I saw Howlin Wolf at the National Art Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in the Summer of 1975. He passed away the following January. What I remember from that evening is him sitting on a stool at the front middle of the stage and how I enjoyed his version of Spoonful. Up to then I'd only heard Cream's rendition.
You obviously didn't catch him in his prime, but holy crap! I would have loved to have seen Wolf in concert at any point. I listened to this one earlier today (though I'm probably not the first to post it in this thread). What can I say? If anyone still thinks the CBS box was the last word on Robert Johnson, this will show you how wrong you were. I don't know how he did it, but engineer Steven Lasker found a way to turn back time and somehow erased almost a century's worth of noise from these recordings. Nothing short of a miracle, IMO.
A couple of under-appreciated albums by some true blues legends today. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play The Blues: Hubert Sumlin's Blues Party: Following those up with The Allman Brothers Band At Filmore East. Plenty of good blues on that one too.
I've been listening to a bit of Jimmy Johnson. Someone I haven't paid much attention to in the past. West side style blues with a beautiful guitar tone & vocals
That Buddy and Junior album has always been a favorite of mine. It gets mixed reviews but it sounds great to me and I like the variety with the few J. Geils tracks mixed in. I booked Buddy and Junior at my college when the lp first came out (with opening act The Fabulous Rhinestones). A wild / loose performance by Buddy and Junior. I learned a valuable lesson as a producer: when your idols ask for liquor in their dressing room (in this case, Chivas and VO), maybe don't get them a quart each.
Robben and Chris on anything should be good and they even tackle their own version of the classic East West.
Weird history with this album. Most of it was recorded in '70 and then it sat on the shelf and that's when the record company had them cut two new tracks with the J. Geils band later to fill out the album. This was always a head scratcher for me. I feel the J. Giles songs stick out like a sore thumb in terms of their feel being completely different from the earlier sessions. The deluxe edition that came out (that I got on Rhino Handmade, but was later re-issued) proves they had plenty of other good songs from the original sessions they could have chosen to include. https://www.amazon.com/Blues-Deluxe...=buddy+guy+junior+wells+play+the+blues+deluxe
I think Jimmy is underrated too; I love his voice and his guitar work. Hearing him sing, I think he moniker he earned, "The Bar Room Preacher", seems appropriate. I got to see him a couple of times in Chicago (one at the club B.L.U.E.S.) and he did not disappoint. I've always loved this one from Johnson's Whacks (and I'm sure I've posted it here before, just too lazy to go back and look). The lyrics are great!
I have that Rhino Handmade to,i was also surprised how very good the unreleased songs were.They are every bit as good and many better than the songs on the original release.Many of the songs nice long jams to with producer Clapton playing on some of the songs. It seems the reissue of the Rhino edition is missing some of the songs and no nice booklet with it..not sure which.It's also much cheaper than the original Rhino release to.
You Need Love - Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac on BBC Radio 1968. Why has this not been released yet ? It's a stunner.
I think there was a mis-print when the re-issue came out. I don't think it's missing any songs, but supposedly there's no booklet like in the Handmade Edition. Personally, I didn't like Rhino's practices with these Handmade editons. They were supposed to be exclusive (or semi-exclusive), but when sales of physical media started to decline, they started re-pressing away. I'm glad people have access to the music if they want it, but the price of the re-issue was like 40% lower than the re-issue. I don't think the booklet is worth another 40%. Ok, rant over !
I was surprised this isn't on Youtube, but out in "collector land" there's video from Portugese television (of all places) of a 1978 Buddy Guy & Junior Wells gig that features Jimmy Johnson on 2nd guitar! Here's Buddy and Junior: Here's the only shot I could grab with all three of them (that's Jimmy in the foreground): and here's Jimmy soloing:
I agree completely. That's why I said it was a head scratcher. I think the label didn't do Buddy and Junior any favors. They were riding high in 1970 as they were opening for the Stones on their tour and were therefore getting some nice exposure. I think if they'd released the album at that time, it might have been a big hit for them. By 1972, I think things had cooled off for them, at least in terms of more mainstream awarness of them.
I agree when you buy something that is marketed as a limited edition and part of what you're paying for is that,it is wrong.I think Rhino and Hip-O-Select are both now history.They both did put out some great stuff though.
Eddie Boyd's 1965 release, Five Long Years, produced by Mike Vernon, with Buddy Guy and Fred Below. Awesome record even if Eddie uses a Farfisa on a couple tunes... Speaking of Eddie, I am American but I live in Helsinki. Walking around in the Bohemian section one day, I saw a plaque on a building with his name. Turned out he lived there until his death in the 90s. Never knew he lived last 20-odd years of his life in Finland...
Looks like I'll have to check out the deluxe edition which I was not aware of - thank you. I closed out last night with this one (The Best of Muddy Waters):
This is about as good as it gets for a live blues record,James with such a great band..Fats and the Kid together.
This was recorded @ the time I was really starting to get into blues & blues albums were fairly easy to get hold of, possibly due to the upsurge in popularity in blues due to Stevie Ray Vaughan & Robert Cray. I really liked (still do) Stevie Ray Vaughan but couldn't get warm over Robert Cray & his endless songs about feeling guilty about shagging the next door neighbours wife. James Harman is a mostly undiscovered American Legend & the band on this album is just top shelf A grade.
Never heard of Jimmy Johnson. And i've never heard of that Eddie Boyd record. Both on my list now. Thanks! Never heard of James Harman. Is that Hollyood Fats? if so i may have heard some of this on my old Hollwood Fats Cassette. But, i no longer have the cassette. Thanks for the nudge.... Rock on.......
Giddy up! Great album one my favorites. Second Winter - Johnny Winter is a pretty sweet record as well.
