Shufflin' jive

Savage Kick Volume 3
After two volumes of 'Black Rock 'n' Roll', this series became 'Savage Kick'. No change musically: another jumpin' set of wild and frantic R & B and blues from the 50's and 60's...!

Hard row

The Black Keys 'Thickfreakness' (2003)
Akron, Ohio's Black Keys offer crunchy, riff-heavy blues-rock that is remarkably rich and textured, particularly when one considers that they are merely a duo. Continuing in the vein of their 2002 debut, 'The Big Come Up', this sophomore CD leavens their garage blues with enough innovation to keep things interesting, taking full advantage of Dan Auerbach’s full-throated growl. Particularly appealing are "Hard Row," which lurks somewhere between Cream and punk rock, the strong stomp of "Everywhere I Go," and the irresistible guitar riff that graces "If You See Me." The Black Keys might be covering familiar territory, but they do it so well--and with so much invention--that one is inclined to yield it to them and see what they do with it. - amazon.com

A blue day indeed...

R.I.P. Diddley daddy!

Bo Diddley is loose!

Bo Diddley (1986)
You can't judge a CD by looking at the cover... This appears to be the 1st LP, but is actually a French compilation of classic Bo sides recorded between 1955 and 1965. It's a pretty thing and you know, Bo really is 500% more man than most any guitar player going!

It's a jungle out there

Buddy Guy 'Sweet Tea' (2001)
Buddy picks some sweet leaves from the Fat Possum catalog and brews up a strong tribute full of heavy flavor and soul (he also throws in a couple of his own compositions for good measure). The man done got old, but he can still shake the house down all night.

Down the big road blues

Mississippi Moaners 1927-1942 (1991)
A classic collection of Mississippi Delta and hill country blues featuring tracks from the likes of Charlie Patton, Son House, Skip James, Rube Lacy and many more.

Rockin' Daddy

Howlin' Wolf 'More Real Folk Blues' (1967, 1990)
Another high quality set of hollerin' from the Wolf, just can't be beat!

Killer diller!

Black Rock 'n' Roll Volume Two
Holy mack'rel, another fine comp of screamin' R n B and down home blues stomp. Let's have some heat!

Crazy little beats

Group Harmony and Jump: The Legendary Dig Masters Volume 5 (2000)
Not really blues per se, just some 50's R n B/Doo Wop from the legendary Johnny Otis and his Dig records label. Some great vocals to get your place a-jumpin'!

Anyone got 'Dapper Cats, Groovy Tunes and Hot Guitars: Dig Masters 3' to share?

Troubles, troubles, troubles

B. B. King 'The Blues' (1958)
Originally released in 1958 by the budget-priced Crown label, 'The Blues' collected a dozen sides B.B. King cut for RPM and Kent between 1951 and 1958. As was often the case with Crown's product, 'The Blues' used a single hit tune (in this case "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer," a Top Ten R&B chart entry in 1954) to help sell a package of lesser-known material, but thankfully the label also picked some great tunes that hardly sound like filler, even if they didn't make the charts. The material on 'The Blues' is dominated by muscular, horn-driven performances with King's interjections of single-note riffs and powerful string bends punctuating the arrangements, and King's songwriting was already stellar, with "I Want to Get Married," "Don't You Want a Man Like Me," and "Ruby Lee" demonstrating his way with a melody and a lyrical conceit. While King's recordings gained a greater depth and emotional force as he moved into the 1960s, his RPM takes were the work of a man who already had an enviable command of his instrument and a real gift as a vocalist and songwriter. -allmusic

Mr. Charles' blues

Ray Charles 'The Genius Sings The Blues' (1961)
Ray doesn't sing the blues like, say, Muddy or The Wolf, but he's got the hard times feeling. A blend of piano/organ (dig that groovy sound!) blues, jazz and R & B, combined with Ray's soulful wail, these are Ray's blues.

How blue can you get

Worried Life Blues (2003)
An excellent compilation of pre-50's blues. Some of these are the original songs later made famous by others. Dig it!
Some notes from stlblues.net:
1. GOOD MORINING LITTLE SCHOOL GIRL – country blues harp from John Lee Williamson “Sonny Boy I” Recorded in May of 1937 and still sounds great!
2. MY BABY LEFT ME - Arthur “ Big Boy” Crudup at his best with this 1950 recording, later a hit for one Elvis Presley
3. WORRIED LIFE BLUES - original bluebird release in 1941 of Big Maceo’s smooth vocals and barrelhouse piano with a great guitar solo by Tampa Red – later covered by Chuck Berry
4. GOING DOWN SLOW – Jimmy Oden “St. Louis Jimmy” sings with Roosevelt Sykes on the keys
5. GRINDER MAN BLUES - Peter Chapman “Memphis Slim” moans and groans those blues
6. BABY PLEASE DON’T GO - Wow I really dug this Big Joe Williams original version as: “Williams Washboard Blues Singers” with Joe Williams vocals and guitar, “Dad” Tracy on one string fiddle and Chasey “Kokomo” Collins on washboard, recorded in 1935
7. THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL - Huddie “Leadbelly” Leadbetter with the Golden Gate Quartet recorded 1940 – later a hit for Johnny Rivers and others-
8. SWEET LITTLE ANGEL - Hudson Whitaker “Tampa Red” plays electric guitar and sings those sweet little angel blues, recorded in November of 1950
9. CANNED HEAT BLUES - Here’s a vintage tune recorded in Memphis Municipal Auditorium in 1928 by the late great Tommy Johnson
10. CATFISH BLUES - An awesome original acoustic recording by Robert Petway in 1941, later recorded as Rolling Stone by one Muddy Waters
11. BEALE STREET BLUES - W.C. Handy’s classic covered by Alberta Hunter and joined by Thomas “Fats” Waller on pump organ and recorded in a Church Building in New Jersey in 1927
12. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF HER - William “Big Bill” Broonzy with Bob Black on piano and Bill Settles on bass recorded in October of 1935
13. WHY DON’T YOU DO RIGHT – Lil Green sings her sultry style of blues with Big Bill Broonzy on guitar, Simeon Henry on piano and Ransom Knowling on string bass, recorded in April 1941
14. THE GIRL I LOVE, SHE GOT LONG CURLY HAIR - Sleepy John Estes recorded this original in September 1929 with Jab Jones on piano and James Rachel on mandolin, later this song was adapted by some group called Led Zeppelin
15. DOWN HEARTED BLUES - Bessie Smith covers Alberta Hunter & Lovie Austin’s classic and recorded this version way back in May of 1923
16. HOW BLUE CAN YOU GET (DOWNHEARTED) - written by Jane and Leonard Feather, this version was recorded in 1949 by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers with Billy Valentine’s smooth vocals and piano work, Johnny Miller on bass and Johnny and Oscar Moore on guitar (nice jazzy guitar work)

Not a bad gal

Memphis Minnie 'The Best of Memphis Minnie: In My Girlish Days' (2001)
Born Lizzie Douglas in Algiers, Louisiana, she was one of the most influential and pioneering female blues musicians and guitarists of all time. Minnie recorded for forty years, virtually unheard of for any woman in show business at the time, and possibly unique among female blues artists. A flamboyant character who wore bracelets made of silver dollars, she was the biggest female blues singer from the early Depression years through World War II. One of the first blues artists to take up the electric guitar, in 1942, she combined her Louisiana-country roots with Memphis-blues to produce her unique country-blues sound; along with Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red, she took country blues into electric urban blues, paving the highway for giants like Muddy Waters, Little Walter, and Jimmy Rogers to travel from the small towns of the south to the big cities of the north. She was married three times, and each husband was an accomplished blues guitarist: Kansas Joe McCoy (a.k.a. "Kansas Joe") later of the Harlem Hamfats, Casey Bill Weldon of the Memphis Jug Band, and Ernest "Little Son Joe" Lawlers.
After learning to play guitar and banjo as a child, at the age of thirteen she ran away from home to Memphis, Tennessee, playing guitar in nightclubs and on the street as Lizzie "Kid" Douglas. The next year, she joined the Ringling Brothers circus. Her second marriage and recording debut came in 1929, both with Kansas Joe McCoy, when a Columbia Records talent scout heard them playing in a Beale Street barbershop in their distinctive "Memphis style", and their song "Bumble Bee" became a hit. In the 1930s she moved to Chicago, Illinois with Joe. She and McCoy broke up in 1935 and by 1939 she was with Little Son Joe Lawlers, with whom she recorded nearly 200 records. In the 1940s she formed a touring Vaudeville company. From the 1950s on, however, public interest in her music declined and in 1957, she and Lawlers returned to Memphis, Lawlers died in 1961. Minnie died in 1973 and her headstone reads:
"The hundreds of sides Minnie recorded are the perfect material to teach us about the blues. For the blues are at once general, and particular, speaking for millions, but in a highly singular, individual voice. Listening to Minnie's songs we hear her fantasies, her dreams, her desires, but we will hear them as if they were our own." (Wikipedia)

Boogie real low

Black Rock 'n' Roll Volume 1
This here's a fine compilation of lesser known R n B and Blues tracks from the 50's and early 60's. These comps (after Volume 2 they became the 'Savage Kick' series) were distributed by the folks at Crypt Records sometime in the late 80's/early 90's. Go ahead, grab some wine, and get ready to shake your choo choo!

W-O-M-A-N

Etta James 'The Best Of The Modern Years' (2005)
Jamesetta Hawkins was an aspiring gospel singer from Oakland, California. She also began to dabble in R & B music and was part of a teenage girl trio called The Creolettes. In the early nineteen fifties she moved to Los Angeles and was a student at Fremont High School which produced a number of top R & B singers. By 1954 she was seen in performance at a local talent show by Johnny Otis who felt that this was a young woman with a lot to say and had the promise of being a force in the Rhythm & Blues world. Otis also gave the young singer a new name by transposing her first name and so she became Etta James. Otis got her a meeting with the Bihari Brothers who ran the Modern Records label, and they soon set up a recording session for her. This first session resulted in one of the classic R & B tunes in history. Etta with two backup singers named The Peaches, vocalist Richard Berry, and the Maxwell Davis combo performed a number that was an answer record to The Midnighters huge hit "Work With Me Annie". The song was called "Roll With Me Henry" and was released on Modern #947 right after New Year's day of 1955. The flip side was a blues ballad called "Hold Me Squeeze Me". To avoid further controversy, the name of the song was changed to "The Wallflower" on all future copies.
By February, "The Wallflower" is one of the fastest selling R & B records in the country. The demand is greater than Modern records can keep up with, which is a good barometer of the new demand for R & B discs in 1955. In Cleveland, station WJW Alan Freed's old home, is the only outlet in that city that does not go along with the ban on the record which seems to boost its attraction even more. Etta James, the new "blonde bombshell" of Rhythm & Blues, goes out on her first extended tour along with The Peaches, Richard Berry, and Johnny "Guitar" Watson on what is called the Modern Records Caravan. The show will tour the Midwest throughout the spring and then head for the Southeastern states. In May Modern tries to go to the well one more time with Etta James, The Peaches, and Richard Berry recording "Hey Henry" on #957. The flip side is "Be Mine". In July Etta and The Peaches are signed to the Top Ten R & B Revue to tour the country for two months beginning in September. Also on the bill are Bo Diddley, Joe Turner, The Clovers, Five Keys, Charlie & Ray, Gene & Eunice, and the paul "Hucklebuck" Williams band.
In late August, a new Modern Records release by Etta James is out on #962. The songs are "Good Rockin' Daddy" and "Crazy Feeling". In late October the Top Ten R & B Revue plays Carnegie Hall in New York, the first time the big beat has been heard at the world famous concert location. In mid November Etta appears at an all star R & B show at the Apollo Theater in New York with Dr. Jive (Tommy Smalls). On the bill with Etta James are The Heartbeats, Flamingos, Jacks, Harptones, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Dakota Staton, Bill Doggett Trio, and the band of Willis "Gatortail" Jackson. "Good Rockin' Daddy" is one of the top selling R & B records in the country, especially popular on the West Coast. Late in the month Etta James appears in Buffalo with George "Hound Dog" Lorenz as part of a show that features Charlie & Ray, The Jacks, Wynonie Harris, and Roy Gaines. At the end of a big year in 1955, Modern releases "W-O-M-A-N" and "That's All" on #972.
1956 opens with Etta doing a number of shows on the West Coast, some with Johnny Otis and others with name R & B performers. She does a week at the 5-4 Ballroom in Los Angeles with Amos Milburn and his band, and plays club dates with Dolly Cooper and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. In March Modern Records releases the new Etta James single - "Number One" and "I'm A Fool" on #984. The label lists her as Etta "Miss Peaches" James. two months later "Shortnin' Bread Rock" (a cover of the record by Kay Cee Jones) and "Tears Of Joy" are released on Modern #988. Etta appears on Alan Freed's CBS network radio show in L.A. performing a cleaned up "Dance With Me Henry" (the song is even the subject of an Abbot & Costello movie !) and "Crazy Feeling". In September "Tough Lover" and "Fools We Mortals Be" are released on Modern #998. The label still lists James as "Miss Peaches", and this time the record begins to sell well in both L.A. and the Midwest especially Kansas City and St. Louis. Late in the year Modern Records drops the "Miss Peaches" nickname and does a recording session in New York with local musicians, a departure from the usual James studio time. The result is the late November release of "Good Looking" and "Then I'll Care" on #1007. In December an interesting pairing takes place at the Club Baby Grand in Harlem as Etta James shares the stage with Big Maybelle. Also on the bill are The Clovers and James Moody and his band. At year's end Modern Records issues a R & B LP album featuring the label's performers including three tunes by Etta.
In March Etta (without The Peaches) embarks on a tour of one nighters with the Buddy Griffin band throughout the South. That month "The Pickup" and "Market Place" are released on Modern #1016. In April Etta hits the road again this time with Bo Diddley, Clifton Chenier, and Larry Birdsong for one nighters in the Midwest. In June James records "Come What May" and the pop oldie "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon" on Modern #1022. "Moon" has also been recorded by Little Richard and Jimmy Bowen. In October Etta plays the 5-4 Ballroom in L.A. with The Dells.
By mid 1957 the outlook for Etta James was not good as traditional Rhythm & Blues performers were cast aside in favor of younger more pop music oriented styles. There were a few exceptions such as Joe Turner and Fats Domino, but it was not a good time for the pioneers of Rock. Soon Modern Records was discontinued and some of its artists were kept on by the new company on the Kent label. Besides Etta, B.B. King and Jesse Belvin were also signed to the new label. The company's other record label Crown Records would concentrate on issuing LPs. In the spring of 1958 Etta James is still at it hitting the road with another big traveling R & B Revue, one of the last that would tour the country. On the bill with Etta are The Midnighters, Bo Diddley, Little Willie John, Beulah Bryant, Tiny Topsy, and the cal Green band. The show is called "The Big Rhythm & Blues Cavalcade of 1958". In July "Sunshine Of Love" and "Baby Baby Every Night" is released on Kent #304. By mid 1959 the R & B years were over for James and now she pondered her future in music... - JC Marion

Grinning in your face

Wild Billy Childish and the Natural Born Lovers 'Long Legged Baby' (1989)
Against a backdrop of Big Russ Wilkins and Sexton Ming, Thee Billy wants to be your man with another disc of raw 'n punk blues.

Have you ever been lonely?

R. L. Burnside 'A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey' (1996)
Assisted by Jon Spencer and the Blues Explosion, this was R. L.'s breakout record...
R. L.'s a Strange Attractor, a .999 fine, 24 karat, 180 proof, 100% pure-Higher-Order function, He's what's needed; and it's about time. We need a man we can count on, count on to yell fire in a crowded theater, wave a pistol in a crowded juke. He's the Blues walking like a man; the living personification of a guitar moan and a back door slam. R. L. doesn't have time for any nonsense; his plate his is full. So, close your eyes, put your arms in front of your face (if you still care) and prepare to be Burnsided into stark oblivion by A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey. - from the liner notes

Built for comfort

Howlin' Wolf 'The Real Folk Blues' (1966, 1987)
I could never have started this blog without including (in my opinion) the penultimate blues shouter, Chester Burnett, AKA Howlin' Wolf. Originally issued as an LP in 1966, these single sides date from 1956-1964. And as Sam Phillips said upon first hearing the Wolf, "This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies." Truer words were never spoken.

Everyday (I Have The Blues)

B.B. King 'Singin' The Blues' (1957)
B.B.'s first of many records over many decades.
In the mid-1950s, while B.B. was performing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas, a few fans became unruly. Two men got into a fight and knocked over a kerosene stove, setting fire to the hall. B.B. raced outdoors to safety with everyone else, then realized that he left his beloved $30 acoustic guitar inside, so he rushed back inside the burning building to retrieve it, narrowly escaping death. When he later found out that the fight had been over a woman named Lucille, he decided to give the name to his guitar to remind him never to do a crazy thing like fight over a woman. Ever since, each one of B.B.'s trademark Gibson guitars has been called Lucille.
Soon after his number one hit, "Three O'Clock Blues," B.B. began touring nationally. In 1956, B.B. and his band played an astonishing 342 one-night stands. From the chitlin circuit with its small-town cafes, juke joints, and country dance halls to rock palaces, symphony concert halls, universities, resort hotels and amphitheaters, nationally and internationally, B.B. has become the most renowned blues musician of the past 40 years.
Over the years, B.B. has developed one of the world's most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarist's vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players, from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck. B.B. has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound. In B.B.'s words, "When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille." - bbking.com

Rock-A-Baby

Big Mama Thornton 'Hound Dog: The Peacock Recordings' (1992)
They call me Big Mama
cuz I weigh 300 pounds,
Call me Big Mama
cuz I weigh 300 pounds,
I can rock and I can roll
and I can really go to town,
Satisfy ya this morning
if you take me home with you
You'll never be blue
cuz I know just what to do
I can rock for you!

Hard notch boogie beat

Willie Dixon - The Big Three Trio (1990)
Before Willie became the king of Chess Records, he wrote songs and thumped a mean bass in the Big Three Trio along with guitarists Bernardo Dennis, (eventually replaced by) Ollie Crawford and pianist Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston. This is swingin' blues: a mix of jazz, blues and pop along with three-part harmony singing... don't let that music die!

Little chicken wah wah

Huey 'Piano' Smith And The Clowns 'Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu' (1978)
The English pub 'n punk rock label Chiswick assembled this infectious compilation of Huey sides dating from 1957-1965. You've got plenty of clowning around with "Rockin' Pnuemonia" and some soundalikes as well as first-rate hits like "Little Liza Jane", "Don't You Know Yockomo", "High Blood Pressure", "Don't You Just Know It" and more. But be careful, you might just catch the Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and Sinus Blues!

Open up your door

Lightning Hopkins 'Free Form Patterns' (1968)
When in 1968, Lightning went into the studio with a couple of 13th Floor Elevators (Duke Davis, bass; Danny Thomas, drums), one might have expected a genre record angling for the mainstream audience of the day: hippies. Yet, unlike some of his contemporaries (see Muddy Waters below), he recorded a straight forward country blues record free of any psychedelic/heavy rock trappings, and a fine record indeed.

I hear voices...AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Screamin' Jay Hawkins 'Screamin' The Blues' (1979, 1996)
A collection of sides (1953-1970, excluding his classic "I Put A Spell On You") from the Whammy master that is "Screamin' Jay Hawkins...ex-Golden gloves champion boxer; ex-Korean based GI; ex-Chitlin Circuit sideman; temporarily successful and forever notorious as the First Freak Of The Order Of Rhythm 'n' Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Blues; survivor of a near-disembowelling by a hinge-brain hermaphrodite who was barely exceptional in a case-history of living on the frontline; survivor for twenty-eight years in the less than glamorous basement of the razzmatazzical izzentitunderful wurlitzer world of showbiz; occasional creator of rare but priceless musical objet d'art, hand-crafted specialities with more than a touch of the bizarre in a world of production-line yawnaminute clones..." - Cliff White, from the liner notes

Lemon squeezin' daddy

Andre Williams with the El Dorados 'Greasy' (1996)
"The Black Godfather" harkens back to his '50s Fortune Records days on this fine album, even re-cutting his classic "Jail Bait". With a great band featuring Dick Taylor (Pretty Things) on guitar and the backing vocal stylings of the El Dorados, this release will smother you in greasy R 'n' B goodness!

If you ever get lonesome...

Dig These Blues: The Legendary Dig Masters Volume 2 (1992)
Dig these blues, for sure! Another batch of mid-50's sides from Johnny Otis' Dig label, this time a great collection of blues from obscure cats such as Sugarcane Harris, Hozay, Sailor Boy, Slim Green, Larry Waters and more. Fantastic stuff and a rare CD to boot.

Thanks very much to Brujo for the upload!

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Johnny Otis 'Creepin' With The Cats' (1991)
Dig it!
"Some dangerous stuff going down here, with the first volume in our series of sides drawn from Johnny Otis's Dig label. Johnny formed the label in 1955, by which time he was a well-established band leader, touring heavily with one of the tightest shows on the circuit, featuring singers 'Handsome' Mel Williams, and Little Arthur Mathews. The band played a regular weekly residency at the El Monte Legion Stadium (later immortalised in song by one Frank Zappa) and had a weekly show on KTTV. Starting out as Ultra Records the name mutated to Dig after the first 10 issues. Featured here after one of Ace's legendary trips to the vaults are no less than 10 previously unissued cuts. Also included are the first issue of "Groove Juice" and No.103 the wonderfully named "Ali Baba's Boogie". Mainstream commercial hits eluded the label, though a few of the doo wop sides were very successful locally in L.A., but that says nothing about the high quality of the material. Guitarist Pete Lewis and Jimmy Nolen shine throughout, though by the end you know that you have been listening to one helluva band." - Ace Records

Vicious vocals

Vicious Vicious Vocals! Volume Vun
Can't tell you much about this compilation, but I can say it's got some great tracks of wild 50-60's r&b/doo wop. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, it's a winner!

Goin' down south

R. L. Burnside 'Too Bad Jim' (1994)
Another slice of foot-stompin' blues from R.L. This time he's backed by a rhythm section and the results are like a .44 pistol: explosive and powerful.

Rolling and tumbling

R.L. Burnside 'Mississippi Hill Country Blues' (1985)
Before he became an indie rock sensation, "Rule" Burnside played the acoustic blues of his native northern Mississippi hill country. Most of these tracks were recorded in the early 80's, but a few date back to 1967. Stripped down, simple and full of bad luck and trouble...shake 'em on down!