Search - Various Artists :: Blues Masters 3

"A title for your review"

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 08/05/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"What?!

It says you have to enter a title for your review.



Anyway...this 60-minute 1992 Rhino compilations brings together 59 years worth of Texas blues, from Blind Lemon Jefferson's scratchy 1927 waxing "Match Boy Blues", to a 1986 live rendition of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Texas Flood" (oddly titled "Flood Down In Texas").

It is quite an eclectic collection, and I personally don't think that Stevie Ray and Blind Lemon go very well together even as great as they both were. But there is nothing wrong with the music at all, and the Lone Star state has produced many top-notch blues artists of whom Jefferson, Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins ("Short Haired Woman") and electric blues guitar innovator Aaron "T-Bone" Walker are probably the most influential. T-Bone is represnted by his seminal composition "They Call It Stormy Monday (but Tuesday's just as bad)".



Big Mama Thornton is here as well with her original (and still definitive) reading of "Hound Dog", smooth singer/pianist Charles Brown croons his R&B classic "Drifting Blues", and ZuZu Bollin's horn-driven jump-blues "Why Don't You Eat Where You Slept Last Night?" is another highlight, as is Lillian Glinn's confident reading of her own "Cravin' A Man Blues", and the soulful slow blues "Changing Neighborhoods" by contemporary bluesman Anson Funderburgh.



This is not excactly everything you need to know about Texas blues music, of course, but it is a really nice sampler, featuring some familiar cuts and a number of more obscure tracks which should delight "mid-level" blues fans."

A must for any blues collection - or rock 'n roll roots

Won Hong Lo | 8 miles SW of MDW airport | 03/17/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"History of Texas Blues from the beginning. Everyone from Blind Lemon Jefferson to SRV and the Fab T'birds! Love that Lucy Mae Blues and Why Don't You Eat Where You Slept Last Night! Here's some authentic deep real blues. You won't regret buying this one."