Comments on: Hit me with your best blues artist and album recommendations.

Question: Hit me with your best blues artist and album recommendations.

DrDreidel — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:03:58 -0800

Almost every type of music I love is inspired by blues. What are the quintessential blues artists and albums I should explore to really get a basic understanding of the genre?

By: creasy boy

creasy boy — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:09:04 -0800

Robert Johnson and Son House are a good place to start.

By: otio

otio — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:09:17 -0800

This is essential.

By: gwenlister

gwenlister — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:17:20 -0800

Seconding Robert Johnson. Really fantastic.

By: box

box — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:25:48 -0800

Blues isn't really an album genre--think singles and compilations.

I like Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music and love John Fahey's American Primitives albums. Not all blues, but all wonderful--and, besides, I think that a key to understanding blues is understanding its relationship to gospel and folk music.

Also, check out Charley Patton, Lightnin' Hopkins and Bessie Smith.

If I had to pick one electric blues album, it might be Junior Wells' Hoodoo Man Blues. It might also be the Black Keys' Chulahoma EP.

By: Atom12

Atom12 — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:30:39 -0800

A vote for Muddy Waters "Hard Again" and Willie Dixon's "I Am the Blues."

By: torquemaniac

torquemaniac — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:31:34 -0800

Lightnin' Hopkins was a prolific blues artist & served as my introduction to the blues some 40+ years ago. Listening to his music, it's difficult to believe that it's just a guy with a guitar and not a full ensemble playing.

By: RussHy

RussHy — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:34:28 -0800

Muddy Waters. Robert Johnson. Reverend Gary Davis. Jay McShann. Paul Butterfield. Those are my current favorites.

By: RussHy

RussHy — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:36:10 -0800

The Wikipedia article on the Blues is a good place to start.

By: wabbittwax

wabbittwax — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:37:18 -0800

BB King, "Live at the Regal"

Howlin' Wolf, "His Best"

Freddie King, "Hideaway: The Best of Freddie King"

Albert King, "Born Under a Bad Sign"

"John Mayall's Bluesbreakers Featuring Eric Clapton"

Buddy Guy, "A Man and the Blues"

seconding Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. You get nowhere without them.

By: gnutron

gnutron — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:39:36 -0800

Howlin' Wolf. And for slightly more modern blues, don't forget Taj Mahal & Albert King. (Taj still tours, his live shows are fantastic.)

By: lester

lester — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:44:55 -0800

early zz top.

By: torquemaniac

torquemaniac — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:47:56 -0800

For modern electric blues - I like Harvey Mandel, who was a pioneer of modern electric blues from Chicago.

By: ryanshepard

ryanshepard — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:49:29 -0800

Skip James, John Lee Hooker, Junior Kimbrough, Big Joe Williams, Mississippi John Hurt, Charlie Patton and Bukka White are all essential.

It's a very, very big tent, though, with a lot of styles under it - I'd definitely pick up the allmusic or Penguin guides and do some browsing. There are plenty of blogs (e.g.) that will let you get free samples of the things that sound interesting to you.

Seconding the recommendation of looking into compilations - some of the most beautiful, eerie, play-it-over-and-over tracks I've come across in recent years (e.g. Joe Townsend's "If I Could Not Say a Word", which is available here) have been on comps. Two that I come back to a lot are The Friends of Charlie Patton and American Primitive.

By: Joe Beese

Joe Beese — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:02:08 -0800

Muddy Waters would be an excellent place to begin. But for "a basic understanding of the genre", you'll need to go old school. Any of the artists here with an adjective in front of their name are fine candidates. To the ones already mentioned, I would add Blind Lemon Jefferson.

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:16:42 -0800

Leadbelly

By: ab3

ab3 — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:18:05 -0800

If I were you, I'd start with some good compilations, and see whose voices and whose guitar styles really connect for you. One great place to begin is with the Smithsonian folkways collections. And once you find a few you like, read up on them - wikipedia's fine, but Alan Lomax's The Land Where Blues Began is great... and you'll see who influenced who, and where different styles of the Blues originated, and you can buy more recordings from there...

That being said, I think these are must haves, in rough chronological order from early to modern.

Robert Johnson
Charlie Patton
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Muddy Waters
Howlin Wolf
Leadbelly
John Lee Hooker
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Junior Kimbrough
R.L. Burnside
Taj Mahal
Keb Mo'

By: Flood

Flood — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:23:27 -0800

Bo Didley.

By: freya_lamb

freya_lamb — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:26:10 -0800

Ma Rainey and Memphis Minnie. Amazing women - they lived and loved it.

By: Edwahd

Edwahd — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:03:48 -0800

John Lee Hooker - Live at the Cafe au Go-Go (and Soledad Prison) is one of my favourite albums (but I agree with box that albums aren't necessaryily part of experiencing the blues, especially as a lot of early artists only made fairly disparate recordings). Son House's Delta Blues and Spirituals is a fine example of his work. There are some amazing songs on this Howlin' Wolf collection too.

I first started listening to blues when I was sixteen, it can be a pretty daunting canon to tackle. All the suggestions above are solvent and worth significant investment.

By: Potomac Avenue

Potomac Avenue — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:27:26 -0800

As long as you buy blues made before 1960 you'll be OK. There are some iconic people, but really every member of every subspecies the genre contributed to the sound.

20s and 30s blues is a good document of the roots of jazz.
(Bessie Smith, Pinetop Smith, various other Smiths)
40s and 50s acoustic blues forms the roots of folk music:
Leadbelly, Sleepy John Estes, Sis. Rosetta Tharp)
Plus all of the 50s-60s Chicago Urban blues guys listed above.

In the 60s you have to be more choosy, and don't bother with anything after 1971 (though there is some rare good stuff, it's buried in a pile of yeccch).

The Black Keys? Come on, y'all that's great rock and roll but...I mean, come on.

By: ryanshepard

ryanshepard — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:33:04 -0800

... and don't bother with anything after 1971

Don't take this advice - you'll miss out on Junior Kimbrough's Most Things Haven't Worked Out and Sad Days, Lonely Nights, R.L. Burnside's Acoustic Stories, Robert Lockwood, Jr.'s Delta Crossroads, and John Jackson's Front Porch Blues - along with a slew of other great records. It's worth doing some digging and exploring to find the good stuff.

By: kid_dynamite

kid_dynamite — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:35:32 -0800

Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy are my favorite of the older acoustic players
My favorite electric players are Elmore James and Sister Rosetta Tharp

By: djgh

djgh — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:37:50 -0800

I know nothing of the blues, but a trivia show on TV said that W C Handy was the father of the blues.

By: WilliamWallace

WilliamWallace — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:43:58 -0800

Mel Brown, Buddy Guy, and B.B. King.

Some newer guys like Steve Strongman really channel the origins of blues.

By: katala

katala — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:36:49 -0800

They're old school (1950's?) but have some great blue's elements and are just plain awesome - "The Ink Spots" (originally discovered on the Fallout 3 soundtrack)

By: dfriedman

dfriedman — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:53:26 -0800

I have been listening to the North Mississippi Allstars, Junior Kimbrough, Samuel L Jackson (yes, the actor, playing on the soundtrack for the movie Black Snake Moan), and RL Burnside lately.

By: Midnight Rambler

Midnight Rambler — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:22:42 -0800

Lightning In A Bottle is a pretty good movie from a few years ago. It's a mixture of a concert and a documentary (although it favours the concert aspect more) and traces the progression of the blues from its origins in African music to modern Blues-influenced rockers.

By: Mr. Justice

Mr. Justice — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:01:23 -0800

I am going to go in a very different direction than many of the above recommenders.

Note that blues (arguably) reached its apex in individually sold singles. Albums came later and were basically just an excuse to put a bunch of singles together and resell them. I would therefore try to get something with a lot of singles by different artists and listen to that if you really want a quintessential blues exploration/experience. Buying a whole bunch of single-artist albums is perhaps not the best idea.

I would look at CHESS BLUES, which is a 4 cd compilation of great blues singles. If you listen to that you will have a great exposure to Chicago electric blues, which is a kind of Grand Central Station for the development of the form -- it seems like everything goes there and comes from there. I would also look at the Smithsonian collection THE BLUES. If you listen to those you'll get a very good idea of which artists you like. You'll also hear a lot of themes that get repeated by different artists.

In my opinion someone who hasn't trained himself to hear the blues by exposure to some of this basic stuff might reasonably be expected to have a tough time enjoying blues from the 20s and 30s.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Wed, 20 May 2009 00:49:35 -0800

Someone I haven't seen mentioned here yet is Hound Dog Taylor, who played a Chicago bottle-neck slide that was out of this world. His debut s/t with the Houserockers is fucking genius and essential.

By: electroboy

electroboy — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:06:09 -0800

Not an album, but the PBS series The Blues is pretty great.

By: zennoshinjou

zennoshinjou — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:26:04 -0800

Hound Dog Taylor is amazing and essential. I'm also a fan of Elmo/Elmore James.

By: jpdoane

jpdoane — Sun, 24 May 2009 12:46:05 -0800

For a recent artist, check out Joe Bonamassa.

By: kapu

kapu — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:48:16 -0800

The song "Lost John" by Sonny Terry. I can just feel how alone he was, blinded at a young age. And he spent countless hours alone with his harmonica. This song makes my jaw drop.

Also check out Big Walter Horton (Big Walter Horton with Carey Bell is a great one)
Anything by William Clarke. Not so much for his vocals, but his playing.
I could go on forever, but these stand out in my mind.