Bob's Chat

At the same time as the 3 giants of British blues/rock electric guitar - Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page - were making their marks on the musical world, there were also 3 British giants of acoustic guitar - Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn - who were arguably superior musicians but never reached the same levels of international renown. All 3 of these superb acoustic guitar players have now passed away, however, fortunately, they leave behind some magnificent recordings, which I'll be presenting to you over the coming weeks as "Albums That Deserve Another Listen". For those of you who are unfamiliar with the recordings of Graham, Jansch & Renbourn you will be in for some surprises as many of their songs were inspirations and influences on many other artists, in particular Jimmy Page, and also The Rolling Stones. I remember many years ago watching a British TV show on which Bert Jansch and John Renbourn appeared and played a duet of old Elizabethan Chamber Music. This was highbrowed intricate classical guitar playing but they were throwing in bends and blues licks. It was remarkable playing and I had never heard anything like it before or since.

Here's another in the very popular Soul Party series: Volume 119 - Cities & Places Vol 04 - The Dark End Of The Street (1962-2013) today featuring James Carr, Latimore, Grace Jones, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, Dinah Washington, Chaka Khan & Rufus, and several other great people.

And Blues, R&B, Soul & Gospel Records now up to Volume 295 brings you 21 great tracks from 1952-2023. Included among the fine artists in this collection are: B.B. King, Chuck Higgins, Sugar Boy Crawford, Sista Monica Parker, Mary Taylor, Willie West, Melvin Davis, plus a few others. 

Incidentally, as I have mention before I make these compilations up in batches and then they're backed away on external HDDs waiting their turns to appear on the blog. With the "Blues, R&B, Soul & Gospel Records" series a rule of thumb is the most recent date of a track in the compilation will be the year that it was compiled. So in the case of today's "Blues, R&B, Soul & Gospel Records Vol 295" that was made up 3 years ago in 2023. Therefore, the compilations that I am putting together at the present time, now up to "Blues, R&B, Soul & Gospel Records Vol 550" probably won't get on the blog until 2030. 

Anyway my friends, dig in and enjoy.

Finally a message to Fred (finnigan49) a week ago you requested a new link for "Country, Pre-War & Acoustic Blues Vol 93". Well if you're reading this Fred I renewed that link a week ago but it still hasn't been downloaded. You'll find the new link in the comments.