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BIG MAMA THORNTON WITH THE MUDDY WATERS BLUES BAND – 1966
(Arhoolie)
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This emotionally searing set is hands down the best blues reissue of the year. Willie Mae Thornton was still at her incendiary peak, a fiercely potent singer with a voice full of gravel and guts 13 years after she’d given Elvis Presley the gift of "Hound Dog," which she’d put at the top of the R&B charts for seven weeks before he made it one of the building blocks of rock and roll. Producer and Arhoolie founder Chris Strachwitz teamed her with what was then the greatest working ensemble in blues, complete with Muddy and Sammy Lawhorn on guitars, James Cotton on harmonica, and the astounding Otis Spann on piano. Right from the pounding opener, "I’m Feeling Alright," and the soul-ripping "Sometimes I Have Heartache," this is among the clutch of albums that define the style’s first-generation electric sound. Many of the tunes, including "Everything Gonna Be Alright" and "Since I Fell for You," are Thornton’s own, but everything her voice touches turns to gold, including two takes of the Memphis Minnie classic piss-off "Black Rat." And when Cotton takes a solo, or Spann lays down a spray of notes behind a quiet passage, it’s impossible to ignore the music. Waters’s guitar and Cotton’s harmonica often sound like the same instrument, bending and blending tones. Strachwitz also recorded Thornton just right, with a patina of reverb polishing the gravel in her throat and keeping her voice in front of the formidable band.
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