Blues 285 Items

As part of their 20th Anniversary celebrations, Strut present the first new volume in their pioneering ‘Nigeria 70’ series for over 8 years, bringing together rare highlife, Afro-funk and juju from the ‘70s and early ‘80s. Compiled by collector and DJ Duncan Brooker, this new selection of tracks is receiving its first international release outside of Nigeria.

The compilation returns to a fertile heyday in Nigerian music when established styles like highlife and juju became infused with elements of Western jazz, soul and funk and musicians brought a proud new message post-independence. Brooker places the spotlight particularly on some of the incredible Ukwuani musicians from the Delta State region as guitarist Rogana Ottah and Steady Arobby’s International Brothers Band forged their own fluid brand of highlife and soulman Don Bruce drew on the US R&B greats for a series of great albums and explosive stage shows at his residency at Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

Elsewhere, the album explores the close connection between Nigeria and Benin’s music, most famously through Sir Victor Uwaifo, appearing here with a killer mid‘80s ekassa jam, as well as highlife hitmaker Osayamore Joseph on ‘Obonogbozu’ (Joseph made headlines in Nigeria for very different reasons in 2017, surviving a one month kidnapping ordeal).

Other tracks include ‘Sickness’ a 1979 lament on how all countries share troubles by Prince Nico Mbarga, the Nigerian / Camerounian star behind the smash hit ‘Sweet Mother’; reggae singer Felixson Ngasia switches to funk and disco for a heavy workout with potent lyrics around black identity; another major highlife great Etubom Rex Williams unleashes a punchy psych funk gem with ‘Psychedelic Shoes’ and Africa 70 member Pax Nicholas vocals a simmering Afrobeat groove from Jacob Lee’s Saxon Lee & The Shadows International Band.

Antibalas’ new studio album, Where The Gods Are In Peace, is an epic Afro-Western Trilogy searching for solace from American political opportunism, greed and vengeance. Through its battle cry of resistance against exploitation and displacement, ANTIBALAS’ long-form compositions investigate oppression in 1800s America that eerily mirror the current state of the country. Three explosive original arrangements cultivate an urgent call to heal a broken system. Ultimately, the sonic excursion lands on an island where love is our first instinct. A new ideology is born opening our hearts to the possibilities of living as one unified people, where all gods are equal and together we prevail.

True to traditional form, Where The Gods Are In Peace pays respect to the forefathers of Afrobeat with compositions spanning nine to 15 minutes in length. With a blessing from the Fela Kuti legacy early in the band’s career, ANTIBALAS has long been revered for re-popularizing the classic Afrobeat sound while adding their distinct New York City grit to the mix. Influences of punk rock, free jazz, and hip-hop seep into their expansive works to define a truly 21st century translation of the Afrobeat genre and beyond.

Vintage Sound is the collection presenting the greatest artists with their best songs in every musical genre. This new volume is dedicated to Soul Genius. Rediscover 16 masterpieces that made the music history of Soul, including James Brown, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes with Diana Ross...

This is an in-concert recording made by Johnny Winter with Muddy Waters and James Cotton for the Boston radio station Wbcn, and recorded at the Boston Music Hall, in Boston, Massachusetts, on 26th February 1977. By 1975, Winter had grown tired of working in the rock and roll mainstream and returned to his first musical love – The Blues. Teaming up with Muddy Waters he released the album Hard Again in January 1977 with this concert following shortly after. It is a wonderful, vivid, febrile encapsulation of a Bluesman enjoying his renewed career. With harmonica hero James Cotton on board, along with the bedrock of Waters’ regular touring band, you get value-addedness to gems such Freddie King’s “Hideaway”, before Winter takes the microphone on “Blues With A Feeling”, burnishing the sound with his inimitable lead guitar sizzle. “Mannish Boy” is a gutsy delight with Waters’ laconic vocal topping off the hearty Bluesy crunch in magisterial style.

"Who am I to myself? Just one of my impressions." by F. PessoaThe new album of the Polski Piach trio is titled Anomalia (Anomaly) and is the band"s third album.After Poludnie and Pólnoc (South/Noon and North/Midnight - thematically referring to the time of day and night as well as geographical directions), the band recorded a fully acoustic album, raw but brighter than Pólnoc. The songs contain the title anomalies and are narrative, even cinematic. They flow. The music of Polski Piach is a journey, both through the listener"s imagination and musical styles.The album was recorded live in Piotr Zabrodzki"s analog studio. The music was recorded on tape and mixed in analogue way.The cover was designed by Pawel Ryzko using drawings by Patryk Zakrocki.

Iconic singer Mavis Staples is an alchemist of American music, and during her 70+ year career one of her most beloved musical mo?ments was her riveting performance in Martin Scorsese's film' The Last Waltz,' performing "The Weight" with The Band, a moment that forged a life-long friendship between her and Levon Helm. Staples came to Woodstock, NY to perform as part of Helm's re?nowned Midnight Ramble series, and the ensuing concert-available now for the first time on the rousing new Anti- Records release Carry Me Home-would mark a personal high watermark for both artists. Captured live in the summer of 2011, Carry Me Home showcases two of the past century's most iconic voices coming together in love and joy, tracing their shared roots and celebrating the enduring power of faith and music. The setlist was righteous that night, mixing vintage gospel and soul with timeless folk and blues, and the performances were loose and playful, fueled by an ecstatic atmosphere that was equal parts family reunion and tent revival. Read between the lines, though, and there's an even more poignant story at play here. Nei?ther Staples nor Helm knew that this would be their last performance together-the collection marks one of Helm's final recordings before his death-and listening back now, a little more than a decade later, tunes like "This May Be The Last Time" and "Farther Along" take on new, bittersweet meaning. The result is an album that's at once a time capsule and a memorial, a blissful homecoming and a fond farewell, a once-in-a-lifetime concert-and friendship-preserved for the ages. Staples and the night's soulful crew of backup singers handle the vast majority of the vocal work here, but it's perhaps album closer "The Weight," which features Helm chiming in with lead vocals for the first time, that stands as the concert's most emotional moment. "It never crossed my mind that it might be the last time we'd see each other," says Staples. "He was so full of life and so happy that week. He was the same old Levon I'd always known, just a beautiful spirit inside and out." "My dad built The Midnight Rambles to restore his spirit, his voice, and his livelihood," says Helm's daughter, Amy, who sang backup vocals with her father and Staples at their performance. "He'd risen back up from all that had laid him down, and to have Mavis come sing and sanctify that stage was the ultimate triumph for him."

Mississippi's Son House was already legendary for a small collection of live field recordings made by folklorist Alan Lomax in 1941 and 1942, and for having taught some important licks to both Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters before he was rediscovered by a new generation of college-age fans in 1964.
The 'Father of the Delta Blues' recorded this namesake LP for Columbia Records a year later in 1965. It's become, in the words of Living Blues magazine — »Essential recordings by one of the greatest bluesmen ever.« And now, Analogue Productions presents a reissue unmatched in sonic quality and luxury presentation. For our version we turned to Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound to remaster the recording from the original master tapes. The freshly cut lacquers were then plated and pressed on 200-gram vinyl by our own Quality Record Pressings.
Son was born Eddie James House, Jr., on March 21, 1902, in Riverton, Miss. By the age of 15, he was preaching the gospel in various Baptist churches as the family seemingly wandered from one plantation to the next. He didn't even bother picking up a guitar until he turned 25; to quote House, »I didn't like no guitar when I first heard it; oh gee, I couldn't stand a guy playin' a guitar. I didn't like none of it.« But if his ambivalence to the instrument was obvious, even more obvious was the simple fact that Son hated plantation labor even more and had developed a taste for corn whiskey. After drunkenly launching into a blues at a house frolic in Lyon, Miss., one night and picking up some coin for doing it, the die seemed to be cast; Son House may have been a preacher, but he was part of the blues world now.

A special vinyl version of Terry Carrier's 10th anniversary of his passing is now available on CD and cassette in a limited quantities. The singer-songwriter, who spun a unique style between soul, jazz, and folk with blues. Before he passed away in 2012 he recorded a series of albums (2001-2009) for Mr. Bongo in the UK in his later years. The album is a compilation of 8 selected songs including "Ordinary Joe (Live At Jazz Cafe)" from his last albums (2001-2009). Directed / Compiled by Tomoaki Nakamura (musicaänossa / Bar Music)

Released on a pink 10-inch vinyl platter, as part of the series 'Ten X Ten', here are ten tracks by the legendary Texas soul-blues singer.

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, this rare concert recording sees an official vinyl reissue, pressed on smoke effect vinyl.
The concert is notable, in that it formed part of the famous American Folk-Blues Tour, a touring music festival that played at venues across
Europe annually from 1962 to 1970. A showcase for American blues talent, Wolf’s performances in Europe added fuel to the burgeoning British Blues explosion.
Joined by a host of blues veterans including Willie Dixon, this record will form an exciting addition to the discography of any blues aficionados.

Hot vintage sex songs for your own pleasure

Back in 2015, P-vine pressed a special edition of the Fire/Enjoy singles by Elmore James as a series of 7” discs that was quickly buried by the quick turnover of new releases and were not presented to our overseas clients. As part of a recent drive to clean up the stock-room, our dusters managed to work their magic and uncover a number of copies of this release previously unknown to the overseas marketing division. Towards the end of a career cut tragically short, Elmore James recorded a string of singles between 1959 and 1963 with renowned producer Bobby Robinson under his Fire and Enjoy record labels that would eventually lend their name to this collection. Together they would capture James’s iconic take on the blues with his effortless intersections of slide guitar complementing the marching calls from his pained Blues vocals. This feast for the eyes box-set includes nine 7” discs and a Fire Records tote bag sized perfectly for carrying your favourite 7” record and not much else. A great addition for collectors of rare blues and DJs.

This is Eric Clapton's 23rd Studio album for which he teamed up with star-producer Glyn Johns once more.

Oh yeah! It’s the 1950s and sweaty night clubs and dance venues are packed with young people wanting to leave their troubles behind to the rhythm of the newest sounds from Black America. In the 1940s blues was speeded up to become Rhythm & Blues, and now it’s at its loudest, electric guitar loaded, hard drumming, harmonica wailing, screamy best. Enjoy this small compilation of tunes and let the smoky club scene of the 1950s / early 1960s bring the party to your own home. These songs that were originally issued in 7” 45 RPM singles that nowadays exchange hands for little fortunes among collectors!

Like so many other Delta blues musicians of the 1930s and 40s, rock music owes a debt of gratitude to the works of Blind Willie McTell. Considered one of the finest guitarists and vocalists of the era, noteworthy for his then unheard of usage of a 12-string guitar, artists and bands from The Allman Brothers to The White Stripes to Taj Mahal have listed the blind bluesman as a key influence. From the start of his career in 1927, McTell cut numerous singles for Victor Records, and maintained a noteworthy level of popularity in his home of Atlanta, but like many of his contemporaries, his career skidded to a halt during World War II. McTell left music during the 1950s and later passed of a brain hemmorage in 1959. Not long after his passing would come the British blues explosion, which would not only make household names of Eric Clapton and John Mayall, but spark a renewed interest in the material of classic bluesmen like McTell. It wasn't long before innumerable collections of such material came into being. 1927-1935 is one such collection, covering the beginning years of McTell's career, pre-World War II. Many of McTell's earliest recordings for Victor Records are present here, many of which were recorded with his future wife Ruth Day providing duet vocals. Songs such as "Cold Winter Day", "Razor Ball", and "Ticket Agent Blues", which famously would be covered by The White Stripes decades later.

Ike & Tina TurnerRediscover the most magnificent Soul, R&B duo of all time according to the Rolling Stones. This vinyl shocases 16 key tracks including the hits with their early recordings that created their popularity "A Fool In Love", "It's Gonna Work Out Fine", "I Idolize You", "Poor Fool", and "Tra La La La La".