Brownie McGhee - The Complete Brownie McGhee (1994)

That Brownie McGhee's career should span several decades really comes as no surprise. The energetic and charismatic bluesman managed to wear many hats during his lengthy musical life, appealing to several disparate audiences throughout the years without ever changing his basic style or direction.

Born in Tennessee in 1915 and raised in a musical family, a crippling childhood bout with polio kept McGhee housebound, and thus able to hone his musical skills. He was already in his twenties when he graduated from high school, a short time after which an operation provided the young artist with near total mobility. He began his musical career as a traveling bluesman, playing towns across Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia. He made his way to North Carolina, where he was discovered by J.B. Long, manager for popular blues artist "Blind Boy" Fuller.

Collecting the initial sides recorded by McGhee for Okeh/Columbia during 1940 and 1941, The Complete Brownie McGhee showcases a talented artist developing his style from record to record. McGhee seems to have enjoyed a fair degree of commercial success with several songs, including Me And My Dog Blues and Picking My Tomatoes, but a number of the 47 recordings presented on The Complete Brownie McGhee are unreleased sides. His fluid vocals are accompanied by his own guitar, and the harmonica playing of old friend Jordan Webb and maybe a washboard player, offering up a healthy dose of traditional southern blues, mixing the best of that musical history with strains of Gospel and hillbilly music in the creation of a style and performance that remains unique to this day. (Sony Legacy Recordings)

(Click on the CD cover to buy The Complete Brownie McGhee from Amazon.com)

Blind Willie McTell - The Definitive Blind Willie McTell (1994)

This two disc set provides a wonderful overview of the life of blues legend Blind Willie McTell, literally collecting nearly every side he ever recorded (only a handful of songs that couldn't be found in any form were omitted). A pioneer of 12-string guitar playing, McTell's unspectacular commercial career would prove to be quite influential nonetheless.

Born at the turn of the century in Georgia as Willie Samuel McTier (the origin of the McTell spelling is unclear), the guitarist picked up music at an early age, evidently discarding it while attending several schools for the blind only to pick it up again sometime in the 1920s. Throughout his career, McTell traveled constantly, performing for both white and black audiences, earning a reputation by word of mouth. If there was a crowd, whether in a club or on the street, McTell would play for them.

Lawrence Cohn, producer of The Definitive Blind Willie McTell has done an impressive job of collecting the various widespread recordings of McTell. He had recorded sessions for a number of labels during the '20s and '30s, often under a pseudonym. Many times, only a few hundred copies of a disc were pressed and distributed. McTell's thin, trebly voice, with its Southern twang, and his distinctive guitar style were undeniably his own, however, no matter what name he chose to record under.

The Definitive Blind Willie McTell offers them all, 41 songs total, including his best-known composition, Statesboro Blues. McTell incorporated a myriad of influences into his style, from talking blues to Ragtime. The collection offers fascinating look at an artist who built a legend entirely on the strength of his talents and his music. (Sony Legacy Recordings)

(Click on the CD cover to buy The Definitive Blind Willie McTell from Amazon.com)

Tampa Red - The Guitar Wizard (1994)

As Mark Humphrey's excellent liner notes to The Guitar Wizard point out, the Chicago Blues scene wasn't created by Muddy Waters in the '40s; post-World War I immigrants from the impoverished South to the industrial cities of the Midwest brought their Delta-born blues with them. The idiom, it could be said, had set its roots down some two decades earlier with the legacy of bottleneck blues genius Tampa Red.

Born Hudson Woodbridge in Georgia in the early part of this century, the talented guitarist was raised by his grandmother's family in Tampa, Florida. Making his way to Chicago, by 1925 he had already built a reputation as a street performer under his professional name, Tampa Red. Along with pianist/composer/vocalist Thomas Dorsey, a fellow Georgian, the two recorded their first sides in 1928. They instantly struck gold with the hit song It's Tight Like That, a song that they would go on to record several more times under a variety of names for a number of different labels.

The Guitar Wizard presents seventeen cuts featuring the bottleneck stylings of Tampa Red, beginning with the Okeh label version of It's Tight Like That. The commercial success of that song, which brought a new, jazzy, more vaudeville-type sound to traditional blues, evolved into a style of music dubbed "hokum." A short-lived musical trend, represented on this collection by a handful of cuts, hokum's influence has nonetheless been long-reaching, touching artists such as Bob Wills and Leon Redbone.

The blues are what Tampa Red did best, though, and they are presented here in abundance. Nine cuts feature Red accompanied by "Georgia Tom" Dorsey, including such hits from the era as You Can't Get That Stuff No More or Reckless Man Blues. The Depression broke up the successful duo, with Dorsey going on to lay the foundation for the subsequent success of Gospel music with his spiritual recordings. Tampa Red went on to record solo for Vocalion before jumping labels in the late-30s. Red's distinctive vocals and bottleneck prowess are showcased in cuts here, from Turpentine Blues and Sugar Mama Blues to Black Angel Blues, which was to become a hit for several other artists as well.

Tampa Red remained a best-selling artist well into the '40s, by which time he had become the Godfather of the Chicago Blues scene. His stylistic breakthroughs, as illustrated by the work collected on The Guitar Wizard, would influence a generation of better-known blues artists, including Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and B.B. King. The Guitar Wizard finally pays a fitting tribute to this obscure genius. (Sony Legacy Recordings)

(Click on the CD cover to buy The Guitar Wizard from Amazon.com)

Howlin' Wolf - Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog (1994)

Howlin' Wolf is one of those blues artists that even non-fans of the genre recognize. Born as Chester Burnett in 1910 in West Point, Mississippi, he picked up the guitar in his late teens, mentored by blues legend Charlie Patton. A contemporary of Muddy Waters, Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson, Burnett often played alongside these greats as they all traveled the same Southern blues circuit. It wasn't until the late-40s, after a stint in the army during World War II, that Burnett decided to pursue music as a full-time vocation.

Moving northward to West Memphis, Arkansas, Howlin' Wolf began recording sides for Chicago's Chess label through Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service. Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog presents fourteen of these Memphis cuts, recorded in the early-50s and featuring the young bluesman backed by talents such as Hubert Sumlin and James Cotton. By the time that Burnett moved to Chicago to become a full-fledged Chess label artist in the mid-50s, he was an established name in the genre. He would continue to be a major player in the blues, a not-so-friendly competition arising between Wolf and another Chicago bluesman, Muddy Waters.

Wolf's late-50s/early-60s output is what sealed his legend as a great blues performer and can be attributed not only to Wolf's own charismatic talents, but to the instrumental contributions of long-time collaborator Sumlin and the skilled hand of songwriter Willie Dixon. Recording a number of Dixon compositions, Howlin' Wolf made them his own with inspired guitar playing and his magnificent trademark mouth harp work.

Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog pulls together forty-two wonderful Howlin' Wolf performances, from the aforementioned early Memphis sides to the landmark Chicago Chess sessions, including several cuts from the late-60s as well as alternates and a few unreleased songs. It is an excellent companion to the earlier released Chess box set, and well worth getting for fans for whom that set served as an introduction to this brilliant and complex artist. Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog, by covering almost twenty years of Howlin' Wolf's creative output, firms up any claims made for his considerable songwriting skills and instrumental talents. There is, perhaps, no better place for the music love to begin "rediscovering the Blues" than here. (Chess Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog through Amazon.com)

Jimi Hendrix - Jimi Hendrix: Blues (1994)

Purists may feel that the inclusion of rock guitar god Jimi Hendrix alongside blues pioneers such as Tampa Red or Howlin' Wolf is shear blasphemy. It can be argued, however, that Hendrix did more to bring the blues to a white audience than any of the great blues artists of the era or the white British rockers who followed them. First and foremost, Hendrix was a bluesman, bringing a great deal of that style and tradition to the work he created during the late-60s.

Jimi Hendrix: Blues recognizes this debt to Hendrix's early influences and collects eleven of the legend's most soulful blues performances on one disc. Hendrix picked up the guitar as a young teen, quickly developing a style patterned after his favorites, artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins and Slim Harpo. Living in Nashville after getting out of the army, Hendrix hooked up with Billy Cox, with whom he would play across the country, both as a duo and backing other artists. Hendrix eventually built reputation playing on the road with R & B artists such as Little Richard and Jackie Wilson.

In the mid-60s, Hendrix was to turn away from his pure blues roots towards rock music. He put together a band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and, cutting hit songs like Foxey Lady and Purple Haze, used his instrumental prowess to redefine the role of guitar in contemporary rock & roll. Indeed, Hendrix perhaps sealed the six-string instrument's fate as the driving power in rock, building upon the momentum created by British artists like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.

Through his brief tenure as rock star, however, Hendrix would always return to his roots both on stage and on record, albeit in a way that would make most purists shudder. Whether it was through his personalized versions of traditional blues standards like Catfish Blues or Bleeding Heart, covers like Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy, or cranking out originals like Red House, Voodoo Chile or Hear My Train A Comin', Hendrix always had one foot planted firmly in the blues milieu. Jimi Hendrix: Blues is an important collection, introducing listeners to a different side of this great artist, one that remained important until his untimely death. (MCA Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Jimi Hendrix: Blues from Amazon.com)

Richard Barone - Clouds Over Eden (1993)

As a member of the Bongos, one of the more obscure outfits on the early-80s Pop landscape, Richard Barone often saw his work with the band – gems like Beat Hotel or Drums Along The Hudson – overshadowed by musical peers on both sides of the Atlantic. As a solo act, he's not done much better, mired in obscurity while consistently producing material showing considerable skills as a wordsmith with a fine-tuned ear for penning pop melodies...talents never more evident than on his latest effort, Clouds Over Eden.

Barone tends to bring a contemporary sensibility to classic pop stylings, proving himself quite capable of evoking fond musical memories by bringing scraps of everything you've ever heard on the radio to the table without ever sounding derivative. The Orbisonesque guitar riffs on Forbidden, for instance, masterfully underline Barone's tale of loneliness and frustration, while the jangling guitars and sweet harmonies of Nobody Knows Me illustrate Barone's subtle touch on dozens of '80s college-rock bands. If radio were more open and less formatted, there'd be a welcome mat out for cuts like the Beatles-influenced title cut, Clouds Over Eden or the chilling Law Of The Jungle. As it is, pop poets such as Richard Barone, or his colleague and frequent collaborator Jules Shear, must craft album after album for a small, but appreciative audience. (Rhino Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Clouds Over Eden from Amazon.com)

Sepultura - Roots (1996)

After a brief dalliance in major label land, Brazil's best known musical export lands back at their original musical home, Roadrunner Records. The resulting release, Roots, is, without a doubt, Sepultura's strongest effort yet. The band's musical growth over the course of their last few albums is impressive, the maturity that they bring to their current work showcased wonderfully by Roots. Dismissed by mainstream critics as a "genre" band, Sepultura have surpassed that label, becoming instead a truly international phenomena, lyrical and musical spokesmen for a generation of dispossessed and alienated young fans across the planet.

Metallic, as a word, doesn't even come close to describing Sepultura's music. They're at their best when they're tearing the roof off of the motherfucker, playing it loud and loose. Lead vocalist Max Cavalera has a singing voice that lies somewhere between pain and pleasure, not so much caressing his lyrics as much as bludgeoning the listener with them. Six-string maestro Andreas Kisser knocks off molten riffs like a steel foundry forges concertina wire, razor-sharp and beautiful. The rhythm section shakes and roars like a flaming jet engine. It's a potent, explosive musical brew that Sepultura concoct, thick and frothy and quite intoxicating.

It's their lyrics that have won them an international audience, however, with Cavalera's sincere treatment of issues like social justice, poverty and the environment touching upon concerns common to all mankind. As such, Roots lives up to and, in some cases, surpasses the band's previous efforts. Songs like Roots Bloody Roots, Endangered Species, Dictatorship or Straighthate tread on familiar lyrical ground, yet are infused with new wisdom and knowledge. Although not the most poetic of songwriters, Cavalera is akin to a hardcore Woody Guthrie, reaching people with the genuine intelligence and straight-forwardness of his timeless messages.

Sepultura have yet to capture to the mass audience they deserve stateside, and quite honestly may never break through to the mainstream. Their art is too primal, too raw, too loud and too honest for the tender palates of most music buyers. For those of us who like our rock and roll a bit rough at times, Sepultura will do just fine, thank you. The band has never compromised their sound or their message, always delivering what their legion of loyal fans crave and then some. Roots may not be a watershed effort, but its a damn fine collection of music...and that's all we can expect from one of the planet's most exciting and vital bands. (Roadrunner Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Roots from Amazon.com)

Mick Ronson - Heaven And Hull (1994)

Mick Ronson is one of those quiet legends of rock & roll, important and influential not for any single thing but rather for everything. Ronson was a talented guitarist, but no six-string wizard. He was an better-than-average songwriter with a flair for drama, but a perfunctory vocalist. As a producer and session pro, Ronson offered a light hand tempered by experience and knowledge. It was the total package, however, including Mick's enormous charisma and his innate ability to bring something valuable to the work of some of the biggest creative egos in the biz, that made the man a capital 'R' Rock & Roll Star. Ronson died of cancer in 1993, feverishly working to create this last album, Heaven And Hull.

As a creative swan-song, few artists have accomplished so much. Heaven And Hull, named after Ronson's hometown of Hull, England, is an excellent showcase of pure, unadulterated rock & roll spirit. Many of Ronson's old mates showed up to contribute, including David Bowie, John Mellencamp, Crissie Hynde and Martin Chambers of the Pretenders, Ian Hunter, Brian May of Queen and others. The music created is no mere tedious superstar collaboration but rather timeless, bright and shining rock & roll. Cuts such as Like A Rolling Stone, All The Young Dudes or Life's A River are classics in any era, performed here with great tenderness and sincerity by the various assembled artists. Through all the cuts runs a singular thread, however, that of Ronson's guitar and indomitable presence.

Ronson worked on Heaven And Hull right up until the time of his death. Although it's only his third solo album, Ronson's influence and legacy has been built by the work he did under other artist's names, whether it be on albums he produced for artists as diverse as Morrissey, David Johansen or Mott The Hoople, or albums by David Bowie, Lou Reed or John Mellencamp on which he graced us with his instrumental skills. No better final memory could be created than Heaven And Hull. Mick, we'll miss you. (Epic Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Heaven And Hull from Amazon.com)

Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand (1994)

Artists who are tagged with the deadly "critical favorites" label tend to have a very brief commercial existence, if, indeed, they create a meager blip on the old product sales radar at all. There are many reasons for this simple rock & roll fact of life, the foremost being that rock critics (this writer included) tend to be overeducated shitheads with an arts and literature background, an elitist crowd grabbing free promos and a spot on the guest list even while they're damning the latest pop icon with faint praise. Critics tend to shun the sort of "lowest common denominator" rock far too frequently cranked out by the labels in favor of more esoteric work.

The funny thing about "Art," though, is that it tends to sneak up and bite you on the ass. Yesterday's artistic obscurity is tomorrow's influence, and the seldom-heard and often under appreciated work of folks like Alex Chilton, Syd Barrett, Robyn Hitchcock, et al will be a part of that next Top Forty sensation. The critic's job is to discover and recognize the quiet genius of the aforementioned and let you know how woefully "unhip" you are since you obviously passed on buying their records in favor of the new U2 or Van Halen sets...which brings us, in a somewhat roundabout way, to Robert Pollard, Guided By Voices and Bee Thousand.

Pollard is one of those rare finds in rock & roll, a completely innocent and unjaded thirty-something school teacher toiling away in an artistic netherland in his spare time. Bee Thousand is a visionary work; absent is the simpleminded posturing and preening evident on even the most sincere "alternative" release. There are twenty songs crammed into a thirty-six minute space, reminiscent of the Minutemen in their economy and scope. Whereas D. Boon created from the viewpoint of a punk aesthetic, Pollard wraps his work around some forty years of rock & roll history.

Musically, Bee Thousand offers scraps of British and American pop, discordant punk, spacey guitar riffs and quick thrusts of a dozen different sharp-edged influences. Pollard's lyrics are sheer poetry, often times oblique, literary gems hidden beneath the mix. Many of the songs here consist of nothing but a single verse wrapped around sparse instrumentation and, I'll admit, that I often times haven't a clue what Pollard is singing about. A few mental gymnastics under the headphones have assigned meaning to a number of songs, but most remain a mystery.

Is it the critic's lot to deify that which we don't really understand? Sometimes, perhaps, but the main weapon in the critical toolbox is the ability to recognize that something is going on in a song, that the artist is doing something important and extraordinary. With Bee Thousand, Guided By Voices has used a familiar musical language to expand the barriers of thought and expression in rock lyricism. Although they may never rise above their currently-growing status as "critic's darlings," the influence of what Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices are doing today will be felt in the years to come. (Scat Records/Matador)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Bee Thousand from Amazon.com)

Killing Joke - Pandemonium (1994)

Arguably one of the most influential bands of the past twenty years, London's Killing Joke is nevertheless the most obscure bunch of musical geniuses that you've never heard of. Chances are, you've heard the work of the children these gray-beards stylistically fathered, with bands like Nine Inch Nails, Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine and Ministry all owing Killing Joke a debt of creative gratitude. Their ground-breaking hybrid of socio-political rage, technological overkill, industrial nihilism and white noise was delivered via a handful of classic early-80s albums that would shape much of what would be created in the genres of punk, heavy metal and industrial music throughout the ensuing decade.

With Pandemonium, the band strips down to its original founding trio, buffing up its musical muscles and delivering an hour of unrelenting noise, fury and thought. Killing Joke has always been an ideological bunch of cynics, eschewing the depressing, suicidal aura surrounding much of Britain's rock scene in favor of a realistic and hopeful vision of the world they find collapsing around them. Against a musical backdrop so heavy that it'll send even the most jaded headbanger into a fit of manic glee, Killing Joke approaches the coming millennium with an almost metaphysical view, even sojourning to Egypt to record portions of Pandemonium in the King Chamber of the Great Pyramid.

The band's collective experience of the past few years pays off with an expanded sense of creativity and lyricism, Pandemonium adding disparate strains of Middle Eastern and Asian culture to its blend of white light/white heat. The resulting effort lives up to the band's heady legacy, even while it builds upon a bright new future for Killing Joke. (Zoo Entertainment)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Pandemonium from Amazon.com)

Bunny Wailer - Crucial! Roots Classics (1994)

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Jamaica, there was a musical trio who, by coming together and recording a handful of albums, forever changed the face of popular music. The trio's artistic influence was worldwide, their popularity cutting across boundaries of race, religion or heritage to reach an international audience. Their message of peace and love, and their never-ending battle against oppression endowed them with a near-mythical status. The tragic youthful deaths of two-thirds of the trio, including the band's charismatic leader, forever sealed their place in history.

That band was the Wailers, the trio – Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer – whose impact on rock and reggae music is incalculable. As the only surviving member of the important threesome, Bunny Wailer has been lost to the obscurity of legend. This is unfortunate, considering that Wailer has sporadically released some classic reggae gems during the past decade and a half, albums like Blackheart Man and Roots, Radics, Rockers, Reggae, released on small indie labels. Crucial! Roots Classics collects material from through this fifteen year period, all unreleased songs that showcase Wailer's talents not only as a tunesmith, but as a socially-conscious and extremely spiritual poet, as well.

A devout Rastafarian, Wailer's lyrics often espouse a world view shaped by that benevolent philosophy, mixing in political commentary that serves as a musical call to arms. Reggae has long been a populist art form, bowing to no certain ideology. An example would be Togawar Game, a thinly-veiled damnation of corrupt organized politics, about which Wailer says "I don't deal with the left or right...one day the rope is going to burst and both sides are going to fall. We are Rastas, neither left or right. We stand for the people."

Other cuts such as Old Dragon, the Wailers' traditional show-opener that casts down the proverbial serpent of evil with its energy and emotion, or the angry relevance of Innocent Blame, Peace Talks or Trouble On The Road Again illustrate the struggle of the average Jamaican in the face of the island's cultural and political oppression. Crucial! Roots Classics is a powerful collection, the creation of a still-important artist deserving of a much wider hearing. (Shanachie Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Crucial! Roots Classics from Amazon.com)

Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour (1999)

As recounted in our reverent review of his seminal BBC Sessions set, Rory Gallagher was a hell of a guitarist, a gifted artist with one foot in rock & roll and the other solidly in the blues. As a handful of legitimate live albums and dozens of bootlegs would attest to, Gallagher was at his best when on stage. This Buddha Records reissue of Irish Tour showcases the artist at the top of his game, a six-string guitarslinger without peer who could tear off blistering riffs and crunching chords with lightning fast ability, a powerful showman holding the audience in the palm of his hand.

The performances on Irish Tour were taken from shows done in Belfast, Dublin and Cork during January 1974. Gallagher was an Irish homeboy who had made good, a star of significant drawing power throughout the European continent. Because of the violence and chaos in Northern Ireland, however, most artists refused to play the region, leaving audiences starved for rock & roll. In this environment, Gallagher came home, causing everybody to forget their differences for a while. Consisting mostly of familiar songs drawn from previous Gallagher studio albums, Irish Tour nonetheless offers up a handful of inspired covers alongside the scorching originals.

Among the highlights of Irish Tour's ten tracks are a soulful cover of Muddy Water's I Wonder Who, which includes some sparse tho' well-placed guitar licks, and a simply unbelievable rendition of the crowd favorite Tattoo'd Lady that showcases Gallagher's considerable six-string skills alongside some tasty keyboards from Lou Martin. A funky, down-and-dirty cover of J.B. Hutto's Too Much Alcohol will knock you on your ass every bit as quick as a pint of Old Crow whiskey. With flaming keyboards behind him, Gallagher knocks out a firey, hard rocking version of Walk On Hot Coals that includes an extended instrumental jam while Back On My Stompin' Ground is a cajun-fried slab of Southern-styled funk that is razor sharp and sonically dense as a bayou fog.

Gallagher would go on from this performance high to play hundreds of shows and record dozens of albums during a career that stretched across a quarter-century. Although he always delivered the goods on stage, never again would he play with such feeling and fire in a series of performances that would mean so much as those captured by Irish Tour. With a talent the equal, not less than contemporaries like Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton, Rory Gallagher was a true rock & roll treasure. (Buddha Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Irish Tour from Amazon.com)

Rory Gallagher - BBC Sessions (1999)

He never played with one of John Mayall's legendary bands, nor did he go through the revolving door that was the Yardbirds' lead guitar slot. He's a contemporary of folks like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck – the holy trinity of British blues guitarists – but has never enjoyed the kind of semi-legendary status conveyed upon those three artists. Much like Gary Moore, another fine axeman, guitarist Rory Gallagher has attracted a cult following; unlike Moore, who is still alive and well, Gallagher's death seemed to doom the blues guitarist to rock & roll obscurity.

Thanks to the folks at the brand new Buddha Records, however, Gallagher's fate may not be quite so bad. An ambitious reissue and rediscovery program by the ressurected label is placing Gallagher's musical legacy back on the street, where it belongs. The label reissued Gallagher's self-titled first solo album and Deuce, his second effort – both on CD for the first time domestically – about a month or so ago. Buddha seems to be buying up Gallagher's work from other labels, as well, suggesting a champion somewhere in the corporate ranks, and rumor has it that we'll be seeing reissues of Irish Tour '74 and the underrated Photo Finish on compact disc sometime soon.

Perhaps Buddha's greatest coup, however, is the recently released BBC Sessions, a two-disc collection of live performances and radio broadcasts that serves as an excellent place for the uninitiated to become familiar with Gallagher's talents. Following hot on the heels of BBC collections from Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix and preceding an upcoming release from the Who, Gallagher is among heady company, as well he should be. British union rules required BBC
radio to broadcast a certain amount of live music each day, which led to a number of different programs that featured live performances from local venues around London, as well as in-studio appearances from various popular performers. The BBC has hundreds of hours of this stuff, covering almost every British artist of note and more than a few American talents, as well. Realizing the treasure trove of recordings in their hands, the BBC has begun to cash in on their
archives, much to the delight of music lovers everywhere.

The Irish-born Gallagher grew up listening to these BBC broadcasts, and made his first appearance on those airwaves in 1968. Gallagher's first breakthrough came with Taste, a blues-oriented power trio much like Cream, and his work with that band caught the ears of European audiences. As a solo artist, Gallagher toured relentlessly, both across Europe and the United States. It was his BBC appearances, however, which helped support this touring, Gallagher's scorching six-string work reaching out across the airwaves and making converts out of listeners across the globe. Gallagher did a lot of work on the BBC – his brother's liner notes to BBC Sessions says that they had to work their way through 10 hours of tapes to compile this set – and if the material here is representative, he never disappointed.

The BBC Sessions set is divided into two parts. The first disc is a collection of performances that were broadcast on a program called In Concert and were caught live in clubs like the Hippodrome, the Paris Theatre and the Hammersmith Odeon. Most of these ten cuts are taken from 1977-79, a period that many consider to be Gallagher's golden age. A lone cut from 1973, the traditional blues number What In The World, serves mostly as a foreshadowing of Gallagher's still maturing talents. There are many great performances caught here, including the rollicking Country Mile and the fluid Calling Card, one of Gallagher's signature tunes. Got My Mojo Working is an electric boogie while Gallagher's original Used To Be showcases some red-hot playing beneath the artist's growling vocals.

The second disc here is comprised of live studio broadcasts and, with the producers casting a wider net, features performances that range in age from 1971 to 1986, with an emphasis on the mid-70s era Gallagher. If the first disc shows Gallagher's energy and skill in a live setting, the material performed in the studio on disc two showcases the deliberate and complex side of Gallagher's talents. Again mixing scattered originals with inspired covers and custom arrangements of traditional blues numbers, these studio performances provide a more complete look at Gallagher's evolution as a guitarist. A couple of more familiar tunes dominate the side: the haunting live staple Daughter Of The Everglades and Seventh Son Of 7th Son, which sounds as close to authentic Delta blues as any Irishman is every going to get, but there's plenty of solid performances to choose from.

A mesmerizing guitarist and charismatic performer, Gallagher was capable of both great subtlety and outrageous bluster in his playing. A hard-working performer who toured to the point of exhaustion, Gallagher often cranked out studio albums – especially in his later years – that balanced mediocrity with brilliance, hiding a truly magical performance or two among the musical chaff. His better tunes usually made it into his live set, and it's indeed his live albums, of which he made several, upon which his legacy is built. Gallagher deserves more respect than he's received. With twenty-five years under his belt, he literally died from too much living. He left behind a lot of great music, however, and thanks to Buddha we'll get to hear some of it again. Gallagher had a talent every bit as great as Clapton, Page or Stevie Ray and, as such, is quite worthy of rediscovering. (Buddha Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy BBC Sessions from Amazon.com)

Jimi Hendrix - Experience Hendrix, The Best Of Jimi Hendrix (1998)

In their efforts to clean up the legendary artist's catalog during the past couple of years, the family of Jimi Hendrix has worked with former Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer to remix and restore classic Hendrix albums like Are You Experienced and Electric Ladyland. In many instances, previous reissues of Hendrix on CD were taken from low-generation tapes rather than the original masters. In digging around dusty tape vaults and studio closets, Experience Hendrix – the company run by the artist's father and stepsister that won back the rights to the Hendrix legacy – discovered previously unknown tapes, uncovered numerous abuses and revealed all sorts of horror stories about the state of the rock legend's great body of work.

With the release of Experience Hendrix, The Best Of Jimi Hendrix, the family has finally compiled a definitive "best of" disc for Jimi. Replacing the original MCA release The Ultimate Hendrix, this twenty-track disc covers the entire scope of the artist's all-too-brief career. Signature Hendrix songs like Purple Haze, Fire, Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and Foxey Lady are all here, as well as lesser-known classics like Castles Made Of Sand, Red House and Angel, from the restored First Rays Of The New Rising Sun LP. Jimi's incredible rendition of the Star Spangled Banner from the original 1969 Woodstock Festival closes the collection.

The set also includes numerous previously unpublished photos of Hendrix and extensive song-by-song notes by rock historian and Hendrix authority John McDermott. For those who don't understand the artist's importance and influence on rock & roll, Experience Hendrix is a perfect introduction. Jimi Hendrix redefined the role of the guitar in popular music, mixing elements of the blues, R&B, roots rock and improvisational jazz to give birth to an entirely new perspective on rock music. Coaxing previously unheard and alien sounds and tones out of his guitar, Hendrix opened the door for every six-string wizard to follow. Every single one of them – from Eddie Van Halen, Warren Haynes and Johnny Lang to the late Duane Allman and Stevie Ray Vaughan – owe a debt of gratitude to the pioneering work Hendrix did during a few short years in the late-60s.

If you're unfamiliar with Jimi, or know him only by reputation, then by all means "Experience Hendrix" with this set. Then go out and buy the rest of the Hendrix catalog. You'll hear some of the best music that rock & roll has to offer, songs that sound as refreshing and amazing today as they did some thirty years ago. (MCA Records)

(Click on the CD cover to by Experience Hendrix from Amazon.com)

John Mayall & Bluesbreakers - Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton (2001)

It's hard to believe by listening to the sort of watered-down pap that Eric Clapton has cranked out the past few years, but at one time the "King of all Guitar Gods" played with great style, passion and ingenuity. Look no further than Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton to find documentation of the artist's early six-string prowess. Clapton first made a splash on the collective rock consciousness while handling the heavy axework for the Yardbirds. Although not the first posse of British dandies to get their hands dirty in the blues, the Yardbirds were one of those who did it best, and Clapton's early contributions went a long way towards establishing that band's reputation. Clapton left the Yardbirds in 1965, beginning a lengthy artistic journey that would inevitably lead him to becoming the corporate shill that he is today.

First stop on the evolutionary express for the youthful Clapton was with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, one of England's best-known traditional blues outfits. Luring Clapton away from the Yardbirds was a major coup for bandleader Mayall. Getting the guitar wizard into the studio to record Mayall's third album resulted in what may well be the best British blues romp to find its way onto tape. Clapton is allowed to stretch out on a set of blues and R&B standards such as Ray Charles' What'd I Say, Freddie King's Hideaway, the Otis Rush hit All Your Love and the blues classic Parchman Farm. Choice Mayall originals compliment the covers on Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton, especially the Mayall/Clapton co-written Double Crossing Time, which features an incredible Clapton solo that sounds like it descended straight from Maxwell Street in Chicago. Clapton even makes his debut as a vocalist, offering a fine rendition of Robert Johnson's Ramblin' On My Mind.

Throughout Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton, the guitar star's axework is first rate, his playing fluid and innovative. Backed by a solid rhythm section that included future Fleetwood Mac namesake John McVie on bass and drummer Hughie Flint (who would go on to play on several Clapton solo elpees), Clapton had the necessary support to let his imagination fly. Mayall was a strict bandleader, demanding a lot from his players but here he lets Clapton become the superstar he had the potential to be. Clapton would leave Mayall's outfit after Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton to form Cream and achieve international stardom. Mayall would run through a thousand and one band members during the next 35 years, discovering such talents as Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac) and Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones) along the way.

Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton would reach the British top ten and became one of the biggest albums of 1966 in the U.K. The album remains a cult favorite in the United States, where Clapton is better known for his subsequent work with Cream and Derek and the Dominoes as well as a three-and-a-half-decade string of solo albums. While rock & roll fanboys continue to genuflect at the mention of the Yardbirds name, worshipping the trio of guitar gods that legendary band would produce (Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page), John Mayall's Bluesbreakers are unfairly consigned to a lesser place in history. A spin or two of Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton shows what the fuss was all about in the first place, placing the album among the greatest blues-rock efforts that the genre has produced. (Polydor Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton from Amazon.com)