NICK DERISO: Recorded live at Montreal’s Rising Sun Club in January 1977, and later reissued by Just a Memory Records in ’99, “Hoochie Coochie Man” stands as one of the last testaments to the Gospel of Muddy. He was the bridge between country and city cool, an urban griot withRead More

Charlie Musselwhite, who once played with Muddy Waters, has just gotten better in his absence. A fine example is this Grammy-nominated release, which includes a deft cover of Sleepy John Estes’ fine “Brownsville Blues.” It’s a career highpoint, and (funny thing) Musselwhite hasn’t even put harmonica to mouth yet atRead More

Started as another in rock star Eric Clapton’s celebrated CPR efforts for the careers of the blues legends he loved most, this one was almost lost to the Atlantic vaults. In the end, four different producers worked this thing at two different studios. Sessions were held in 1970, then againRead More

by Nick DeRiso The year was 1959. The occasion was a “Battle of the Blues” at the Blue Flame Club in Chicago. Young harmonica player Junior Wells — who got his start as Little Walter Jacobs’ replacement in Muddy Waters’ band back in ’52 — probably didn’t imagine he wouldRead More

Bob Margolin makes fine use of delay-time rhythm, a mean slide scream, and the duo and trio ideas that were so successful for his old boss, Muddy Waters.