by Nick DeRiso Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads Blues” remains one of the most terrifying, wonder-filled songs, even if you don’t know the oft-told tale of how the doomed Mississippi bluesman became so proficient so quickly at playing his guitar. It’s one of the reasons that, despite the brevity of his timeRead More

by Nick DeRiso I always chuckle when I pull out this Columbia-Legacy compilation, a CD of pre-war tracks that boasts one of those blocky black PARENTAL ADVISORY stickers for explicit lyrics. It’s an album of steadfastly dirty blues songs — though innuendo replaces the jarring language of today’s brazen newRead More

by Nick DeRiso An honorable, if ultimately somewhat superficial, tribute to the thing that makes Robert “Jr.” Lockwood such an important element to modern blues. Lockwood was something of a stepson to Robert Johnson. The doomed Delta bluesman would stop in to stay with Lockwood’s mother in Helena, Ark., duringRead More

by Nick DeRiso While the performances on “Johnny Shines and Robert Lockwood,” from Shreveport, Louisiana’s Paula Records, are first-rate, unfortunately the sound quality early on is spotty. Some of the source material was slightly damaged on the Shines sides, resulting in a couple of gurgly spots where the sound fallsRead More