The blues in my heart, the rhythm in my soul.
rick from Boston | 08/01/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A reissue of the first Elmore James album I ever purchased. This is a must have for any blues fan, as the recording quality was very good and the songs are great. Screaming slide guitar with raw emotional vocals= a classic blues session. Happy Home will have you up and out of your seat dancing around the room. There are a zillion Elmore reissues out there today, but this is the one! Lend it to a friend and help spread the legend of Elmore James."
King of the slide guitar
Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 09/02/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Although there is nothing previously unreleased on this album, the sound quality is astoundingly improved having been mastered from newly-discovered session master tapes. Elmore James was at his peak at this time and the visceral power of his singing and playing is all the more remarkable for his off-stage shyness and fragility. His band, the Broom Dusters, and the Maxwell Davis Orchestra, provide magnificent support.
Blues After Hours, with its distinctively sexy album cover, came out on Modern's mid-price Crown label in 1960 and comprised a carefully programmed 10-track selection of singles, including 4 B-sides, that had come out in 1954 and 1955 on the Flair subsidiary, all taken from two sessions (in Modern's own studio in Culver City, Los Angeles CA, in August-September 1954; and in J&M Studios, New Orleans LA in August 1955), except for Dark And Dreary, which came from an August 1953 session at Universal Studios, Chicago IL.
The CD is fleshed out with eight bonus tracks including the other singles from the same sessions and a further five recordings from various Chicago sessions of the period that were unreleased at the time, all in super re-vamped sound"
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1