Well muddy came after Patton House and Johnson. Those are the dudes I sink my my teeth into. Tommy Johnson too,
I love the blues. An album I've been playing: John Lee Hooker - Analogue Productions 45 rpm It Serve You Right To Suffer:
That's off a great album called First Blood which also contains a cover of "Give Me Back My Wig" : http://www.amazon.com/First-Blood-Mike-Henderson-Bluebloods/dp/B0000021VQ Another one off of First Blood:
Play this one regularly, gutsy, funky even, electric blues from mid sixties. With Buddy Guy as well! Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues
In the last three weeks, I've discovered Son Hoise and Skip James. Honestly, a real shock. I made my wife listen to Hard Times Killing Floor. She had big tears at the end. Salt of so many music to come. Dylan amongst them,
I'm beginning to get into the blues. My first album was the Paul Butterfield Blues Band s/t. It sounded great to me. I ordered this compilation album of Howlin' Wolf, including two full albums and some bonus tracks, amounting to 36 songs: http://www.ebay.com/itm/361244072387?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT I want to get to know the "three kings" better: BB, Albert, and Freddie. As a classic rock fan, I naturally gravitate towards the more electric and Chicago styles of the blues, rather than acoustic pre-war Delta blues. I've listened to some of the aforementioned "Hoodoo Man Blues" and I like it a lot. Does anyone know of any good documentaries about the blues that can give me a good primer on the history of the genre?
Muddy Waters... Live Chicago 1979, Chicago '81 (w/Rolling Stones) Fathers & Sons King Curtis & Champion Jack Dupree, Blues At Montreaux
Martin Scorsese "Presents The Blues" is very good!! Good place to start. Maybe after that you could look at individual documentaries.
This guy... I've been listening to Burnside on Burnside every day for the last 2 weeks. Highly recommended
I happen to have been listening to several of my favorite bootlegs by Freddie King, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. Freddie's performance at the 1969 Ann Arbor Blues Festival was tough and very powerful - he was backed up by Magic Sam's rhythm section and it was the ultimate blues power trio. The Howlin'Wolf concert was in Cambridge Mass in 1966 and is the only classic Wolf performance I've got. He's at full power, his band rocks as hard as his old Memphis band. The quality is not great, but the percormance is so magnificent, I don't care. Muddy's set is also from Cambridge in 1966 but is in much better quality. It's less dramatic than the other 2, but the band includes Otis Spann and George Harmonica Smith, and it reminds me of the first time I saw Muddy in 1966/67. I've got most all of their studio material, but sometimes I just love the excitement of a good live performance.
Great book as well. This is what made me listen to Son House in the first place. But i haven't seen the documentaries yet.