Album of the Week

Album of the Week 12-2-23

Afternoon folks!

This week we've got a mess of good stuff. We've got a James Cotton album to lead off, followed by a compilation of old Falcons records - a really great r&b/doo-wop group that had some enormous talents pass through it over the years. Following that there's a movie soundtrack album with Mike Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites, Paul Butterfield and Maria Muldaur on it. I think that it's kind of an overlooked album given the talent on it. After that there's a mid-70's John Hammond album with a bunch of good stuff on it followed by Johnny Winter backed up by the Muddy Waters band including James Cotton and Muddy Waters who sings on the last cut. We've got a JJ Cale (kinda greatest hits) compilation and to finish up, for a little diversity there's a Joe Ely album, probably his best one.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Album of the Week 11-25-23

Afternoon folks!

I hope that you're all having a great, long fall weekend. This week we've got a blues album from Little Milton in I suppose the middle part of his career when he was recording for Chess records. After that we've got some live zydeco from Queen Ida. Then there's a bunch of blues rock - a double album compilation of early Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, followed by a live album from Foghat. Then we go acoustic with a double live album from Doc & Merle Watson and we finish up with a change of pace - an album by Ghanaian musicians Osibisa.

Enjoy and have a great weekend folks!

Album of the Week 11-18-23

Afternoon folks!

This week we've got Albert Collins live and an album from Chicago bluesman John Littlejohn. After that, in the blues-rock category there are albums from George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Johnny Winter and Dave Edmunds. Then there's an EP from The Pretty Things from their psychedelic period and a somewhat recent double album to finish us off from Richard Thompson.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Album of the Week 11-11-23

Afternoon folks!

This week we've got albums from Chicago blues guys Lil' Ed and the Imperials and Johnny Littlejohn. There's blues-rock from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (with Mick Taylor), Johnny Winter and most of a Steppenwolf album (the gods of copyright were not entirely pleased). Following that we've got the country-ish stylings of Leon Russell, a bluesy/jazzy collection of songs from Phil Alvin, some great 50's guitar music from Santo & Johnny and we finish up with an album of Trinidadian steel pan music from Boogsie Sharpe.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Album of the Week 11-4-23

Afternoon folks!

There's a big haul of good stuff this week starting off with 3 (count 'em) 3(!) blues albums. There's albums by Chicago blues guy Eddy Clearwater, Louisiana swamp blues harmonica player Lazy Lester and from the Pacific Northwest there's the Delvon LaMarr organ trio. In the blues-rock category we start off with an often overlooked album from Mike Bloomfield, John Hammond and Dr. John - whenever I used to play it on the air people would call the station to ask what is that? After that there's albums by Robin Trower, and the J. Geils Band.

If all that leaves you feeling like you want to mellow out, there's a lesser-known Van Morrison album and we finish off with acoustic guitarist Norman Blake recorded live.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Album of the Week 10-28-23

Afternoon folks!

This week there's some great Chicago blues to take your mind off of the news, starting off with an album by Fenton Robinson and followed by a double album compilation of Lowell Fulson's Chess recordings. After that we're on to some blues rock with probably my favorite John Mayall album with some excellent guitar work by Mick Taylor, then there's an album from Chicken Shack, a brit blues band that featured a massively underrated guitarist Stan Webb and Christine Perfect (later McVie from Fleetwood Mac).

In the diversity department, there's some country punk from Jason and the Scorchers and a great album of old-timey music from The Red Clay Ramblers - it's a good one, check it out!

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Album of the Week 10-21-23

Afternoon folks!

Well, I've got a good pile of stuff for you this week. Starting off, there's a european record of Champion Jack Dupree backed by a jazz band, followed by an album by Chicago blues sax player A.C. Reed. After that we move on to the blues-rock stuff with albums by Harvey Mandel, The Climax Chicago Blues Band and Rory Gallagher. There's also an album of studio jams by Peter Green.

Then in the diversity department there's a double live album from the Flying Burrito Bros, a double live album from Weather Report and we finish off with a Rock and Roll (perhaps New Wave) album from The Vapors.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Album of the Week 10-14-23

Afternoon folks!

Well, things have slowly improved with my daily limit on youtube, so there's more this week than last. Starting off there's an album by the great Otis Spann accompanied by Robert Jr. Lockwood, followed by a compilation of singles from the ridiculously obscure Young Jessie - make sure you listen through at least to hear his original version of "Mary Lou," which became a hit for the Steve Miller Band and also Ronnie Hawkins. There's a bunch of blues rock this week with albums by Mike Bloomfield and Dr. Feelgood and some country rock from The Flying Burrito Bros. There's an album by the harder-to-classify Spirit and we finish off with some UK electric folk from the Albion Country Band.

Enjoy!

Album of the Week 10-7-23

Afternoon folks!

Well, after a few days youtube increased my daily upload limit to 70% of what it used to be, so there's a little more here than I was expecting earlier this week.

We've got some serious blues from Chicago blues guitarist Fenton Robinson, followed by an album by guitarist and singer Bumble Bee Slim backed by some serious jazz players and we finish up with a compilation from New Orleans songwriter and piano player Huey "Piano" Smith and His Clowns.

In the blues rock vein, we've got an album from the Blues Magoos. After that there's a half-speed mastered reissue pressed on really quiet vinyl of It's A Beautiful Day's self-titled album - to my ear the best version of it out there.

We finish up with the Holy Modal Rounders doing their folk/blues/rock/sarcasm best.

Album of the Week 9-30-23

Afternoon folks!

This week I have a little less stuff than previous weeks because Youtube's algorithm has decided that it doesn't want me to upload very much - about a third of an album a day now, where previously I could upload a whole album every day pretty much. I had a couple of amusing chats with Youtube's "support" chatbot the second of which I'll embed at the bottom of the post, sadly I discarded the first without saving it.

Anyway, this week we've got Chicago blues piano player Eddie Boyd backed up by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac to start us off. After that, there's The Paul Butterfield Band's Pigboy Crabshaw album followed by albums by John Mayall, The Elvin Bishop Band and Rita Coolidge for blues-rock content. Then we finish off in the rock vein with albums from Heart and Funkadelic.

Enjoy!

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