The Otis Spann albums I really like are the 2 albums he did for the Bluesway label. The Blues Is Where It's At and Heart Loaded With Trouble. Available these days in a number of different variations. The support players are the real deal bluesmen members of the Muddy Waters Band including the great man himself.
For many people this was their introduction to some lesser light contemporary (at the time) genuine blues greats.
If i had to pick my favorite from Otis and there are many.It would have to be the sessions for his Candid Record,recorded in New York,1960, with Robert Lockwood Jr..just the two of them and no band.They are so perfect together. Otis Spann Is The Blues..outstanding music!
The most awesome blues name of all time! I mean, he's no Buddy Guy, but it's a pretty darned good blues record.
Agree, I would add the live tracks off of It's My Life, Baby! to that also. I have never thought of Led Zeppelin the same after hearing Look How Baby. Junior with Buddy was just something else.
Blues album of the week for me: BB King - Live At The Regal I have the 1970's ABC records vinyl pressing which I think sounds great. I know, a classic but I have only discovered it this year and even after multiple spins it keeps getting better. I can sure hear where Buddy Guy picked up some influences on this.
Otis Rush - Mourning In The Morning. I have no idea how the pedigree was completely missed by me all of these years. Produced by Mike Bloomfield and Nice Gravenites, these guys took Otis down to record at the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. What this means is that you have Otis peforming with Duane Allman and The Swampers! The ironic thing is, I had no idea who was on the disc until I opened up the liner notes. I just saw it for $6 used at my local shop and said "this is one studio album I don't have, so it's time to pick it up". I knew it had mixed reviews, which is likely why I held off for so long. Apparently it was panned upon release. I think people who were used to Otis' sound on the Cobra sides and on Chicago, The Blues, Today! weren't ready to hear Otis backed by funky horn arrangements and a solid groove. Overall, after just a couple of listens, I'd say it's a good album overall with one or two bonafide classics on it. As an added bonus, I had just re-watched the Muscle Shoals documentary from a couple of years ago recently, so the story was still fresh in my mind. I don't know how anyone could've complained about this (note that Duane Allman is on lead for this one):
T-Bone Blues - T-Bone Walker (Atlantic) CD Recorded 1959 (Mono) Japanese Atlantic CD issued as part of the Atlantic 1000 R&B Best Collection series includes 4 'bonus/extra' tracks.
I couldn't agree more. I attended a Buddy Guy/Junior Well concert in a side room of the Bone Student Center at ISU in the mid-80s. They did not play the Braden auditorium that held 3,500. Instead, inside the walls of the same building, they played a common-area lounge for students called The Prairie Room. The admission was $1. I sat alone at a four-top table located right in front of the stage, center. I must've looked ridiculous sitting alone at that big table with three empty seats. Buddy played his normal first set. (I'd subsequently saw him perform 30 or more times, including two years ago in Raleigh, NC, so I've seen his routine which never once came close to the intensity of this night in middle-of-nowhere central Illinois.) The second set was something altogether different: Buddy decided to teach a class in the Blues. He came out and said so. To paraphrase: "I'm going to show you some things on the guitar and teach you some blues songs so you'll know them for the next time I come by." He proceeded to put on a clinic in the Blues! In an exemplary fashion, which including laying across my table while playing the guitar like a man possessed, Buddy lit up the Prairie Room like it was halftime at the Superbowl. And Junior was Junior--amazing, dazzling, working the harp as hard and furious as anyone I've ever seen play it. I left that room literally shaking with excitement. I felt I'd been baptized in the Blues.
This story makes me wish so bad that I had been born about 20 years sooner. Thanks for taking the time to write this. So interesting and awesome for blues lovers to hear stories like this. A guy I work with said he saw John Lee Hooker at some hole in the wall bar in Knoxville, TN on many occasions for like $2.00. Said he was 1 of about 5 in attendance at each show.
Agree and that man could play the slide guitar. I discovered him via Gillian Welch on her song 14th Of April by looking up the reference to the lyric "god moves on the water".
I have the Butterfield Blues Band and Albert King albums and love them. I just decided to order a copy of the Otis Rush which I have never heard.
They played Fools Paradise by Charles Brown on the blues show i was listening too on the radio. Such a cool song. Classic.
Going to give a little promo to a local kid from Cincinnati,Ben Levin,saw him this afternoon at our library.He just graduated high school and plays the blues the way it should be played. See so many young guitar slingers,it's nice to see a young kid doing it old school and on a piano..This is his first CD. This is from way back when he was a young 16..
