The Daily Chat

A chatbox where we can post comments and have discussions on artists & songs. However, if you just want to say thank you for a particular post then please continue using the usual comment box located below each post.

Lots of great tracks for your listening pleasure this weekend. Assorted Recordings - Blues, R&B, Soul & Gospel Volume 65 (1949-1997) kicks off with the The Meditation Singers "Good Old Gospel Music", I just love this wonderful funky track (that's The Meditation Singers featured on the cover). Then two of my most favorite early John Lee Hooker recordings, 1953's "Stuttering Blues" - this is the real lowdown gutsy blues that JLH's reputation was built upon, and 1961's "Don't Turn Me From Your Door", a track covered by UK blues band Savoy Brown in 1969, and subsequently became a favorite of many of the early 70s blues bands. Lots more fine artists follow: Bettye Lavette, Peggy Scott, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Johnny Adams, Albert Washington and a few others. Also a rare early track from Big Bill Broonzy & His Fat Four "I Love My Whiskey" recorded in Chicago in 1949 for the Mercury label, with Bill playing electric guitar, backed by sax player Antonio Casey, pianist Carl Sharp, bass player Ransom Knowling and drummer Alfred Wallace. It's interesting to note that by this time Big Bill was a fairly polished city blues singer/musician, and early photos show him to be a sharp dresser, however when he started making overseas trips to UK and Europe in the early 1950s, for some reason Bill was put into overalls and photographed sitting on bails of hay and presented to his new audiences as some sort of singing farmer.

The Best Of Country, Pre-War & Acoustic Blues Volume 40 "Roll 'Em Pete" today focuses on early blues piano, with historical recordings by Pete Johnson, Big Maceo Merriweather, Mercy Dee Walton, St. Louis Jimmy, Leroy Carr, Roosevelt Sykes, Walter Roland, and a few other outstanding performers.

As always my friends, dig in and enjoy!