Harp Attack!
Artist: James Cotton

Four Chicago harmonica greats, one eminently solid album. Teamed with Junior Wells, Billy Branch, and Carey Bell, Cotton sings Willie Love's Delta classic "Little Car Blues" and Charles Brown's "Black Night" and plays along with his cohorts on most of the rest of the set. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide Read More

Pleading the Blues
Artist: Buddy Guy

Recorded on Halloween night in 1979, this pairs up Wells and Guy in a fashion that hasn't been heard since Hoodoo Man Blues, their first, and best collaboration. Solid backing by The Philip Guy band (Buddy's brother) makes this album a rare treat. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide 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

Bad Axe
Artist: Son Seals

One of Son Seals's finest collections, studded with vicious performances ranging from covers of Eddie Vinson's "Person to Person" and Little Sonny's "Going Home (Where Women Got Meat on Their Bones)" to his own "Can't Stand to See Her Cry" and swaggering "Cold Blood." Top-drawer Windy City studio musicians lay down skin-tight grooves throughout.... Read More

Love Me Papa
Artist: Luther Allison

Luther Allison is the blues' proverbial little boy with the curl; when he's good, he's great. When he's bad, he's awful. Allison was on throughout most of the nine tracks (three bonus cuts) on this 1977 date recently reissued by Evidence on CD, playing with the ferocity, direction, and inventiveness that is often missing from his more uneven... Read More

Queen of the Blues
Artist: Koko Taylor

Co-producer Bruce Iglauer anticipated a future trend by making this a set filled with cameos -- but the presence of Lonnie Brooks, James Cotton, Albert Collins, and Son Seals is entirely warranted and the contributions of each work quite well in the context of the whole. Taylor's gritty "I Cried like a Baby" and a snazzy remake of Ann Peebles's... Read More

Live & Burning
Artist: Son Seals

Lives up to its billing. Seals's smoking set, caught live at Chicago's long-gone (and definitely lamented) Wise Fools Pub, finds him attacking a sharp cross-section of material -- Detroit Junior's deliberate "Call My Job," Elmore James's "I Can't Hold Out," his own "Help Me, Somebody" -- with an outstanding band in tow -- saxist A.C. Reed,... Read More

Midnight Son
Artist: Son Seals

A much more polished set than its predecessor, Midnight Son is a particularly effective effort with several numbers that remain in Seals's onstage repertoire to this day -- "Telephone Angel," "On My Knees," the jumping "Four Full Seasons of Love." The addition of a brisk horn section enhanced his staccato guitar attack and uncompromising vocals,... Read More

Mighty Long Time
Artist: James Cotton

Although the titles are all familiar (most of them a little too much so), Cotton and his all-star cohorts (guitarists Jimmie Vaughan, Matt Murphy, Luther Tucker, Hubert Sumlin, and Wayne Bennett, the omnipresent Perkins on keys) pull the whole thing off beautifully. Cotton's cover of Wolf's "Moanin' at Midnight" is remarkably eerie in its own... Read More

Live at Antone's
Artist: James Cotton Blues Band

Reuniting Cotton with his former guitarists Matt Murphy and Luther Tucker, pianist Pinetop Perkins, and Muddy Waters' ex-rhythm section (bassist Calvin Jones and drummer Willie Smith) looks like a great idea on paper, and it worked equally well in the flesh, when this set was cut live at Antone's Night Club in Austin, TX. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music... Read More

Buddy's Blues: The Best of the JSP Sessions
Artist: Buddy Guy