skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

Essential-hardly, 28 May 2008
Depend who this is supposed to be essential do-the newcomer to the Urban blues which influenced the British blues bands or essential as the biggest songs are here.Big via other people not especially Muddy who I don't think troubled the pop charts.
Which is besides the point-the pop charts are only a mirror to public taste.
In the U K Muddy waters was represnted in the 50s by a solitary EP which retailed at the same price as Cliff Richard or Elvis so it died a death and was only there because Decca were licensing product from Chess having only just obttained the catalog.
Muddy Waters was also a very unlikely artist to aim his music at the charts for the simple reason that while he may have introduced Chuck Berry to Chess he was not aiming his music at teenagers like Berry but doing his own thing like Bo Diddley.Berry it was said had only about 3 tunes and 3 rghtms -Muddy Waters had just one-the 12 bar blues.
Fats Domino he wasn't and never would be.In the mid 50s Joe Turner was about where he might have been but Chess was more interested in promoting Chuck Berry
By the time the Stones discovered Waters and named their band after a song he cut there was still a long way to go before America found out about its own musical past.For Waters that had begun in the mid 40s when his music was rural rather than urban.
To the America of the 50s Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley were seen as threats because the songs were about sex and not about high school life.
After all you can't get much more blatant than i just wanna make love to you!!
That's if they were ever heard of in the times of Pat Boone and Elvis These blues guys were artists who would begin to be appreciated after the Stones era had begun.
Muddy Waters and his contemporaries were simply waiting for the climate to change

almost perfect, 19 May 2005
This is a good record of a very great artist and it contains some of the most seminal and hard-hitting blues in the catalogue. However, there are a few essential recordings not represented here and these versions of Mannish Boy and Hootchie Cootchie Man are not the originals and a long way from being the best. Although HCM is a more than acceptable, this version of MB is frankly pants. All the same at this price, it's a good value cd as are the sister volumes by Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. For serious Muddy fans however, the two cd 'Collection, though more expensive, is a better deal in the long run.

perfect, 27 Aug 2004
Absolutely perfect: raw vocals, blues in its purest form. The Grandfather of just about every type of music to follow. Can't pick one favourite, but if I had to, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mojo working, I Just Want to Make Love to You...buy it. You'll play it to death.

skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

Essential-hardly, 28 May 2008
Depend who this is supposed to be essential do-the newcomer to the Urban blues which influenced the British blues bands or essential as the biggest songs are here.Big via other people not especially Muddy who I don't think troubled the pop charts.
Which is besides the point-the pop charts are only a mirror to public taste.
In the U K Muddy waters was represnted in the 50s by a solitary EP which retailed at the same price as Cliff Richard or Elvis so it died a death and was only there because Decca were licensing product from Chess having only just obttained the catalog.
Muddy Waters was also a very unlikely artist to aim his music at the charts for the simple reason that while he may have introduced Chuck Berry to Chess he was not aiming his music at teenagers like Berry but doing his own thing like Bo Diddley.Berry it was said had only about 3 tunes and 3 rghtms -Muddy Waters had just one-the 12 bar blues.
Fats Domino he wasn't and never would be.In the mid 50s Joe Turner was about where he might have been but Chess was more interested in promoting Chuck Berry
By the time the Stones discovered Waters and named their band after a song he cut there was still a long way to go before America found out about its own musical past.For Waters that had begun in the mid 40s when his music was rural rather than urban.
To the America of the 50s Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley were seen as threats because the songs were about sex and not about high school life.
After all you can't get much more blatant than i just wanna make love to you!!
That's if they were ever heard of in the times of Pat Boone and Elvis These blues guys were artists who would begin to be appreciated after the Stones era had begun.
Muddy Waters and his contemporaries were simply waiting for the climate to change

almost perfect, 19 May 2005
This is a good record of a very great artist and it contains some of the most seminal and hard-hitting blues in the catalogue. However, there are a few essential recordings not represented here and these versions of Mannish Boy and Hootchie Cootchie Man are not the originals and a long way from being the best. Although HCM is a more than acceptable, this version of MB is frankly pants. All the same at this price, it's a good value cd as are the sister volumes by Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. For serious Muddy fans however, the two cd 'Collection, though more expensive, is a better deal in the long run.

perfect, 27 Aug 2004
Absolutely perfect: raw vocals, blues in its purest form. The Grandfather of just about every type of music to follow. Can't pick one favourite, but if I had to, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mojo working, I Just Want to Make Love to You...buy it. You'll play it to death.

Where it all began..., 21 Apr 2008
Not a Rolling Stones album of course, but a fascinating source of information and exploration for anyone interested in finding out about the music that influenced the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World (and should'nt that be Rhythm & Blues Band anyway?) when they were just a group of music mad teenagers scattered around various parts of North Kent, South London and Gloucestershire.

Rumour has it that Mick Jagger was carrying some of this very music with him when he first met Keith Richards on Platform 3 of Dartford Railway Station c.1962. Meanwhile down in Cheltenham, Brian 'Elmo' Jones was perfecting his Elmore James licks and working his way through the Muddy Waters songbook, including noting that Rolling Stone Blues might make a useful band name one day.

This excellent album is the latest release from Snapper Music in their ongoing 'Blues Roots' series, and contains a top quality mix of both well-known and extremely-rare tracks. It is wonderful to see Rev. Robert Wilkins, Leroy Carr and Robert Petway placed side-by-side with Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, as well as the aforementioned Elmore James and Muddy Waters. Naturally, with an undertaking of this complexity - the licensing alone must be a nightmare - there are a few omissions. There is no Willie Dixon (Pain in my Heart), Amos Milburn (Down the Road Apiece), Gene Allison (You can make it if you try) or Alvin Robinson (Down Home Girl). And sadly there is nothing either from a man who is one of the least credited influences on the Stones - Jimmy Rogers. Not alone did they base their version of I Can't Be Satisfied directly on his interpretation, but he also gave them the title of one of their biggest early hits (The Last Time), and his 1951 number My Little Machine became the template for several of the band's early r'n'b based recordings.

However these quibbles aside - and who knows, perhaps there is a Volume 2 on the way?? - this budget-priced album is a very worthwhile investment for any genuine Stones fan. A word of appreciation too for Michael Hendon's precise and informative liner notes. Clear, straightforward and very much to the point.

Go on, get yer ya ya's out!

skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

Essential-hardly, 28 May 2008
Depend who this is supposed to be essential do-the newcomer to the Urban blues which influenced the British blues bands or essential as the biggest songs are here.Big via other people not especially Muddy who I don't think troubled the pop charts.
Which is besides the point-the pop charts are only a mirror to public taste.
In the U K Muddy waters was represnted in the 50s by a solitary EP which retailed at the same price as Cliff Richard or Elvis so it died a death and was only there because Decca were licensing product from Chess having only just obttained the catalog.
Muddy Waters was also a very unlikely artist to aim his music at the charts for the simple reason that while he may have introduced Chuck Berry to Chess he was not aiming his music at teenagers like Berry but doing his own thing like Bo Diddley.Berry it was said had only about 3 tunes and 3 rghtms -Muddy Waters had just one-the 12 bar blues.
Fats Domino he wasn't and never would be.In the mid 50s Joe Turner was about where he might have been but Chess was more interested in promoting Chuck Berry
By the time the Stones discovered Waters and named their band after a song he cut there was still a long way to go before America found out about its own musical past.For Waters that had begun in the mid 40s when his music was rural rather than urban.
To the America of the 50s Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley were seen as threats because the songs were about sex and not about high school life.
After all you can't get much more blatant than i just wanna make love to you!!
That's if they were ever heard of in the times of Pat Boone and Elvis These blues guys were artists who would begin to be appreciated after the Stones era had begun.
Muddy Waters and his contemporaries were simply waiting for the climate to change

almost perfect, 19 May 2005
This is a good record of a very great artist and it contains some of the most seminal and hard-hitting blues in the catalogue. However, there are a few essential recordings not represented here and these versions of Mannish Boy and Hootchie Cootchie Man are not the originals and a long way from being the best. Although HCM is a more than acceptable, this version of MB is frankly pants. All the same at this price, it's a good value cd as are the sister volumes by Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. For serious Muddy fans however, the two cd 'Collection, though more expensive, is a better deal in the long run.

perfect, 27 Aug 2004
Absolutely perfect: raw vocals, blues in its purest form. The Grandfather of just about every type of music to follow. Can't pick one favourite, but if I had to, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mojo working, I Just Want to Make Love to You...buy it. You'll play it to death.

Where it all began..., 21 Apr 2008
Not a Rolling Stones album of course, but a fascinating source of information and exploration for anyone interested in finding out about the music that influenced the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World (and should'nt that be Rhythm & Blues Band anyway?) when they were just a group of music mad teenagers scattered around various parts of North Kent, South London and Gloucestershire.

Rumour has it that Mick Jagger was carrying some of this very music with him when he first met Keith Richards on Platform 3 of Dartford Railway Station c.1962. Meanwhile down in Cheltenham, Brian 'Elmo' Jones was perfecting his Elmore James licks and working his way through the Muddy Waters songbook, including noting that Rolling Stone Blues might make a useful band name one day.

This excellent album is the latest release from Snapper Music in their ongoing 'Blues Roots' series, and contains a top quality mix of both well-known and extremely-rare tracks. It is wonderful to see Rev. Robert Wilkins, Leroy Carr and Robert Petway placed side-by-side with Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, as well as the aforementioned Elmore James and Muddy Waters. Naturally, with an undertaking of this complexity - the licensing alone must be a nightmare - there are a few omissions. There is no Willie Dixon (Pain in my Heart), Amos Milburn (Down the Road Apiece), Gene Allison (You can make it if you try) or Alvin Robinson (Down Home Girl). And sadly there is nothing either from a man who is one of the least credited influences on the Stones - Jimmy Rogers. Not alone did they base their version of I Can't Be Satisfied directly on his interpretation, but he also gave them the title of one of their biggest early hits (The Last Time), and his 1951 number My Little Machine became the template for several of the band's early r'n'b based recordings.

However these quibbles aside - and who knows, perhaps there is a Volume 2 on the way?? - this budget-priced album is a very worthwhile investment for any genuine Stones fan. A word of appreciation too for Michael Hendon's precise and informative liner notes. Clear, straightforward and very much to the point.

Go on, get yer ya ya's out!

ALL THE SONGS YOU'LL EVER NEED, 20 Jul 2008
This is another great compilation from the Beginners series, from Robert Johnson all the way to Charlie Musselwhite. This is a great start for your blues colection.

You won't be disappointed with this, 26 Feb 2008
As a modern blues afficionado, I spent a long time choosing this: I was after a comprehensive compilation covering early acoustic roots to present day electric blues. There are so many compilations to choose from, but this one turned out to be as good as I'd hoped - there is not a single track here that I didn't enjoy, and I think you will too. Some you will already know, some you won't, but there are no fillers here. CD1 features acoustic country blues, CD2 the electric sounds of classic urban blues and CD3 modern artists 'keeping the tradition alive'. Nice.

skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

Essential-hardly, 28 May 2008
Depend who this is supposed to be essential do-the newcomer to the Urban blues which influenced the British blues bands or essential as the biggest songs are here.Big via other people not especially Muddy who I don't think troubled the pop charts.
Which is besides the point-the pop charts are only a mirror to public taste.
In the U K Muddy waters was represnted in the 50s by a solitary EP which retailed at the same price as Cliff Richard or Elvis so it died a death and was only there because Decca were licensing product from Chess having only just obttained the catalog.
Muddy Waters was also a very unlikely artist to aim his music at the charts for the simple reason that while he may have introduced Chuck Berry to Chess he was not aiming his music at teenagers like Berry but doing his own thing like Bo Diddley.Berry it was said had only about 3 tunes and 3 rghtms -Muddy Waters had just one-the 12 bar blues.
Fats Domino he wasn't and never would be.In the mid 50s Joe Turner was about where he might have been but Chess was more interested in promoting Chuck Berry
By the time the Stones discovered Waters and named their band after a song he cut there was still a long way to go before America found out about its own musical past.For Waters that had begun in the mid 40s when his music was rural rather than urban.
To the America of the 50s Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley were seen as threats because the songs were about sex and not about high school life.
After all you can't get much more blatant than i just wanna make love to you!!
That's if they were ever heard of in the times of Pat Boone and Elvis These blues guys were artists who would begin to be appreciated after the Stones era had begun.
Muddy Waters and his contemporaries were simply waiting for the climate to change

almost perfect, 19 May 2005
This is a good record of a very great artist and it contains some of the most seminal and hard-hitting blues in the catalogue. However, there are a few essential recordings not represented here and these versions of Mannish Boy and Hootchie Cootchie Man are not the originals and a long way from being the best. Although HCM is a more than acceptable, this version of MB is frankly pants. All the same at this price, it's a good value cd as are the sister volumes by Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. For serious Muddy fans however, the two cd 'Collection, though more expensive, is a better deal in the long run.

perfect, 27 Aug 2004
Absolutely perfect: raw vocals, blues in its purest form. The Grandfather of just about every type of music to follow. Can't pick one favourite, but if I had to, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mojo working, I Just Want to Make Love to You...buy it. You'll play it to death.

Where it all began..., 21 Apr 2008
Not a Rolling Stones album of course, but a fascinating source of information and exploration for anyone interested in finding out about the music that influenced the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World (and should'nt that be Rhythm & Blues Band anyway?) when they were just a group of music mad teenagers scattered around various parts of North Kent, South London and Gloucestershire.

Rumour has it that Mick Jagger was carrying some of this very music with him when he first met Keith Richards on Platform 3 of Dartford Railway Station c.1962. Meanwhile down in Cheltenham, Brian 'Elmo' Jones was perfecting his Elmore James licks and working his way through the Muddy Waters songbook, including noting that Rolling Stone Blues might make a useful band name one day.

This excellent album is the latest release from Snapper Music in their ongoing 'Blues Roots' series, and contains a top quality mix of both well-known and extremely-rare tracks. It is wonderful to see Rev. Robert Wilkins, Leroy Carr and Robert Petway placed side-by-side with Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, as well as the aforementioned Elmore James and Muddy Waters. Naturally, with an undertaking of this complexity - the licensing alone must be a nightmare - there are a few omissions. There is no Willie Dixon (Pain in my Heart), Amos Milburn (Down the Road Apiece), Gene Allison (You can make it if you try) or Alvin Robinson (Down Home Girl). And sadly there is nothing either from a man who is one of the least credited influences on the Stones - Jimmy Rogers. Not alone did they base their version of I Can't Be Satisfied directly on his interpretation, but he also gave them the title of one of their biggest early hits (The Last Time), and his 1951 number My Little Machine became the template for several of the band's early r'n'b based recordings.

However these quibbles aside - and who knows, perhaps there is a Volume 2 on the way?? - this budget-priced album is a very worthwhile investment for any genuine Stones fan. A word of appreciation too for Michael Hendon's precise and informative liner notes. Clear, straightforward and very much to the point.

Go on, get yer ya ya's out!

ALL THE SONGS YOU'LL EVER NEED, 20 Jul 2008
This is another great compilation from the Beginners series, from Robert Johnson all the way to Charlie Musselwhite. This is a great start for your blues colection.

You won't be disappointed with this, 26 Feb 2008
As a modern blues afficionado, I spent a long time choosing this: I was after a comprehensive compilation covering early acoustic roots to present day electric blues. There are so many compilations to choose from, but this one turned out to be as good as I'd hoped - there is not a single track here that I didn't enjoy, and I think you will too. Some you will already know, some you won't, but there are no fillers here. CD1 features acoustic country blues, CD2 the electric sounds of classic urban blues and CD3 modern artists 'keeping the tradition alive'. Nice.

magnificent blues, 06 Jul 2008
The music on this compilation is magnificent, I didn't give it 5 stars only because it lacks the listing of musicians on each track (some of which are true blues legends themselves).
In this period he recorded with Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and others, so it would be nice to have the correct info on that.

Otherwise, this is classical stuff; both vocally and instrumentally...

BTW, if my ears don't decieve me, the performer of "Like Wolf" (track 18) is Howlin' Wolf , although the authorship of the song is attributed to Williamson.

Excellent album, 22 Mar 2004
If you've never heard Sonny Boy Williamson before I recommend this album. If your particularly interested in blues harmonica there aren't many better than Sonny Boy Williamson and you could do a lot worse than have this in your collection.

sonny boy williamson, 31 Oct 2003
like many "best of" compilations this one starts superbly but after you've heard 3 or 4 tracks you get the feeling you've heard them before..the very simple instrumentation becomes limiting and restrictive..and while the songs are classics you can see why other peoples versions are more entertaining..the album is well worth buying if only for the fantastic opening track

skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

Essential-hardly, 28 May 2008
Depend who this is supposed to be essential do-the newcomer to the Urban blues which influenced the British blues bands or essential as the biggest songs are here.Big via other people not especially Muddy who I don't think troubled the pop charts.
Which is besides the point-the pop charts are only a mirror to public taste.
In the U K Muddy waters was represnted in the 50s by a solitary EP which retailed at the same price as Cliff Richard or Elvis so it died a death and was only there because Decca were licensing product from Chess having only just obttained the catalog.
Muddy Waters was also a very unlikely artist to aim his music at the charts for the simple reason that while he may have introduced Chuck Berry to Chess he was not aiming his music at teenagers like Berry but doing his own thing like Bo Diddley.Berry it was said had only about 3 tunes and 3 rghtms -Muddy Waters had just one-the 12 bar blues.
Fats Domino he wasn't and never would be.In the mid 50s Joe Turner was about where he might have been but Chess was more interested in promoting Chuck Berry
By the time the Stones discovered Waters and named their band after a song he cut there was still a long way to go before America found out about its own musical past.For Waters that had begun in the mid 40s when his music was rural rather than urban.
To the America of the 50s Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley were seen as threats because the songs were about sex and not about high school life.
After all you can't get much more blatant than i just wanna make love to you!!
That's if they were ever heard of in the times of Pat Boone and Elvis These blues guys were artists who would begin to be appreciated after the Stones era had begun.
Muddy Waters and his contemporaries were simply waiting for the climate to change

almost perfect, 19 May 2005
This is a good record of a very great artist and it contains some of the most seminal and hard-hitting blues in the catalogue. However, there are a few essential recordings not represented here and these versions of Mannish Boy and Hootchie Cootchie Man are not the originals and a long way from being the best. Although HCM is a more than acceptable, this version of MB is frankly pants. All the same at this price, it's a good value cd as are the sister volumes by Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. For serious Muddy fans however, the two cd 'Collection, though more expensive, is a better deal in the long run.

perfect, 27 Aug 2004
Absolutely perfect: raw vocals, blues in its purest form. The Grandfather of just about every type of music to follow. Can't pick one favourite, but if I had to, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mojo working, I Just Want to Make Love to You...buy it. You'll play it to death.

Where it all began..., 21 Apr 2008
Not a Rolling Stones album of course, but a fascinating source of information and exploration for anyone interested in finding out about the music that influenced the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World (and should'nt that be Rhythm & Blues Band anyway?) when they were just a group of music mad teenagers scattered around various parts of North Kent, South London and Gloucestershire.

Rumour has it that Mick Jagger was carrying some of this very music with him when he first met Keith Richards on Platform 3 of Dartford Railway Station c.1962. Meanwhile down in Cheltenham, Brian 'Elmo' Jones was perfecting his Elmore James licks and working his way through the Muddy Waters songbook, including noting that Rolling Stone Blues might make a useful band name one day.

This excellent album is the latest release from Snapper Music in their ongoing 'Blues Roots' series, and contains a top quality mix of both well-known and extremely-rare tracks. It is wonderful to see Rev. Robert Wilkins, Leroy Carr and Robert Petway placed side-by-side with Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, as well as the aforementioned Elmore James and Muddy Waters. Naturally, with an undertaking of this complexity - the licensing alone must be a nightmare - there are a few omissions. There is no Willie Dixon (Pain in my Heart), Amos Milburn (Down the Road Apiece), Gene Allison (You can make it if you try) or Alvin Robinson (Down Home Girl). And sadly there is nothing either from a man who is one of the least credited influences on the Stones - Jimmy Rogers. Not alone did they base their version of I Can't Be Satisfied directly on his interpretation, but he also gave them the title of one of their biggest early hits (The Last Time), and his 1951 number My Little Machine became the template for several of the band's early r'n'b based recordings.

However these quibbles aside - and who knows, perhaps there is a Volume 2 on the way?? - this budget-priced album is a very worthwhile investment for any genuine Stones fan. A word of appreciation too for Michael Hendon's precise and informative liner notes. Clear, straightforward and very much to the point.

Go on, get yer ya ya's out!

ALL THE SONGS YOU'LL EVER NEED, 20 Jul 2008
This is another great compilation from the Beginners series, from Robert Johnson all the way to Charlie Musselwhite. This is a great start for your blues colection.

You won't be disappointed with this, 26 Feb 2008
As a modern blues afficionado, I spent a long time choosing this: I was after a comprehensive compilation covering early acoustic roots to present day electric blues. There are so many compilations to choose from, but this one turned out to be as good as I'd hoped - there is not a single track here that I didn't enjoy, and I think you will too. Some you will already know, some you won't, but there are no fillers here. CD1 features acoustic country blues, CD2 the electric sounds of classic urban blues and CD3 modern artists 'keeping the tradition alive'. Nice.

magnificent blues, 06 Jul 2008
The music on this compilation is magnificent, I didn't give it 5 stars only because it lacks the listing of musicians on each track (some of which are true blues legends themselves).
In this period he recorded with Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and others, so it would be nice to have the correct info on that.

Otherwise, this is classical stuff; both vocally and instrumentally...

BTW, if my ears don't decieve me, the performer of "Like Wolf" (track 18) is Howlin' Wolf , although the authorship of the song is attributed to Williamson.

Excellent album, 22 Mar 2004
If you've never heard Sonny Boy Williamson before I recommend this album. If your particularly interested in blues harmonica there aren't many better than Sonny Boy Williamson and you could do a lot worse than have this in your collection.

sonny boy williamson, 31 Oct 2003
like many "best of" compilations this one starts superbly but after you've heard 3 or 4 tracks you get the feeling you've heard them before..the very simple instrumentation becomes limiting and restrictive..and while the songs are classics you can see why other peoples versions are more entertaining..the album is well worth buying if only for the fantastic opening track

Essential Wolf, 27 Aug 2006
A welcome budget price collection by one of the most charismatic and influential blues artists of all time. Many of Wolf's best known numbers are here, commencing with 'How Many More Years' from his first session in 1951 in Sam Phillips' Memphis studio, and continuing through the 1954 to 1965 period with Chess Records. The material is licensed from MCA, and therefore in excellent sound quality, with stereo mixes being used on some of the later dates. Just reading the titles reveals that most of the essential tracks are present, including the ones that were to feature strongly in the white blues boom of the 1960s: 'The Little Red Rooster', 'Spoonful', 'Killing Floor', and the inevitable 'Smokestack Lightnin''.

Wolf's songs were notable for their innovative lyrics, mostly composed by Willie Dixon, who, as a member of the Chess house band, played bass on many of these numbers. The CD could almost be considered a tribute to Dixon's songwriting talents. The lyrics of 'Tail Dragger' are particularly interesting in that they describe how the prowling wolf would wipe his tracks out with his tail, a theme borrowed from the 1930 recording 'Howling Wolf Blues No.3' by J.T. 'Funny Paper' Smith, the original Howling Wolf, from whom Chester Burnett obtained his pseudonym.

The rich, dynamic sound of the original recordings is well captured on this reissue, with the stunning guitar of Hubert Sumlin well to the fore on most numbers, and Otis Spann's piano featured here and there, including 'Wang Dang Doodle' and the moody 'Evil'. If you don't already own these classic recordings then this is an excellent place to start.


A good place to start, 04 May 2003
This is actually a pretty good compilation. It has most of Wolf's best-known songs, the fidelity is good, and the price is reasonable. It doesn't quite measure up to MCA/Chess' "His Best", however, and if you're into Howlin' Wolf, "His Best" and "His Best, vol. II" are an ultimately more satisfying purchase.

A good place to start, 04 May 2003
This is actually a pretty good compilation. It has most of Wolf's best-known songs, the fidelity is good, and the price is reasonable. It doesn't quite measure up to MCA/Chess' "His Best", however, and if you're into Howlin' Wolf, "His Best" and "His Best, vol. II" are an ultimately more satisfying purchase.

The main man., 25 Oct 2002
When the blues hit Chicago and got lectrified there were two competing champs for the heavyweight title.

Muddy Waters is the better known, and no slouch in my book, but this guy is the real king.

Listen in awe to that primal bellow. Hubert Sumlin was no slouch on guitar either. Truelly a giant of the blues, and with Willie Dixon penning most of the songs, how can you lose?

So turn your blues-lite Clapton cds into coasters and get your ears round the Wolf.

A good compilation with some cracking songs., 22 Feb 2002
This is a great compilation if Howlin Wolf's best known work and as such is not going to be of much use to die hard fans but as an introduction it works just fine. Howlin Wolf had one of the greatest blues voices, a kind of melodic growl, that was almost an instrument in its own right. It is in fine especiaaly on such songs as "Backdoor Man" (which is a classic) and "Smokestack Ligthning". The tunes are fine and great if you like delta blues but the whole compilation lacks depth (probably due to the fact it's a compilation)and so does not receive the full 5 stars. But this is defenitely worth purcahsing if your a fan of the blues, Beefheart or Zappa

skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

Essential-hardly, 28 May 2008
Depend who this is supposed to be essential do-the newcomer to the Urban blues which influenced the British blues bands or essential as the biggest songs are here.Big via other people not especially Muddy who I don't think troubled the pop charts.
Which is besides the point-the pop charts are only a mirror to public taste.
In the U K Muddy waters was represnted in the 50s by a solitary EP which retailed at the same price as Cliff Richard or Elvis so it died a death and was only there because Decca were licensing product from Chess having only just obttained the catalog.
Muddy Waters was also a very unlikely artist to aim his music at the charts for the simple reason that while he may have introduced Chuck Berry to Chess he was not aiming his music at teenagers like Berry but doing his own thing like Bo Diddley.Berry it was said had only about 3 tunes and 3 rghtms -Muddy Waters had just one-the 12 bar blues.
Fats Domino he wasn't and never would be.In the mid 50s Joe Turner was about where he might have been but Chess was more interested in promoting Chuck Berry
By the time the Stones discovered Waters and named their band after a song he cut there was still a long way to go before America found out about its own musical past.For Waters that had begun in the mid 40s when his music was rural rather than urban.
To the America of the 50s Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley were seen as threats because the songs were about sex and not about high school life.
After all you can't get much more blatant than i just wanna make love to you!!
That's if they were ever heard of in the times of Pat Boone and Elvis These blues guys were artists who would begin to be appreciated after the Stones era had begun.
Muddy Waters and his contemporaries were simply waiting for the climate to change

almost perfect, 19 May 2005
This is a good record of a very great artist and it contains some of the most seminal and hard-hitting blues in the catalogue. However, there are a few essential recordings not represented here and these versions of Mannish Boy and Hootchie Cootchie Man are not the originals and a long way from being the best. Although HCM is a more than acceptable, this version of MB is frankly pants. All the same at this price, it's a good value cd as are the sister volumes by Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. For serious Muddy fans however, the two cd 'Collection, though more expensive, is a better deal in the long run.

perfect, 27 Aug 2004
Absolutely perfect: raw vocals, blues in its purest form. The Grandfather of just about every type of music to follow. Can't pick one favourite, but if I had to, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mojo working, I Just Want to Make Love to You...buy it. You'll play it to death.

Where it all began..., 21 Apr 2008
Not a Rolling Stones album of course, but a fascinating source of information and exploration for anyone interested in finding out about the music that influenced the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World (and should'nt that be Rhythm & Blues Band anyway?) when they were just a group of music mad teenagers scattered around various parts of North Kent, South London and Gloucestershire.

Rumour has it that Mick Jagger was carrying some of this very music with him when he first met Keith Richards on Platform 3 of Dartford Railway Station c.1962. Meanwhile down in Cheltenham, Brian 'Elmo' Jones was perfecting his Elmore James licks and working his way through the Muddy Waters songbook, including noting that Rolling Stone Blues might make a useful band name one day.

This excellent album is the latest release from Snapper Music in their ongoing 'Blues Roots' series, and contains a top quality mix of both well-known and extremely-rare tracks. It is wonderful to see Rev. Robert Wilkins, Leroy Carr and Robert Petway placed side-by-side with Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, as well as the aforementioned Elmore James and Muddy Waters. Naturally, with an undertaking of this complexity - the licensing alone must be a nightmare - there are a few omissions. There is no Willie Dixon (Pain in my Heart), Amos Milburn (Down the Road Apiece), Gene Allison (You can make it if you try) or Alvin Robinson (Down Home Girl). And sadly there is nothing either from a man who is one of the least credited influences on the Stones - Jimmy Rogers. Not alone did they base their version of I Can't Be Satisfied directly on his interpretation, but he also gave them the title of one of their biggest early hits (The Last Time), and his 1951 number My Little Machine became the template for several of the band's early r'n'b based recordings.

However these quibbles aside - and who knows, perhaps there is a Volume 2 on the way?? - this budget-priced album is a very worthwhile investment for any genuine Stones fan. A word of appreciation too for Michael Hendon's precise and informative liner notes. Clear, straightforward and very much to the point.

Go on, get yer ya ya's out!

ALL THE SONGS YOU'LL EVER NEED, 20 Jul 2008
This is another great compilation from the Beginners series, from Robert Johnson all the way to Charlie Musselwhite. This is a great start for your blues colection.

You won't be disappointed with this, 26 Feb 2008
As a modern blues afficionado, I spent a long time choosing this: I was after a comprehensive compilation covering early acoustic roots to present day electric blues. There are so many compilations to choose from, but this one turned out to be as good as I'd hoped - there is not a single track here that I didn't enjoy, and I think you will too. Some you will already know, some you won't, but there are no fillers here. CD1 features acoustic country blues, CD2 the electric sounds of classic urban blues and CD3 modern artists 'keeping the tradition alive'. Nice.

magnificent blues, 06 Jul 2008
The music on this compilation is magnificent, I didn't give it 5 stars only because it lacks the listing of musicians on each track (some of which are true blues legends themselves).
In this period he recorded with Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and others, so it would be nice to have the correct info on that.

Otherwise, this is classical stuff; both vocally and instrumentally...

BTW, if my ears don't decieve me, the performer of "Like Wolf" (track 18) is Howlin' Wolf , although the authorship of the song is attributed to Williamson.

Excellent album, 22 Mar 2004
If you've never heard Sonny Boy Williamson before I recommend this album. If your particularly interested in blues harmonica there aren't many better than Sonny Boy Williamson and you could do a lot worse than have this in your collection.

sonny boy williamson, 31 Oct 2003
like many "best of" compilations this one starts superbly but after you've heard 3 or 4 tracks you get the feeling you've heard them before..the very simple instrumentation becomes limiting and restrictive..and while the songs are classics you can see why other peoples versions are more entertaining..the album is well worth buying if only for the fantastic opening track

Essential Wolf, 27 Aug 2006
A welcome budget price collection by one of the most charismatic and influential blues artists of all time. Many of Wolf's best known numbers are here, commencing with 'How Many More Years' from his first session in 1951 in Sam Phillips' Memphis studio, and continuing through the 1954 to 1965 period with Chess Records. The material is licensed from MCA, and therefore in excellent sound quality, with stereo mixes being used on some of the later dates. Just reading the titles reveals that most of the essential tracks are present, including the ones that were to feature strongly in the white blues boom of the 1960s: 'The Little Red Rooster', 'Spoonful', 'Killing Floor', and the inevitable 'Smokestack Lightnin''.

Wolf's songs were notable for their innovative lyrics, mostly composed by Willie Dixon, who, as a member of the Chess house band, played bass on many of these numbers. The CD could almost be considered a tribute to Dixon's songwriting talents. The lyrics of 'Tail Dragger' are particularly interesting in that they describe how the prowling wolf would wipe his tracks out with his tail, a theme borrowed from the 1930 recording 'Howling Wolf Blues No.3' by J.T. 'Funny Paper' Smith, the original Howling Wolf, from whom Chester Burnett obtained his pseudonym.

The rich, dynamic sound of the original recordings is well captured on this reissue, with the stunning guitar of Hubert Sumlin well to the fore on most numbers, and Otis Spann's piano featured here and there, including 'Wang Dang Doodle' and the moody 'Evil'. If you don't already own these classic recordings then this is an excellent place to start.


A good place to start, 04 May 2003
This is actually a pretty good compilation. It has most of Wolf's best-known songs, the fidelity is good, and the price is reasonable. It doesn't quite measure up to MCA/Chess' "His Best", however, and if you're into Howlin' Wolf, "His Best" and "His Best, vol. II" are an ultimately more satisfying purchase.

A good place to start, 04 May 2003
This is actually a pretty good compilation. It has most of Wolf's best-known songs, the fidelity is good, and the price is reasonable. It doesn't quite measure up to MCA/Chess' "His Best", however, and if you're into Howlin' Wolf, "His Best" and "His Best, vol. II" are an ultimately more satisfying purchase.

The main man., 25 Oct 2002
When the blues hit Chicago and got lectrified there were two competing champs for the heavyweight title.

Muddy Waters is the better known, and no slouch in my book, but this guy is the real king.

Listen in awe to that primal bellow. Hubert Sumlin was no slouch on guitar either. Truelly a giant of the blues, and with Willie Dixon penning most of the songs, how can you lose?

So turn your blues-lite Clapton cds into coasters and get your ears round the Wolf.

A good compilation with some cracking songs., 22 Feb 2002
This is a great compilation if Howlin Wolf's best known work and as such is not going to be of much use to die hard fans but as an introduction it works just fine. Howlin Wolf had one of the greatest blues voices, a kind of melodic growl, that was almost an instrument in its own right. It is in fine especiaaly on such songs as "Backdoor Man" (which is a classic) and "Smokestack Ligthning". The tunes are fine and great if you like delta blues but the whole compilation lacks depth (probably due to the fact it's a compilation)and so does not receive the full 5 stars. But this is defenitely worth purcahsing if your a fan of the blues, Beefheart or Zappa

Freddie King A Real Bluesman, 11 Jul 2005
Freddie King is very rocky with a Texas style bluesman and this album really displays it. You can clearly see where guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter got some of their style from. This album is a great representation of his work with some great songs. For me as a young guitarist I would rate this as first class to any of the other blues influences and modern bands I have heard. Its an awesome album definately worth getting.

Blues at its finest, 31 Oct 2002
This album is a "must-have" in any blues collection. It is a wonderful selection of tracks which display King's immense talent for the blues guitar! We are also treated to mostly live tracks on this album, so one can hear the King live at work on stage, teaming up with such artists as Eric Clapton and George Terry. There is a good mix of slow and fast blues on this album -for example, we have "Further on up the road", a fast blues classic: King vs. Clapton in an improvisation showdown, followed by "Gambling Woman Blues", a slow thoughtful blues with wonderful contributions from George Terry (stunning slide guitar) and Clapton again. In this collection of tracks we are also exposed to King's funk influences, "Sugar Sweet", "Pulp Wood", "The woman across the river", "You can run but you can't hide" to name but a few. This album is definitely worth the buy! It is a constant member of my cd collection, and it shows all King's dimensions, from classic blues to funk, and has appealed to all lovers of blues I know.

This guest-studded album relaunched Buddy Guy's career and set him toward the pinnacle of contemporary blues. Despite turns from Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler and others, it's Guy who burns brightest--and loudest. He delivers roaring, exuberant performances of classic R&B ("Mustang Sally"), old-time blues ("Black Night") and house rockers ("Where Is the Next One Coming From"). Most poignant, though, is his seven-minute instrumental "Rememberin' Stevie", which not only rekindles the fiery spirit of his own youth, but pays sensitive tribute to his late friend and admirer Stevie Ray Vaughan. This is the blueprint for Guy's current performing style. --Ted Drozdowski Thanks to a long instrumental tribute to his late friend Stevie Ray Vaughan, and to a crowd-pleasing version of Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally," this album renewed the Chicago's blues legend's commercial power. After laying out his new straightforward credo on the title track, Buddy Guy improvises furiously on "Black Night" and "Five Long Years." Some fans say the album was one of the few times Guy truly captured his live fury on record, but this 1991 album didn't even try to do that. It was simply an attempt to expose himself to a contemporary blues audience, and it worked. --Steve Knopper

skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

Essential-hardly, 28 May 2008
Depend who this is supposed to be essential do-the newcomer to the Urban blues which influenced the British blues bands or essential as the biggest songs are here.Big via other people not especially Muddy who I don't think troubled the pop charts.
Which is besides the point-the pop charts are only a mirror to public taste.
In the U K Muddy waters was represnted in the 50s by a solitary EP which retailed at the same price as Cliff Richard or Elvis so it died a death and was only there because Decca were licensing product from Chess having only just obttained the catalog.
Muddy Waters was also a very unlikely artist to aim his music at the charts for the simple reason that while he may have introduced Chuck Berry to Chess he was not aiming his music at teenagers like Berry but doing his own thing like Bo Diddley.Berry it was said had only about 3 tunes and 3 rghtms -Muddy Waters had just one-the 12 bar blues.
Fats Domino he wasn't and never would be.In the mid 50s Joe Turner was about where he might have been but Chess was more interested in promoting Chuck Berry
By the time the Stones discovered Waters and named their band after a song he cut there was still a long way to go before America found out about its own musical past.For Waters that had begun in the mid 40s when his music was rural rather than urban.
To the America of the 50s Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley were seen as threats because the songs were about sex and not about high school life.
After all you can't get much more blatant than i just wanna make love to you!!
That's if they were ever heard of in the times of Pat Boone and Elvis These blues guys were artists who would begin to be appreciated after the Stones era had begun.
Muddy Waters and his contemporaries were simply waiting for the climate to change

almost perfect, 19 May 2005
This is a good record of a very great artist and it contains some of the most seminal and hard-hitting blues in the catalogue. However, there are a few essential recordings not represented here and these versions of Mannish Boy and Hootchie Cootchie Man are not the originals and a long way from being the best. Although HCM is a more than acceptable, this version of MB is frankly pants. All the same at this price, it's a good value cd as are the sister volumes by Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. For serious Muddy fans however, the two cd 'Collection, though more expensive, is a better deal in the long run.

perfect, 27 Aug 2004
Absolutely perfect: raw vocals, blues in its purest form. The Grandfather of just about every type of music to follow. Can't pick one favourite, but if I had to, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mojo working, I Just Want to Make Love to You...buy it. You'll play it to death.

Where it all began..., 21 Apr 2008
Not a Rolling Stones album of course, but a fascinating source of information and exploration for anyone interested in finding out about the music that influenced the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World (and should'nt that be Rhythm & Blues Band anyway?) when they were just a group of music mad teenagers scattered around various parts of North Kent, South London and Gloucestershire.

Rumour has it that Mick Jagger was carrying some of this very music with him when he first met Keith Richards on Platform 3 of Dartford Railway Station c.1962. Meanwhile down in Cheltenham, Brian 'Elmo' Jones was perfecting his Elmore James licks and working his way through the Muddy Waters songbook, including noting that Rolling Stone Blues might make a useful band name one day.

This excellent album is the latest release from Snapper Music in their ongoing 'Blues Roots' series, and contains a top quality mix of both well-known and extremely-rare tracks. It is wonderful to see Rev. Robert Wilkins, Leroy Carr and Robert Petway placed side-by-side with Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, as well as the aforementioned Elmore James and Muddy Waters. Naturally, with an undertaking of this complexity - the licensing alone must be a nightmare - there are a few omissions. There is no Willie Dixon (Pain in my Heart), Amos Milburn (Down the Road Apiece), Gene Allison (You can make it if you try) or Alvin Robinson (Down Home Girl). And sadly there is nothing either from a man who is one of the least credited influences on the Stones - Jimmy Rogers. Not alone did they base their version of I Can't Be Satisfied directly on his interpretation, but he also gave them the title of one of their biggest early hits (The Last Time), and his 1951 number My Little Machine became the template for several of the band's early r'n'b based recordings.

However these quibbles aside - and who knows, perhaps there is a Volume 2 on the way?? - this budget-priced album is a very worthwhile investment for any genuine Stones fan. A word of appreciation too for Michael Hendon's precise and informative liner notes. Clear, straightforward and very much to the point.

Go on, get yer ya ya's out!

ALL THE SONGS YOU'LL EVER NEED, 20 Jul 2008
This is another great compilation from the Beginners series, from Robert Johnson all the way to Charlie Musselwhite. This is a great start for your blues colection.

You won't be disappointed with this, 26 Feb 2008
As a modern blues afficionado, I spent a long time choosing this: I was after a comprehensive compilation covering early acoustic roots to present day electric blues. There are so many compilations to choose from, but this one turned out to be as good as I'd hoped - there is not a single track here that I didn't enjoy, and I think you will too. Some you will already know, some you won't, but there are no fillers here. CD1 features acoustic country blues, CD2 the electric sounds of classic urban blues and CD3 modern artists 'keeping the tradition alive'. Nice.

magnificent blues, 06 Jul 2008
The music on this compilation is magnificent, I didn't give it 5 stars only because it lacks the listing of musicians on each track (some of which are true blues legends themselves).
In this period he recorded with Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and others, so it would be nice to have the correct info on that.

Otherwise, this is classical stuff; both vocally and instrumentally...

BTW, if my ears don't decieve me, the performer of "Like Wolf" (track 18) is Howlin' Wolf , although the authorship of the song is attributed to Williamson.

Excellent album, 22 Mar 2004
If you've never heard Sonny Boy Williamson before I recommend this album. If your particularly interested in blues harmonica there aren't many better than Sonny Boy Williamson and you could do a lot worse than have this in your collection.

sonny boy williamson, 31 Oct 2003
like many "best of" compilations this one starts superbly but after you've heard 3 or 4 tracks you get the feeling you've heard them before..the very simple instrumentation becomes limiting and restrictive..and while the songs are classics you can see why other peoples versions are more entertaining..the album is well worth buying if only for the fantastic opening track

Essential Wolf, 27 Aug 2006
A welcome budget price collection by one of the most charismatic and influential blues artists of all time. Many of Wolf's best known numbers are here, commencing with 'How Many More Years' from his first session in 1951 in Sam Phillips' Memphis studio, and continuing through the 1954 to 1965 period with Chess Records. The material is licensed from MCA, and therefore in excellent sound quality, with stereo mixes being used on some of the later dates. Just reading the titles reveals that most of the essential tracks are present, including the ones that were to feature strongly in the white blues boom of the 1960s: 'The Little Red Rooster', 'Spoonful', 'Killing Floor', and the inevitable 'Smokestack Lightnin''.

Wolf's songs were notable for their innovative lyrics, mostly composed by Willie Dixon, who, as a member of the Chess house band, played bass on many of these numbers. The CD could almost be considered a tribute to Dixon's songwriting talents. The lyrics of 'Tail Dragger' are particularly interesting in that they describe how the prowling wolf would wipe his tracks out with his tail, a theme borrowed from the 1930 recording 'Howling Wolf Blues No.3' by J.T. 'Funny Paper' Smith, the original Howling Wolf, from whom Chester Burnett obtained his pseudonym.

The rich, dynamic sound of the original recordings is well captured on this reissue, with the stunning guitar of Hubert Sumlin well to the fore on most numbers, and Otis Spann's piano featured here and there, including 'Wang Dang Doodle' and the moody 'Evil'. If you don't already own these classic recordings then this is an excellent place to start.


A good place to start, 04 May 2003
This is actually a pretty good compilation. It has most of Wolf's best-known songs, the fidelity is good, and the price is reasonable. It doesn't quite measure up to MCA/Chess' "His Best", however, and if you're into Howlin' Wolf, "His Best" and "His Best, vol. II" are an ultimately more satisfying purchase.

A good place to start, 04 May 2003
This is actually a pretty good compilation. It has most of Wolf's best-known songs, the fidelity is good, and the price is reasonable. It doesn't quite measure up to MCA/Chess' "His Best", however, and if you're into Howlin' Wolf, "His Best" and "His Best, vol. II" are an ultimately more satisfying purchase.

The main man., 25 Oct 2002
When the blues hit Chicago and got lectrified there were two competing champs for the heavyweight title.

Muddy Waters is the better known, and no slouch in my book, but this guy is the real king.

Listen in awe to that primal bellow. Hubert Sumlin was no slouch on guitar either. Truelly a giant of the blues, and with Willie Dixon penning most of the songs, how can you lose?

So turn your blues-lite Clapton cds into coasters and get your ears round the Wolf.

A good compilation with some cracking songs., 22 Feb 2002
This is a great compilation if Howlin Wolf's best known work and as such is not going to be of much use to die hard fans but as an introduction it works just fine. Howlin Wolf had one of the greatest blues voices, a kind of melodic growl, that was almost an instrument in its own right. It is in fine especiaaly on such songs as "Backdoor Man" (which is a classic) and "Smokestack Ligthning". The tunes are fine and great if you like delta blues but the whole compilation lacks depth (probably due to the fact it's a compilation)and so does not receive the full 5 stars. But this is defenitely worth purcahsing if your a fan of the blues, Beefheart or Zappa

Freddie King A Real Bluesman, 11 Jul 2005
Freddie King is very rocky with a Texas style bluesman and this album really displays it. You can clearly see where guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter got some of their style from. This album is a great representation of his work with some great songs. For me as a young guitarist I would rate this as first class to any of the other blues influences and modern bands I have heard. Its an awesome album definately worth getting.

Blues at its finest, 31 Oct 2002
This album is a "must-have" in any blues collection. It is a wonderful selection of tracks which display King's immense talent for the blues guitar! We are also treated to mostly live tracks on this album, so one can hear the King live at work on stage, teaming up with such artists as Eric Clapton and George Terry. There is a good mix of slow and fast blues on this album -for example, we have "Further on up the road", a fast blues classic: King vs. Clapton in an improvisation showdown, followed by "Gambling Woman Blues", a slow thoughtful blues with wonderful contributions from George Terry (stunning slide guitar) and Clapton again. In this collection of tracks we are also exposed to King's funk influences, "Sugar Sweet", "Pulp Wood", "The woman across the river", "You can run but you can't hide" to name but a few. This album is definitely worth the buy! It is a constant member of my cd collection, and it shows all King's dimensions, from classic blues to funk, and has appealed to all lovers of blues I know.

Damn right he HAS got the blues, 28 Jun 2007
Buddy Guy celebrates his new recording contract with Silvertone by setting out his stall from the very first track - the title which features some exceptionally fiery guitar playing and there's some lovely fluid guitar playing all over this album. As well as this facet Buddy Guy shows his softer - more "bluesier" side on "Five Long Years" and "Black Night" - the two longest tracks on the album. The album features a stellar cast of guitar greats - Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Mark Knopfler but Buddy Guy's guitar burns the brightest of them all. There's an odd cover here of "Mustang Sally" which is taken a tad slower than normal but works well. The last track - "Remembering Stevie" is in homage to the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan and is a beautiful poignant instrumental.

Great introduction to the great man, 30 Jan 2007
I first got into Buddy Guy after he appeared with Eric Clapton at the RAH in 1990. This is a terrific album, which was released on the back of the surge in popularity he received after the shows with EC.

It's a classic blues album - simple, not over-produced, and with a 'live' feel that all good records have.

Whilst it doesn't capture the full-on soloing that you get on Slippin In or Sweet Tea it is a really strong all-round effort. The highlights are the title track, Rememberin Stevie and Five Long Years. Ahead of all of these though is Black Night which is a tour de force of a slow blues. The restraint and tone of the performance is quite incredible.

Highly recommended

Great comeback, 08 Mar 2004
Excellent production and mixing, crisp, clear sound, and a strong track list makes this one of Buddy Guy's strongest records, his best latter-day album alongside "Slippin' In".

The track list is really strong, spanning classic electric blues, Memphis soul, and, well, John Hiatt. Guy's cover of Hiatt's "Where Is The Next One Coming From" is pretty good, but doesn't really add anything new to the song, and we don't really need another version of "Early In The Morning", especially not this bland one.
But Guy's eight-minute rendition of Eddie Boyd's classic "Five Long Years" is a delicious, smouldering slow blues, and he lays down a great "Mustang Sally" and a fine rendition of Big Jay McNeely's slow, mournful "There Is Something On Your Mind".

His expressive tenor voice suits the slow, tortured blues songs on this set very well, but Guy performs equally well on the powerful, swaggering title track and the mid-tempo "Too Broke To Spend The Night", two of his best self-penned songs for a long, long time. "Too Broke" in particular is strongly reminiscent of Guy's sizzling 60s recordings for Chess, and Buddy Guy's reading of Willie Dixon's "Let Me Love You Baby" is among the highlights as well.

This is a really fine album, deservingly winning Guy an Emmy in 1991. The sometimes erratic veteran plays some tremendous electric guitar, and the self-penned material shows that Buddy Guy's muse is not spent after all.
Highly recommended.

What a fantastic introduction to the work of Buddy Guy, 02 Feb 2002
I came across this title whilst searching for other Blues. The reviews were very enthusiastic, the price was right so I bought the disc. The reviews were "damn right", this is great stuff. Even better that he has Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Mark Knoffler guesting. This is the blues as it should be and I'm a convert to the "Guy". ("Damn good" delivery service from Amazon too)

You better believe he's got it!, 24 Jul 2000
Mr. Guy is hot and smoking! This album sure puts the groove in blues - that rough, burnt voice, those steamy nights and that unmistaken, god given gift of truly feeling the music and shooting it up to the sky. For real. Enjoy.

skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

Essential-hardly, 28 May 2008
Depend who this is supposed to be essential do-the newcomer to the Urban blues which influenced the British blues bands or essential as the biggest songs are here.Big via other people not especially Muddy who I don't think troubled the pop charts.
Which is besides the point-the pop charts are only a mirror to public taste.
In the U K Muddy waters was represnted in the 50s by a solitary EP which retailed at the same price as Cliff Richard or Elvis so it died a death and was only there because Decca were licensing product from Chess having only just obttained the catalog.
Muddy Waters was also a very unlikely artist to aim his music at the charts for the simple reason that while he may have introduced Chuck Berry to Chess he was not aiming his music at teenagers like Berry but doing his own thing like Bo Diddley.Berry it was said had only about 3 tunes and 3 rghtms -Muddy Waters had just one-the 12 bar blues.
Fats Domino he wasn't and never would be.In the mid 50s Joe Turner was about where he might have been but Chess was more interested in promoting Chuck Berry
By the time the Stones discovered Waters and named their band after a song he cut there was still a long way to go before America found out about its own musical past.For Waters that had begun in the mid 40s when his music was rural rather than urban.
To the America of the 50s Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley were seen as threats because the songs were about sex and not about high school life.
After all you can't get much more blatant than i just wanna make love to you!!
That's if they were ever heard of in the times of Pat Boone and Elvis These blues guys were artists who would begin to be appreciated after the Stones era had begun.
Muddy Waters and his contemporaries were simply waiting for the climate to change

almost perfect, 19 May 2005
This is a good record of a very great artist and it contains some of the most seminal and hard-hitting blues in the catalogue. However, there are a few essential recordings not represented here and these versions of Mannish Boy and Hootchie Cootchie Man are not the originals and a long way from being the best. Although HCM is a more than acceptable, this version of MB is frankly pants. All the same at this price, it's a good value cd as are the sister volumes by Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. For serious Muddy fans however, the two cd 'Collection, though more expensive, is a better deal in the long run.

perfect, 27 Aug 2004
Absolutely perfect: raw vocals, blues in its purest form. The Grandfather of just about every type of music to follow. Can't pick one favourite, but if I had to, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mojo working, I Just Want to Make Love to You...buy it. You'll play it to death.

Where it all began..., 21 Apr 2008
Not a Rolling Stones album of course, but a fascinating source of information and exploration for anyone interested in finding out about the music that influenced the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World (and should'nt that be Rhythm & Blues Band anyway?) when they were just a group of music mad teenagers scattered around various parts of North Kent, South London and Gloucestershire.

Rumour has it that Mick Jagger was carrying some of this very music with him when he first met Keith Richards on Platform 3 of Dartford Railway Station c.1962. Meanwhile down in Cheltenham, Brian 'Elmo' Jones was perfecting his Elmore James licks and working his way through the Muddy Waters songbook, including noting that Rolling Stone Blues might make a useful band name one day.

This excellent album is the latest release from Snapper Music in their ongoing 'Blues Roots' series, and contains a top quality mix of both well-known and extremely-rare tracks. It is wonderful to see Rev. Robert Wilkins, Leroy Carr and Robert Petway placed side-by-side with Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, as well as the aforementioned Elmore James and Muddy Waters. Naturally, with an undertaking of this complexity - the licensing alone must be a nightmare - there are a few omissions. There is no Willie Dixon (Pain in my Heart), Amos Milburn (Down the Road Apiece), Gene Allison (You can make it if you try) or Alvin Robinson (Down Home Girl). And sadly there is nothing either from a man who is one of the least credited influences on the Stones - Jimmy Rogers. Not alone did they base their version of I Can't Be Satisfied directly on his interpretation, but he also gave them the title of one of their biggest early hits (The Last Time), and his 1951 number My Little Machine became the template for several of the band's early r'n'b based recordings.

However these quibbles aside - and who knows, perhaps there is a Volume 2 on the way?? - this budget-priced album is a very worthwhile investment for any genuine Stones fan. A word of appreciation too for Michael Hendon's precise and informative liner notes. Clear, straightforward and very much to the point.

Go on, get yer ya ya's out!

ALL THE SONGS YOU'LL EVER NEED, 20 Jul 2008
This is another great compilation from the Beginners series, from Robert Johnson all the way to Charlie Musselwhite. This is a great start for your blues colection.

You won't be disappointed with this, 26 Feb 2008
As a modern blues afficionado, I spent a long time choosing this: I was after a comprehensive compilation covering early acoustic roots to present day electric blues. There are so many compilations to choose from, but this one turned out to be as good as I'd hoped - there is not a single track here that I didn't enjoy, and I think you will too. Some you will already know, some you won't, but there are no fillers here. CD1 features acoustic country blues, CD2 the electric sounds of classic urban blues and CD3 modern artists 'keeping the tradition alive'. Nice.

magnificent blues, 06 Jul 2008
The music on this compilation is magnificent, I didn't give it 5 stars only because it lacks the listing of musicians on each track (some of which are true blues legends themselves).
In this period he recorded with Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and others, so it would be nice to have the correct info on that.

Otherwise, this is classical stuff; both vocally and instrumentally...

BTW, if my ears don't decieve me, the performer of "Like Wolf" (track 18) is Howlin' Wolf , although the authorship of the song is attributed to Williamson.

Excellent album, 22 Mar 2004
If you've never heard Sonny Boy Williamson before I recommend this album. If your particularly interested in blues harmonica there aren't many better than Sonny Boy Williamson and you could do a lot worse than have this in your collection.

sonny boy williamson, 31 Oct 2003
like many "best of" compilations this one starts superbly but after you've heard 3 or 4 tracks you get the feeling you've heard them before..the very simple instrumentation becomes limiting and restrictive..and while the songs are classics you can see why other peoples versions are more entertaining..the album is well worth buying if only for the fantastic opening track

Essential Wolf, 27 Aug 2006
A welcome budget price collection by one of the most charismatic and influential blues artists of all time. Many of Wolf's best known numbers are here, commencing with 'How Many More Years' from his first session in 1951 in Sam Phillips' Memphis studio, and continuing through the 1954 to 1965 period with Chess Records. The material is licensed from MCA, and therefore in excellent sound quality, with stereo mixes being used on some of the later dates. Just reading the titles reveals that most of the essential tracks are present, including the ones that were to feature strongly in the white blues boom of the 1960s: 'The Little Red Rooster', 'Spoonful', 'Killing Floor', and the inevitable 'Smokestack Lightnin''.

Wolf's songs were notable for their innovative lyrics, mostly composed by Willie Dixon, who, as a member of the Chess house band, played bass on many of these numbers. The CD could almost be considered a tribute to Dixon's songwriting talents. The lyrics of 'Tail Dragger' are particularly interesting in that they describe how the prowling wolf would wipe his tracks out with his tail, a theme borrowed from the 1930 recording 'Howling Wolf Blues No.3' by J.T. 'Funny Paper' Smith, the original Howling Wolf, from whom Chester Burnett obtained his pseudonym.

The rich, dynamic sound of the original recordings is well captured on this reissue, with the stunning guitar of Hubert Sumlin well to the fore on most numbers, and Otis Spann's piano featured here and there, including 'Wang Dang Doodle' and the moody 'Evil'. If you don't already own these classic recordings then this is an excellent place to start.


A good place to start, 04 May 2003
This is actually a pretty good compilation. It has most of Wolf's best-known songs, the fidelity is good, and the price is reasonable. It doesn't quite measure up to MCA/Chess' "His Best", however, and if you're into Howlin' Wolf, "His Best" and "His Best, vol. II" are an ultimately more satisfying purchase.

A good place to start, 04 May 2003
This is actually a pretty good compilation. It has most of Wolf's best-known songs, the fidelity is good, and the price is reasonable. It doesn't quite measure up to MCA/Chess' "His Best", however, and if you're into Howlin' Wolf, "His Best" and "His Best, vol. II" are an ultimately more satisfying purchase.

The main man., 25 Oct 2002
When the blues hit Chicago and got lectrified there were two competing champs for the heavyweight title.

Muddy Waters is the better known, and no slouch in my book, but this guy is the real king.

Listen in awe to that primal bellow. Hubert Sumlin was no slouch on guitar either. Truelly a giant of the blues, and with Willie Dixon penning most of the songs, how can you lose?

So turn your blues-lite Clapton cds into coasters and get your ears round the Wolf.

A good compilation with some cracking songs., 22 Feb 2002
This is a great compilation if Howlin Wolf's best known work and as such is not going to be of much use to die hard fans but as an introduction it works just fine. Howlin Wolf had one of the greatest blues voices, a kind of melodic growl, that was almost an instrument in its own right. It is in fine especiaaly on such songs as "Backdoor Man" (which is a classic) and "Smokestack Ligthning". The tunes are fine and great if you like delta blues but the whole compilation lacks depth (probably due to the fact it's a compilation)and so does not receive the full 5 stars. But this is defenitely worth purcahsing if your a fan of the blues, Beefheart or Zappa

Freddie King A Real Bluesman, 11 Jul 2005
Freddie King is very rocky with a Texas style bluesman and this album really displays it. You can clearly see where guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter got some of their style from. This album is a great representation of his work with some great songs. For me as a young guitarist I would rate this as first class to any of the other blues influences and modern bands I have heard. Its an awesome album definately worth getting.

Blues at its finest, 31 Oct 2002
This album is a "must-have" in any blues collection. It is a wonderful selection of tracks which display King's immense talent for the blues guitar! We are also treated to mostly live tracks on this album, so one can hear the King live at work on stage, teaming up with such artists as Eric Clapton and George Terry. There is a good mix of slow and fast blues on this album -for example, we have "Further on up the road", a fast blues classic: King vs. Clapton in an improvisation showdown, followed by "Gambling Woman Blues", a slow thoughtful blues with wonderful contributions from George Terry (stunning slide guitar) and Clapton again. In this collection of tracks we are also exposed to King's funk influences, "Sugar Sweet", "Pulp Wood", "The woman across the river", "You can run but you can't hide" to name but a few. This album is definitely worth the buy! It is a constant member of my cd collection, and it shows all King's dimensions, from classic blues to funk, and has appealed to all lovers of blues I know.

Damn right he HAS got the blues, 28 Jun 2007
Buddy Guy celebrates his new recording contract with Silvertone by setting out his stall from the very first track - the title which features some exceptionally fiery guitar playing and there's some lovely fluid guitar playing all over this album. As well as this facet Buddy Guy shows his softer - more "bluesier" side on "Five Long Years" and "Black Night" - the two longest tracks on the album. The album features a stellar cast of guitar greats - Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Mark Knopfler but Buddy Guy's guitar burns the brightest of them all. There's an odd cover here of "Mustang Sally" which is taken a tad slower than normal but works well. The last track - "Remembering Stevie" is in homage to the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan and is a beautiful poignant instrumental.

Great introduction to the great man, 30 Jan 2007
I first got into Buddy Guy after he appeared with Eric Clapton at the RAH in 1990. This is a terrific album, which was released on the back of the surge in popularity he received after the shows with EC.

It's a classic blues album - simple, not over-produced, and with a 'live' feel that all good records have.

Whilst it doesn't capture the full-on soloing that you get on Slippin In or Sweet Tea it is a really strong all-round effort. The highlights are the title track, Rememberin Stevie and Five Long Years. Ahead of all of these though is Black Night which is a tour de force of a slow blues. The restraint and tone of the performance is quite incredible.

Highly recommended

Great comeback, 08 Mar 2004
Excellent production and mixing, crisp, clear sound, and a strong track list makes this one of Buddy Guy's strongest records, his best latter-day album alongside "Slippin' In".

The track list is really strong, spanning classic electric blues, Memphis soul, and, well, John Hiatt. Guy's cover of Hiatt's "Where Is The Next One Coming From" is pretty good, but doesn't really add anything new to the song, and we don't really need another version of "Early In The Morning", especially not this bland one.
But Guy's eight-minute rendition of Eddie Boyd's classic "Five Long Years" is a delicious, smouldering slow blues, and he lays down a great "Mustang Sally" and a fine rendition of Big Jay McNeely's slow, mournful "There Is Something On Your Mind".

His expressive tenor voice suits the slow, tortured blues songs on this set very well, but Guy performs equally well on the powerful, swaggering title track and the mid-tempo "Too Broke To Spend The Night", two of his best self-penned songs for a long, long time. "Too Broke" in particular is strongly reminiscent of Guy's sizzling 60s recordings for Chess, and Buddy Guy's reading of Willie Dixon's "Let Me Love You Baby" is among the highlights as well.

This is a really fine album, deservingly winning Guy an Emmy in 1991. The sometimes erratic veteran plays some tremendous electric guitar, and the self-penned material shows that Buddy Guy's muse is not spent after all.
Highly recommended.

What a fantastic introduction to the work of Buddy Guy, 02 Feb 2002
I came across this title whilst searching for other Blues. The reviews were very enthusiastic, the price was right so I bought the disc. The reviews were "damn right", this is great stuff. Even better that he has Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Mark Knoffler guesting. This is the blues as it should be and I'm a convert to the "Guy". ("Damn good" delivery service from Amazon too)

You better believe he's got it!, 24 Jul 2000
Mr. Guy is hot and smoking! This album sure puts the groove in blues - that rough, burnt voice, those steamy nights and that unmistaken, god given gift of truly feeling the music and shooting it up to the sky. For real. Enjoy.

Fantastic slice of the blues, 22 Oct 2008
This is a great collection of Buddy Guy's Chicago recordings, & they really hit the spot. The guitar playing is wonderful, but not as wild as it should have been due to views of taste from the time!

This is still a superb CD and well worth getting.

The very best of Buddy Guy's Chess sides, 17 Apr 2004
If you're only going to buy one Buddy Guy-album, I'd probably go with Rhino's career-spanning "The Very Best Of Buddy Guy".
But this one is pretty much a must-have as well. Rhino's disc does include a handful of Guy's Chess sides, but his years at Chess were arguably his best period, and this excellent 15-track compilation brings together the cream of the crop.

These classic 60s recordings burn with unbridled passion - just listen to the smouldering slow blues "Leave My Girl Alone" and "I Cry And Sing The Blues". George "Buddy" Guy is one of the very few bluesmen whose vocals (occationally) match the intensity of the great Elmore James, and his guitar playing is superb - an obvious source of inspiration to men like Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Also, the sound on this anniversary compilation is magnificent. Excellent transfers and spacious stereo mixes make these forty-year old recordings sound as sharp as anything you'll ever hear coming off the laser beam. If you are into 60s electric blues, this is a must-have purchase.

skin deep, 14 Oct 2008
Fantastic guitar work from buddy and nice to here derek and eric playing to They also played together on the Crossroads DVD.

Essential-hardly, 28 May 2008
Depend who this is supposed to be essential do-the newcomer to the Urban blues which influenced the British blues bands or essential as the biggest songs are here.Big via other people not especially Muddy who I don't think troubled the pop charts.
Which is besides the point-the pop charts are only a mirror to public taste.
In the U K Muddy waters was represnted in the 50s by a solitary EP which retailed at the same price as Cliff Richard or Elvis so it died a death and was only there because Decca were licensing product from Chess having only just obttained the catalog.
Muddy Waters was also a very unlikely artist to aim his music at the charts for the simple reason that while he may have introduced Chuck Berry to Chess he was not aiming his music at teenagers like Berry but doing his own thing like Bo Diddley.Berry it was said had only about 3 tunes and 3 rghtms -Muddy Waters had just one-the 12 bar blues.
Fats Domino he wasn't and never would be.In the mid 50s Joe Turner was about where he might have been but Chess was more interested in promoting Chuck Berry
By the time the Stones discovered Waters and named their band after a song he cut there was still a long way to go before America found out about its own musical past.For Waters that had begun in the mid 40s when his music was rural rather than urban.
To the America of the 50s Muddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley were seen as threats because the songs were about sex and not about high school life.
After all you can't get much more blatant than i just wanna make love to you!!
That's if they were ever heard of in the times of Pat Boone and Elvis These blues guys were artists who would begin to be appreciated after the Stones era had begun.
Muddy Waters and his contemporaries were simply waiting for the climate to change

almost perfect, 19 May 2005
This is a good record of a very great artist and it contains some of the most seminal and hard-hitting blues in the catalogue. However, there are a few essential recordings not represented here and these versions of Mannish Boy and Hootchie Cootchie Man are not the originals and a long way from being the best. Although HCM is a more than acceptable, this version of MB is frankly pants. All the same at this price, it's a good value cd as are the sister volumes by Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. For serious Muddy fans however, the two cd 'Collection, though more expensive, is a better deal in the long run.

perfect, 27 Aug 2004
Absolutely perfect: raw vocals, blues in its purest form. The Grandfather of just about every type of music to follow. Can't pick one favourite, but if I had to, Hoochie Coochie Man, Mojo working, I Just Want to Make Love to You...buy it. You'll play it to death.

Where it all began..., 21 Apr 2008
Not a Rolling Stones album of course, but a fascinating source of information and exploration for anyone interested in finding out about the music that influenced the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World (and should'nt that be Rhythm & Blues Band anyway?) when they were just a group of music mad teenagers scattered around various parts of North Kent, South London and Gloucestershire.

Rumour has it that Mick Jagger was carrying some of this very music with him when he first met Keith Richards on Platform 3 of Dartford Railway Station c.1962. Meanwhile down in Cheltenham, Brian 'Elmo' Jones was perfecting his Elmore James licks and working his way through the Muddy Waters songbook, including noting that Rolling Stone Blues might make a useful band name one day.

This excellent album is the latest release from Snapper Music in their ongoing 'Blues Roots' series, and contains a top quality mix of both well-known and extremely-rare tracks. It is wonderful to see Rev. Robert Wilkins, Leroy Carr and Robert Petway placed side-by-side with Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, as well as the aforementioned Elmore James and Muddy Waters. Naturally, with an undertaking of this complexity - the licensing alone must be a nightmare - there are a few omissions. There is no Willie Dixon (Pain in my Heart), Amos Milburn (Down the Road Apiece), Gene Allison (You can make it if you try) or Alvin Robinson (Down Home Girl). And sadly there is nothing either from a man who is one of the least credited influences on the Stones - Jimmy Rogers. Not alone did they base their version of I Can't Be Satisfied directly on his interpretation, but he also gave them the title of one of their biggest early hits (The Last Time), and his 1951 number My Little Machine became the template for several of the band's early r'n'b based recordings.

However these quibbles aside - and who knows, perhaps there is a Volume 2 on the way?? - this budget-priced album is a very worthwhile investment for any genuine Stones fan. A word of appreciation too for Michael Hendon's precise and informative liner notes. Clear, straightforward and very much to the point.

Go on, get yer ya ya's out!

ALL THE SONGS YOU'LL EVER NEED, 20 Jul 2008
This is another great compilation from the Beginners series, from Robert Johnson all the way to Charlie Musselwhite. This is a great start for your blues colection.

You won't be disappointed with this, 26 Feb 2008
As a modern blues afficionado, I spent a long time choosing this: I was after a comprehensive compilation covering early acoustic roots to present day electric blues. There are so many compilations to choose from, but this one turned out to be as good as I'd hoped - there is not a single track here that I didn't enjoy, and I think you will too. Some you will already know, some you won't, but there are no fillers here. CD1 features acoustic country blues, CD2 the electric sounds of classic urban blues and CD3 modern artists 'keeping the tradition alive'. Nice.

magnificent blues, 06 Jul 2008
The music on this compilation is magnificent, I didn't give it 5 stars only because it lacks the listing of musicians on each track (some of which are true blues legends themselves).
In this period he recorded with Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and others, so it would be nice to have the correct info on that.

Otherwise, this is classical stuff; both vocally and instrumentally...

BTW, if my ears don't decieve me, the performer of "Like Wolf" (track 18) is Howlin' Wolf , although the authorship of the song is attributed to Williamson.

Excellent album, 22