Future Blues
Artist: Canned Heat

The final Canned Heat album to feature co-founder Alan Wilson, Future Blues was also one of their best, surprisingly restrained as a studio creation by the band, the whole thing clocking in at under 36 minutes, as long as some single jams on their live discs. It was also one of their most stylistically diverse efforts. Most of what's here is... Read More

Memphis Heat
Artist: Canned Heat
Tres Hombres
Artist: ZZ Top
Community Score: 9.57

Tres Hombres is the record that brought ZZ Top their first Top Ten record, making them stars in the process. It couldn't have happened to a better record. ZZ Top finally got their low-down, cheerfully sleazy blooze-n-boogie right on this, their third album. As their sound gelled, producer Bill Ham discovered how to record the trio so simply that... Read More

A Space in Time
Artist: Ten Years After
Community Score: 9.50

A Space in Time was Ten Years After's best-selling album. This was due primarily to the strength of "I'd Love to Change the World," the band's only hit single, and one of the most ubiquitous AM and FM radio cuts of the summer of 1971. TYA's first album for Columbia, A Space in Time has more of a pop-oriented feel than any of their previous... Read More

Cricklewood Green
Artist: Ten Years After

Cricklewood Green provides the best example of Ten Years After's recorded sound. On this album, the band and engineer Andy Johns mix studio tricks and sound effects, blues-based song structures, a driving rhythm section, and Alvin Lee's signature lightning-fast guitar licks into a unified album that flows nicely from start to finish. Cricklewood... Read More

Street Corner Talking
Artist: Savoy Brown

After 1970's Looking In album, Peverett, Roger Earl, and Tony Stevens left to form Foghat, leaving Kim Simmonds with yet another dilemma. But for Simmonds, things went a little smoother than he might have imagined, picking up piano player Paul Raymond, bassman Andy Silvester, and drummer Dave Bidwell, all from Chicken Shack. He also hired singer... Read More

Raw Sienna
Artist: Savoy Brown

This high-water mark by the band finds them softening their rougher edges and stretching out into jazz territory, yet still retaining a blues foundation. There's not a bad cut here, with enough variety (bottleneck slide, acoustic guitar, horns, and strings) to warrant frequent late-night listenings. "A Hard Way to Go," "Needle and Spoon," and... Read More

Irish Tour
Artist: Rory Gallagher
Community Score: 10.00

The companion piece to director Tony Palmer's documentary of the same name, Irish Tour 1974 was recorded that January in Belfast, Dublin, and Cork at a time when precious few performers -- Irish or otherwise -- were even dreaming of touring the trouble-torn island. Northern Ireland, in particular, was a rock & roll no-go area, but Gallagher... Read More

Hooker 'n' Heat
Artist: Canned Heat
Community Score: 7.50

Canned Heat brought a fresh personnel to this confab with blues legend John Lee Hooker (guitar/vocals). Likewise, Larry "The Mole" Taylor (bass) and Harvey Mandel (guitar) linked up with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers during the spring of 1970. In their stead, Henry "Sunflower" Vestine (guitar) returned from a failed outing as "The Sun" with... Read More

In Flight
Artist: Alvin Lee