238658923659

Chapter 19
Ten (Plus One) Must-Have
Blues Guitar Albums
In This Chapter
Differentiating between anthologies and theme-based collections
Finding the collected works of individual artists
Collecting anthologies by various artists
To acquire the original versions of classic blues records requires thousands
of dollars and to play them requires a little thing called the
turntable. But thanks to modern technology, blues recordings get recycled
and reissued more than reruns of Seinfeld, so you can pretty much find any
recording on a CD if you look hard enough — including the earliest records
from the 1920s. You can collect original records as collectors’ items, if you
like and if you have the money, but if you don’t want to break the bank and
you’re interested in hearing important blues recordings, stick with me for the
top ten recordings, which include a mix of artist-specific and genre recordings
that can enrich your listening life with the sound of the blues.
Robert Johnson: The Complete
Recordings
Columbia/Legacy, 1990. Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings is the
source for Robert Johnson’s music. The sound is completely foreign and
worlds away from the blues of, say, Eric Clapton or Robert Cray, but the
blues doesn’t get any more real than this. Robert Johnson is the blues of the
Mississippi Delta in the 1920s and ’30s, and all the blues that followed came
from here. For more info on Johnson himself, check out Chapter 11.
TEAM LinG