Blues 224 Items

Cardboard sleeve.

close to NM

close to NM

Digipack.

Pride of St. Louis Pokey LaFarge pays homage to his home city on this first single!

Still shrink wrapped but opened.

Copy close to NM. Cover signed on the back.

Digipack.

Record Store Day edition 2011.

CD comes in a soft case, instead of the original crystal case. All booklets included.

High Quality pressing in vintage silk screen sleeve. Surfing on the shores of Java and Casablanca! 2 un-expected tales from the Beat generation.Tony Turpijn and his Evergreens fulfill the dream of every pantropical music lover with a silky instrumental rhythm ’n blues take on the Sundanese love song “Es Lilin” (Ice Lolly). Link Wray meets Mulatu Astatke meets Oslan Husein in Rotterdam, 1965.

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs, close to VG+

When internally the plan came up to release a bunch of vinyl singles for Unrock’s 30th anniversary as an entity, Richard just like his brother Alan, the other keyholder of Sun City Girls legacy was among the first to take a deep look into his archives. Out came two shining pearls from different periods of his long career. Taqasim For Omar (acoustic) was recorded in Seattle in 2008. It was recorded before the Sir changed his mind and recorded the track with an all electric band again for his Freak of Araby LP.

Magrebh Blues was recorded in Tangier, 2018 when Bishop recorded Tangier Sessions in Morocco. The track came out too bluesy for what Richard wanted to show with the album, but it is the only track he played on the mysterious guitar which beautifully sounds like a magrebhinian blues. Photography by Hans van der Linden, realisation by Philip Lethen. One-time limited run on black vinyl.

Limited Edition.

Record with just a few paper scuffs.
Cover as new with slightly dented corners.

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.

By incorporating all manner of homemade instruments, jug bands were hugely popular in America during the 1920s and early 1930s. With an unparalleled vibrancy this do it yourself and often overlooked approach to music was highly influential in the history of the blues.