Living the Blues - AKARMA
Artist: Canned Heat
Community Score: 10.00

Canned Heat's third collection, Living the Blues [Akarma] (1968), was likewise their first double-LP, heralding the rural hippie anthem "Going Up the Country" as well as the nearly three-quarter-hour "Refried Boogie." However, rather than distracting their audience, it became one of rock & roll's first two-LP sets to make a substantial showing... Read More

A Long Time Comin'
Artist: Electric Flag

Writer Jeff Tamarkin says "ex Butterfield Band guitaristMike Bloomfield, drummer Buddy Miles, and others put this soul-rock band together in 1967. This debut is a testament to their ability to catch fire and keep on burnin'." That The Electric Flag do so well -- they appeared at the Monterey International Pop Festival with the Blues Project,... Read More

Construction #1
Artist: Ten Wheel Drive

This exemplary recording by songwriters Aram Schefrin, Mike Zager and singer Genya Ravan was highly experimental in ways that Chicago, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Traffic and other of their contemporaries wanted to be. Imagine Ronnie Spector leaving The Ronettes to join Blood Sweat & Tears, and realize the sweet Goldie Zelkowitz from... Read More

Revelation
Artist: Man
Community Score: 10.00

A blast from Man's psychedelic past, this debut shows the band making an auspicious debut with Hammond drenched guitar rock. It's easy to see, between the spacey effects and unearthly vocal choruses of their single "Sudden Life," how Man positioned themselves between the space prog of Nektar and the acid-fried rock of the Quicksilver Messenger... Read More

Juicy Lucy
Artist: Juicy Lucy

If any one performance can be said to encapsulate all that Juicy Lucy portended, as their career got underway with the new decade of the '70s, it was "Who Do You Love?" The band's first single, spinning off their debut album, it was as fast and mean and dirty as any record could have been, a breakneck tour through the bayou swamps and dirt-track... Read More

Accept No Substitute
Artist: Delaney & Bonnie

While Delaney & Bonnie will be forever associated with Eric Clapton and Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs, the couple, along with a loose association of friends, recorded a number of classics in their own right. Released in 1969, Accept No Substitute contained the same blend of soul and rock & roll that would show up on Layla the following year.... Read More

Second Winter
Artist: Johnny Winter
Community Score: 4.67

Johnny's second Columbia album shows an artist in transition. He's still obviously a Texas bluesman, recording in the same trio format that he left Dallas with. But his music is moving toward the more rock & roll sounds he would go on to create. The opener, "Memory Pain," moves him into psychedelic blues-rock territory, while old-time rockers... Read More

Johnny Winter - COLUMBIA
Artist: Johnny Winter

Winter's debut album for Columbia was also arguably his bluesiest and best. Straight out of Texas with a hot trio, Winter made blues-rock music for the angels, tearing up a cheap Fender guitar with total abandon on tracks like "I'm Yours and I'm Hers," "Leland Mississippi Blues," and perhaps the slow blues moment to die for on this set, B.B.... Read More

Spooky Two
Artist: Spooky Tooth
Community Score: 8.00

Spooky Two is this British blues-rock band's pièce de résistance. All eight of the tracks compound free-styled rock and loose-fitting guitar playing that result in some fantastic raw music. With Gary Wright on keyboards and vocals and lead singer Mike Harrison behind the microphone, their smooth, relaxed tempos and riffs mirrored bands... Read More

Blue Matter
Artist: Savoy Brown
Community Score: 8.00

The third release by Kim Simmonds and company, but the first to feature the most memorable lineup of the group: Simmonds, "Lonesome" Dave Peverett, Tony "Tone" Stevens, Roger Earl, and charismatic singer Chris Youlden. This one serves up a nice mixture of blues covers and originals, with the first side devoted to studio cuts and the second a... Read More

A Step Further
Artist: Savoy Brown
Community Score: 6.25

With Kim Simmonds and Chris Youlden combining their talents in Savoy Brown's strongest configuration, 1969's A Step Further kept the band in the blues-rock spotlight after the release of their successful Blue Matter album. While A Step Further may not be as strong as the band's former release, all five tracks do a good job at maintaining their... Read More

Electric Ladyland
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Community Score: 8.47

Jimi Hendrix's third and final album with the original Experience found him taking his funk and psychedelic sounds to the absolute limit. The result was not only one of the best rock albums of the era, but also Hendrix's original musical vision at its absolute apex. When revisionist rock critics refer to him as the maker of a generation's... Read More

Ball & Chain
Artist: Big Brother & the Holding Company

Fans of Janis Joplin and/or the psychedelic era should consider this video -- originally broadcast as a black-and-white, 30-minute performance for KQED TV in San Francisco in April 1967 -- as a must-see. The band were unknown outside of California at the time, and this video even predates their first official studio release and their landmark... Read More