Heavy Picks: The Robert Cray Collection
Artist: Robert Cray
Community Score: 8.00

Robert Cray left his longtime home Mercury Records following the release of 1997's Sweet Potato Pie, moving to Rykodisc in 1999. Not long after his Ryko debut Take Your Shoes Off -- just a little over six months, actually -- Mercury released Heavy Picks: The Robert Cray Collection. It wasn't really an attempt to steal the thunder from Take Your... Read More

The Best of the Blues Band - VARESE
Artist: The Blues Band

Varese's The Best of the Blues Band collects sixteen highlights from the Blues Band, the group vocalist Paul Jones formed after leaving Manfred Mann. This music is pretty much straight-ahead British blues, but since it was recorded after the peak of British blues, it's a little slicker and more commercial, and it also boasts some hints of album... Read More

Man's Temptation
Artist: Rockin' Johnny

Johnny Burgin's second recording features his band alone, no special stars or guests, and they stand up quite well instrumentally and traditionally. Tinges of rockabilly, soul or pop may creep in, but they play Chicago style blues in a manner very similar to Paul Butterfield. They may be more like Butter, especially Johnny's vocals, than any... Read More

Live at Westville Prison
Artist: Little Milton

You're gonna wish you had been there after listening to this scorching live set from the '80s. It features the blues singing of Little Milton superbly accompanied by Lucky Peterson, who distinguishes himself on the organ, and the Tony Brown Band. This CD is a combination of two concerts recorded separately in a single day -- one for men, one for... Read More

Booty and the Beast
Artist: Popa Chubby
Community Score: 8.00

Popa Chubby's major-label debut album is an inspiring set of energetic, gut-bucket blues-rock, filled with exceptional playing. Chubby has soul, even if he doesn't quite cut it as a songwriter; there aren't many songs that are inventive or memorable. But as an instrumental workout, Booty and the Beast is terrific. Using the blues as a basic... Read More

The Complete Aladdin Recordings of Charles Brown
Artist: Charles Brown

Every single brilliant side -- some 109 in all -- that this elegant, tremendously influential pianist cut for the Mesner brothers' Philo and Aladdin imprints from 1945 to 1956 is housed in this lavishly produced five-disc box set. Mosaic's customary attention to detail is evident in the packaging and the sound; Brown's brilliance makes the... Read More

Live On
Artist: Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Community Score: 4.75

Being a teenage blues guitar prodigy is a double-edged sword. Stunning technique brings attention, but also criticism that it's all style and no soul. This criticism plagued Kenny Wayne Shepherd since his popular debut album, Ledbetter Heights, and it's warranted to a certain extent. It didn't help that Shepherd so strongly recalled Stevie Ray... Read More