Search - Various Artists :: Blues Masters Sampler

Wow. A Great Introduction

Beau Mihalek | Hobart | 08/03/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must admit, this is only my second blues CD. The only other one I own is Rhino's excellent Johnny "Guitar" Watson compilation. I bought that being a Frank Zappa fanatic, and loving his vocals on One Size Fits All. I can safely say, if I didn't get into FZ, I wouldn't have have gotten into the blues or jazz. So, I can't say how effective this is at covering all the bases of blues, or what important artists were or weren't included, I can just say how good it is. I won't go into detail in the songs, because I couldn't describe them as well as could, say, Inca Roads by Zappa. I want to talk about how much I enjoyed this. It really taught me more about the blues then I had imagined. It seems that misinformation is rampant to the uninitiated. I expected all blues to be weighty, slow, heavy, and sorrowfull numbers. Shake Your Money Maker, Candy Man, Shake, Rattle, and Roll, and quite a few others smash this myth. I really wasn't prepared for the emotional depth and artistic range covered on this CD. It has given me a greater respect for the blues, an intrest in many blues artists, and I hope to collect the whole series soon. Plese snap up this limited edition CD if you have any intrest in the Blues but never got around to picking anything up."

A little too eclectic

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 08/04/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Well, the entire Blues Masters series is a "sampler" actually.

Anyway, this untitled volume draws from almost every kind of blues and blues-related music, from the ancient recording of a Texas prison camp work gang's rendition of "Go Down Old Hannah" to Stevie Ray Vaughan's funky 80s blues-rocker "Pride And Joy".



It's rather too ecletic, actually...Count Basie is squeezed in between Stevie Ray Vaughan and blues shouter Big Joe Turner, gentle old songster John Hurt is here with his classic 1928 single "Candy Man", and Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, and B.B. King are missing.

The music is good, sure, but this strange collection doesn't really do the Blues Masters series (or blues music in general) justice.

"