Confessin' the Blues
Artist: Little Walter
Community Score: 10.00

This release is a little confusing, coming out as it does more than a year after the release of MCA-Chess's Little Walter rarities collection Blues With A Feeling, and two years after the double CD anthology set that contains most of the best parts of this collection. Still, for those who can't afford either of those pricey sets, this disc,... Read More

His Best: 1956-1964
Artist: Muddy Waters

The first eight tracks of this 20-track collection date from 1956: "All Aboard," and featuring both James Cotton and Little Walter on twin harmonicas, "Forty Days and Forty Nights," "Just to Be With You," "Don't Go No Farther," "Diamonds at Your Feet," "I Love the Life I Live," "Rock Me," and the studio version of "I Got My Mojo Working." By... Read More

Deep Down
Artist: Carey Bell

More than a quarter century after he cut his debut album, Bell recently made his finest disc to date. Boasting superior material and musicianship (guitarists Carl Weathersby and Lurrie Bell and pianist Lucky Peterson are all stellar) and a goosed-up energy level that frequently reaches incendiary heights, the disc captures Bell outdoing himself... Read More

Woodstock Album
Artist: Muddy Waters

Of all the post-Fathers & Sons attempts at updating Muddy's sound in collaboration with younger white musicians, this album worked best because they let Muddy be himself, producing music that compared favorably to his concerts of the period, which were wonderful. His final album for Chess (recorded at Levon Helm's Woodstock studio, not in... Read More

The Earthshaker
Artist: Koko Taylor
Community Score: 10.00

Koko Taylor's Alligator encore harbored a number of tunes that still pepper her set list to this day -- the grinding "I'm a Woman" and the party-down specials "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Hey Bartender." Her uncompromising slow blues "Please Don't Dog Me" and a sassy remake of Irma Thomas's "You Can Have My Husband" also stand out, as does the... Read More

What It Takes: The Chess Years
Artist: Koko Taylor
Community Score: 10.00

With 18 tracks spanning 1964-1971, this compilation receives the nod over the shorter Koko Taylor (eight cuts double off anyway). Opening with her nails-tough "I Got What It Takes," the disc boasts "Wang Dang Doodle," several sides never before on album, and the strange previously unissued "Blue Prelude." Four 1971 tracks from Taylor's... Read More

I Got What It Takes
Artist: Koko Taylor

The queen's first album for Alligator, and still one of her very best to date. A tasty combo sparked by guitarists Mighty Joe Young and Sammy Lawhorn and saxist Abb Locke provide sharp support as the clear-voiced Taylor belts Bobby Saxton's "Trying to Make a Living," and Magic Sam's "That's Why I'm Crying," her own "Honkey Tonkey" and "Voodoo... Read More

Beware of the Dog
Artist: Hound Dog Taylor & The Houserockers

This was Hound Dog's posthumous live album containing performances that are even steamier than the first two studio albums, if such a notion is possible. For lowdown slow blues, it's hard to beat the heartfelt closer "Freddie's Blues" and for surreal moments on wax, it's equally hard to beat the funkhouse turned looney bin dementia of "Let's Get... Read More