaure! If you have time, I’d love to hear what your important or favorite records were, even just some of them.

Don D.

[JohnStrat]

Hey Don I just came across the ‘I cant Stand the Rain’ by Anne Pebbles a wonderful version. I loved the Little Feat take on this too or was it just on Lowell’s album I cant recall now. ‘Its my life’ Buddy and junior would have to be one of my most favored Blues albums. I don’t think I went through this list very much at the time because it was just as my Mary was in her final few months. Like you I learned so much from her too.
johnStrqat

[jadm]

we should have a “link library” to u tubes of classic and innovative blues albums of the past for members to
use as a reference for ideas for our playing.

nice job on collecting these artists

[Don D.]

Thank you, jadm! My pleasure. I have created my own personal YouTube library here (click on Created Playlists, it’s mostly blues, but there’s are a bunch of other things; titles usually explain the list but blues rock is collected in Freightyard Birdhouse).

I’d lke to hear what (some of) your favorites are.

Don D.

[Aussie Rick]

Wow – I’m really looking forward to digging into this over the next few weeks Don. Already been blown out by a couple of tracks hadn’t heard before, including Eric Burdon’s The Vision of Rassan and Albert King’s Blues Power, recorded live at Fillmore East.

Many thanks Don for getting your favourite albums together and for adding the detailed information and personal reflections that always makes listening to Our Blues Roots so enjoyable.
Rick

[Don D.]

Thank you, Rick, it’s nice to be appreciated. You know, it’s what I like doing anyway. I kind of think it makes me feel an even deeper connection to the music, because I’m usually doing it at times I can’t be playing.

That War record is really great. It stands the test of time.

If you have time it would be interesting to hear what your favorites are.

Have a great weekend.

Don D.

[James M]

Amazing. Thanks so much. I have spent the last two days looking up many of these artists. You have helped me discover a number of great talents that I did not know. Heartfelt thanks!

[Don D.]

Thanks for letting me know, James! That’s what they’re here for, I’m glad you found them.

Don D.

[Author]

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