B.B. KING
Blues King Pins
EMI/Virgin (2003) 82712
18 tracks, 56 minutes. Unquestionably one of the most influential performers in the history of blues,
B.B. King has enjoyed a recording career which has spanned an astounding seven decades.
His trailblazing guitar style may have followed in the footsteps of T-Bone Walker and many others, but
King upped the ante with a unique vibrato and thundering leads, all of which are front and center over
the course of this disc. He offers some Elmore-like broomdusting licks (minus the slide) for Please
Love Me, runs between a rumba and shuffle for Woke Up This Morning, and storms through
the hard-to-find Please Hurry Home with ease. You Upset Me Baby/Whole Lotta Love/Sweet
Sixteen/Got A Right To Love My Baby and a crumbling take of Ten Long Years (one of the
ultimate examples of B.B.'s playing) keep the stakes high throughout.
JOHN LEE HOOKER
Blues King Pins
EMI/Virgin (2003) 82741
18 tracks, 52 minutes. John Lee Hooker has been no stranger to the CD reissue market,
literally having a few hundred (domestic and import) titles devoted to him and his highly rhythmic blues
style, but there are a number of nice surprises here. While Hooker was never recognized as a guitarist
of advanced abilities, his stark, Delta-rooted approach coupled with off-kilter timing took him around the
world, starting with his first recording success, Boogie Chillen in the late 1940s. He continued
by contributing Sally Mae/Hobo Blues/Crawling Kingsnake Blues/ Weepin' Willow Boogie/Howlin'
Wolf to an already stellar catalog, and these are alongside harder to find cuts like Love Money
Can't Buy/Hug And Squeeze/The Syndicator, a crunching I'm Ready and more. For
someone who recorded so frequently, Hooker's early material was almost always of a very high
standard and there's plenty on this set.
ELMORE JAMES
Blues King Pins
EMI/Virgin (2003) 82738
18 tracks, 50 minutes. Sometimes mistakenly regarded as a one-lick-wonder with a slide in his hand,
Elmore James was a far more accomplished guitarist than that unfair description, and the
proof resides in this budget-priced collection. Elmore took Robert Johnson's bottleneck style, amplified
it to crunching levels, and took Dust My Broom and bottleneck guitar to lofty new heights
between his first recording session in 1951 and his untimely death in 1963. Rock My Baby
Right/Baby What's Wrong/Sinful Woman/Dark And Dreary all show Elmore's skills playing
standard guitar, and these are smartly interspersed with plenty of slide showcases like Lost
Woman Blues/Hawaiian Boogie/Standing At The Crossroads and more. While all of this has seen
stateside issue previously, it makes a superb primer for those just being introduced to Elmore's
scorching guitar and impassioned vocals.
IKE TURNER
Blues King Pins
EMI/Virgin (2003) 82714
18 tracks, 52 minutes.
Ike Turner has played a remarkable role in the development of
modern music from his days of scouting talent like Howlin' Wolf and Jackie Brenston to teaming up
with Anna Mae Bullock for the dynamic Ike & Tina Turner. This collection gathers together a great
cross-section of styles with piano, guitar, and booting sax thundering behind a wide cast of vocalists.
Turner's first wife, Bonnie, duets with Ike on Looking For My Baby and My Heart Belongs To
You, Billy Gayles tackles Night Howler, and Dennis Binder steps up for Early Times
and Nobody Wants Me. Johnny Wright's The World Is Yours is exceptional and there's
Johnny 'Big Moose' Walker's previously unissued Can't See You Baby with Ike's careening
whammy bar guitar. The set closes with Prancing, a crippling guitar instrumental. Considering
the cut-rate pricetags, the new Blues King Pins discs from EMI/Virgin offer great
value for the buck. There are enough surprises to keep things interesting for collectors, and for
beginners, they rate as excellent introductory sets.
LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS
Blues King Pins
EMI/Virgin (2003) 82740
18 tracks, 48 minutes. Lightnin' Hopkins, like John Lee Hooker, was another prolific
recording artist who recorded for an amazing larray of labels. The eighteen tracks selected here cover
just a few of Lightnin's earlier years when he was working for the Aladdin, Gold Star, and RPM
imprints. Some fine acoustic material with Thunder Smith (Hopkins' nickname stemmed from his
teaming up with Smith for the Thunder and Lightnin' duo) including Katie Mae/Feel So Bad/Rocky
Mountain Blues stands with searing electric workouts like Lightnin's Boogie, and a storming
Jake Head Boogie, loaded with blisterling and distorted guitar licks. For those unfamiliar with
Hopkins' style and how important an influence he was, this is a necessary primer course in Texas
blues guitar vocabulary.
FATS DOMINO
Blues King Pins
EMI/Virgin (2003) 82742
18 tracks, 43 minutes. With the vast amount of material owned by EMI, their Virgin offshoot helps
celebrate 2003's "The Year of the Blues" status with this Fats Domino disc, as well as five
others in the new Blues King Pins series. Part of the attraction for collectors will be
the tracks that haven't been reissued in the U.S. before now. The Domino set contains great New
Orleans grooves with the Fat Man in front of Dave Bartholomew's thumping band as they roll through
Rockin' Chair/Trust In Me/Domino Stomp and others. Mastering is exceptional while the entire
series has solid liner notes from Bill Dahl. Fats' beginnings are shown to good example, especially on
the wonderful leadoff track, Hide Away Blues, and while he became a major star during the
1950s rock 'n' roll craze, he's never strayed far from his roots.
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