CD Review
Various
Sun Records - 25 Rare Blues Classics
(Varese Sarabande (2003) 66 473-2)
25 tracks, 67 minutes.
by Craig Ruskey
Review date: December 2003
|
|
"Keeping the Blues Alive Award"
Achievement for Blues on the Internet
Presented by The Blues Foundation
| |
Joe Hill Louis has kicked off the party on the two previous Sun compilations
from Varese and he takes the lead again with Keep Your Arms Around Me including plenty of rasping harp fills. Sam Phillips seems to have recorded just about anyone who entered his small studio on Union Ave. in Memphis, including rural artists like Sleepy John Estes, whose Policy Man Blues is superb country blues. Woodrow Adams gets the nod as perhaps the most chaotic performer with The Last Time accompanied by Sylvester Hayes' tough harp and Fiddlin' Joe Martin's thumping drums, and Willie Nix delivers his classic, Prison Bound Blues. Earl Hooker's Blue Guitar and Move On Down The Line are here as well as Hot Shot Love's storming harmonica tour-de-force, Wolf Call Boogie. Houston Stokes, Walter Horton, Honeyboy Edwards and others also appear with superb cuts. The thundering guitar in Little Milton's Lookin' For My Baby and Billy Love's Hart's Bread Boogie certainly make it worth the price, but there's nothing close to filler here, these are all prime cuts. Sound quality is excellent throughout and Bill Dahl contributes more informative notes. Varese has now made 75 tracks from the Sun blues catalog readily available. Highly recommended!
Buy this CD NOW:
Your purchase through the Amazon.com links at the end of each review, or by simply clicking on this banner (below) to order this or many other products from Amazon, helps to support this website as well as the featured blues artist.
"This review is copyright © 2004 by Craig Ruskey, and Blues On Stage at: www.mnblues.com, all rights reserved. Copy, duplication or download prohibited without permission."
Copyright reuse notice: If you would like to reprint or use this review please include the above copyright notice, contained within the quotation marks, PLUS this statement: "Used with permission." Then send an email to Ray at: mnblues@aol.com indicating how you are using the review or the website page address it will be appearing on. Thanks!
Your purchase through the Amazon.com links at the end of each review, or by simply clicking on this banner (below) to order this or many other products from Amazon, helps to support this website as well as the featured blues artist.
Click on this banner to get you new low percent credit card:
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! You can help support this blues website by making a contribution (click on the banner below for details).
Or mail a donation to: Ray Stiles % Blues On Stage, PO Box 582983, Mpls, MN 55458. Thanks!
Web Hosting & Design:
CLICK HERE for Web Design SPECIAL, get your own website for just $75.
The most affordable web hosting and design services available. Click Here
to find out how you can host your current site at Blues On Stage, or how I can help you design your own website!
If you would like your CD reviewed, please send TWO (2) copies, along with promotional material to:
Blues On Stage
PO Box 582983
Minneapolis, MN 55458-2983
E-mail Ray Stiles @ mnblues@aol.com with any questions.
|
|
 Ray Stiles at: mnblues@aol.com
Copyright © 2003 Ray M. Stiles & Blues On Stage
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. Blues On Stage is a ® Trademark of Ray Stiles.
|
|
We build websites