Put a bunch of esteemed, talented players together in the 60’s, give them a couple of guitars, a drum kit and the ubiquitous harmonica, piano and organ and you have a solid foundation for coming up with some of the best blues music this side of the Atlantic. I won’t insult anyone’s intelligence by trying to expand on what this offers musically. Anyone buying this will know exactly what they are getting and this delivers in bundles.
And the other thing. I’m listening to this 50 years later, in some top room of a house in middle England. But it still sounds as fresh as any smoky, dingy, sweaty basement bar any of us can recall from the 60’s. How can music be so time neutral? I suspect their biggest challenge was to haul in any tendency to drift off on one, as pretty much any track on here could have run for 10 or 12 minutes without some sort of management control.
The only way this may have been better? Well, by having been born black in the South, several thousand miles away. Turn it up loud and enjoy. It’s a stunning listen.
