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Sweet home Chicago. May 02, 2009
One of the ten best blues albums all time! Straight urban blues that rocks deep and kicks you off your chair. Junior Wells and Buddy Guy get on so well they could have been twins.
You must have this one.
NOTHING BUT THE BLUES! Apr 16, 2009
First, I ask everybody to forgive me for my poor English (I'm from Italy)...
I think that if I had to choose ten CD to take with me on a desert island Hoodoo Man Blues would be one. In 1965 Jr. Wells began a fantastic career that reached the top in 1975 with Live at Theresa's. The stuff recorded after this year I dont think it's that good except for few numbers. The best of Jr. Wells I think it's included in these 10 years, included the very first recordings of the 50's (Blues Hit Big Town is a fantastic Chicago blues album). Hoodoo Man Blues is what a Chicago Blues harmonica fan asks for. In this album you can imagine to be in a club in the West Side or South Side, close your eyes and enjoy the atmosphere... Junior has that dry, raw, direct sound, so simple and so exciting... Well, my favorite harmonica plauer is Rice Miller, I'm cray about Big Walter Horton and I also like Little Walter, and Junior Wells is the heritage of all these dudes... I love his way of using the throat when he gasps through the mic... It reminds me Sonny Terry's and Peg Leg Sam's whooping and yelling between a note and another one. Junior "translates" that old time way of playing into a modern context. I know very well that old time players: Jaybird Coleman, DeFord Bailey even the less known ones like Horace Sprott or Rich Amerson and all that could recorded in the 50s and the 60s, and if I feel the blues when I listen to them, I don't think the feeling is changed with Junior, even the times had changed. Junior is a today's (I mean in the 60s and 70s) man who brings us the same old blues feeling, and I think this is what a blues player-singer should do. I don't like that today's monsters who plays thousands notes a minute but don't tell me anything... Well, listen e.g. to Ships On The Ocean... it will tell you EVERYTHING! Junior plays THE REAL DEAL: no real bluesman would play a note if it's not necessary, and that funky minded bad boy can play the blues... nothing but the blues! Other terrific album by Junior Wells, on my opinion, are:
>BLUES HIT BIG TOWN (the very first Junior Wells, 1953-'54)
>IT'S MY LIFE, BABY! (a fantstic live/studio album, I love it!)
>ON TAP (An overlooked but excellent CD)
>COMING AT YOU (other Vanguard numbers with too many horns on my opinion. Anyway, a must for Jr. Wells's fans)
>SINGS LIVE AT THE GOLDEN BEAR (An other overlooked beautiful CD with a lot of classic blues, a tribute to Little Walter, Sonny Boy II an others)
>LIVE AT THERESAS'S (highlghts: JUKE, COME ON IN THIS HOUSE, KEY TO THE HIGHWAY)
>THE BEST OF THE VANGUARD YEARS (with some of the stuff you can find in IT'S MY LIFE BABY, and COMING AT YOU, but worth the purchase: here you can find the best Junior's versions of MESSIN' WITH THE KID, SHOTGUN BLUES, ALL NIGHT LONG, IT HURTS ME TOO and HELP ME)
>DRINKIN' TNT & SMOKIN' DYNAMYTE (a killer live album in Europe, 1974)
There are also a few bunch of recordings from "18 TRACKS FROM THE FILM CHICAGO BLUES" (Red Lightnin') that are some of Junior's best live performances: IN MY YOUNGER DAYS, COUNTRY GIRL and perhaps the best version of HOODOO MAN BLUES I've ever heard.
Forgive me for the long review, but the blues is something that blows up my mind!
Cheers,
Bert
Amazing And Timeless Apr 02, 2009
It's hard to believe that this was recorded in the 60's, but it was. This is the shizzel - the real deal folks. This album kicks from the first beat. It's hard not to move your feet when you put this on and turn it up. Junior Wells and Buddy Guy are on fire. This album is filled with smokin' grooves and a feel-good vibe. If you like or are interested in Chicago blues you should take a listen to this album. Another nice thing about this album is that it's a break from the Chess Record's crew: Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter. These guys hogged so much of the spotlight that lesser known talents like Junior often got overlooked. I listen to this album frequently - it's great for dancing, driving, working and where ever else a little good music could be useful.
Classic Blues Perfection. Mar 11, 2009
Classic Blues. This album is the result of a tight collection of bluesmen getting together and leaving their guts in the studio. And the epic tracks they laid down here will stand up to the best blues albums of all time. Pure perfection.
Granted, there are better albums when based on original music and better songwriting talent, but for presentation and soul, I'll take this one over all the others. There aren't many records I've listened to twenty years after I bought them that give me that same warm fuzzy as the day I first unwrapped them.
This one feels like that secret you want to keep to yourself, but can't help but sharing with anyone in earshot. Buy it. Lock the doors. And hang up the "Do Not Disturb" sign.
1 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Well Well Well Oct 15, 2008
There are fine reviews of this CD, some with historical background,. others, with an appreciative ear, most know better, esp. more than me.
I would only suggust that Jr. Wells, Buddy Guy, Jack Myers, oughta try to get reparations from Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Siegal-Schwall Band, Electric Flag, and all other Chicago imitative blues bands.
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