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BOX OF THE BLUES
(Rounder)
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Although Cambridge-based Rounder Records has reduced its work in contemporary blues over the past few years, this four-CD set documents the label’s experience in the music. Some of the first disc actually predates Rounder’s founding, drawing on recently licensed archival recordings by musicologists Alan Lomax and David Evans of such Mississippi greats as slide-guitarist Fred McDowell (with his classic "61 Highway"), Sonny Boy Williamson, and Babe Stovall with Herb Quinn (delivering "See See Rider"). But the most distinctive material recalls the days of the ’70s and ’80s when Rounder made blues history. That’s when the imprint sent the team of Delta survivors Johnny Shines and Robert Lockwood into the studio to cut gems like "Lonesome Whistle," which is released here for the first time. During that period, Rounder also built connections among New Orleans, Boston, and the world by cutting albums with the likes of Gatemouth Brown, Johnny Adams, Wolfman Washington, and Irma Thomas. Gospel and soul dynamos like Solomon Burke and Otis Clay — represented here with the almost tongue-in-cheek "Got To Get Myself Some Money" and the beautiful "I Can Take You to Heaven Tonight," respectively — caught new wind thanks to Rounder. The unvarnished blues of the Chicago taverns were preserved in albums by the slideman J.B. Hutto and former Muddy Waters sideman Luther Johnson. George Thorogood and Duke Robillard both began their solo careers during that stretch, too. And in the early ’90s, Rounder revisited the spirit of Memphis by revitalizing the careers of singers Ann Peebles and Wilson Pickett and embracing young firebrands like Little Jimmy King. All of that and more (Ruth Brown, the Holmes Brothers, Ted Hawkins, Theryl de’Clouet) is embraced by this set’s half-century-spanning 60 tunes.
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