Search - Various Artists :: Gold Blues

50 Years of the Blues

Steve Vrana | Aurora, NE | 02/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This thirty-eight track, two-hour-plus anthology does an excellent job of presenting fifty years of blues from the post-World War II era through the present day. Disc one includes such Chicago blues giants as Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf and Buddy Guy who all recorded for Chess. While many of these artists did not enjoy huge crossover success, they influenced everyone from Elvis ("Hound Dog") to the Yarbirds ("I'm a Man"), The Rolling Stones ("I'm a King Bee"), Cream ("Spoonful") and George Thorogood ("One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer"). Every song on disc-one is a classic, from T-Bone Walker's million-selling "Call It Stormy Monday" to Bobby "Blue" Bland's No. 2 R&B hit "Turn on Your Love Light" (which peaked at No. 28 on the pop charts). Disc-one is required listening for anyone with even a remote interest in the blues.



Disc-two, while it includes such blues stalwarts as Albert King, Etta James and B.B. King, focuses more on contemporary standard-bearers. Eric Clapton and Duane Allman perform Little Walter's "Mean Old World" from the LAYLA sessions. The Allman Brothers perform a live version of Muddy Water's "Trouble No More." And a then sixteen-year-old wunderkind Johnny Lang takes on the Sonny Boy Williamson classic "Good Morning Little School Girl." In addition, there are other performances by such modern blues artists as Robert Cray, Keb' Mo' and Susan Tedeschi.



This is by no means an exhaustive look at the blues, but it is a solid collection of the some of the best songs of the genre. And while many of these songs may already be in your music library, it's nice to have them all gathered together in one collection. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"

Very good blues compilation

Xavier | 08/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A nice mixture of old and new, familiar and not-so -- sort of a Blues Greatest Hits. I was a little put off by the packaging, which is so plain as to look like a cheesy reissue set, but the liner notes are good, the sound quality is good, and above all, the music is good."