Roosevelt Sykes was a hugely popular and influential exponent of the rollicking barrel-house style of blues piano playing and composition whose core career spanned the decades spanning WWII. Recording initially under a variety of names, and finding his greatest popularity when he adopted the soubriquet 'The Honeydrippers', he recorded a substantial body of work variously for the Okeh, Decca and RCA Victor labels, which included classics of the genre like "The Honeydrippers", "Night Time Is the Right Time", "44 Blues", "Boot That Thing" and "Driving Wheel Blues". This great value 75-track 3-CD set selects material from across those key decades of his career from his earliest recordings through to the time when he began to be overtaken by the new electric blues in the late '40s. It includes solo recordings along with those as a duo with a drummer, and, in the later years, with a variety of small groups.

Despite their relatively short career together and an equally limited recording output, The Moonglows were one of the most important and influential doowop vocal groups of the 1950s, their career spanning the years of the rock 'n' roll explosion in pop as well as the time when mainstream pop artists and labels were plundering the R&B charts for potential crossover hit songs. Led by the legendary Harvey Fuqua, who went on to marry Berry Gordy's sister and became a hugely successful writer and producer at Motown, and featuring his long-time colleague Bobby Lester sharing lead vocals, they recorded initially for Alan Freed's Challenge label, before he got them a deal with Chance, and moved to Chess, with whom they scored their biggest success with R&B No. 1 Sincerely, which was covered by The McGuire Sisters to score a pop No. 1. This great-value 56-track 2-CD set comprises the A and B sides of every single they released before they parted company, their music encompassing rocking up-tempo bluesy R&B as well as smooth, immaculate ballads, with beautifully textured harmonies. It naturally features all their chart entries, including the R&B Top 10 hits Most Of All, Sincerely, We Go Together, See Saw, Please Send Me Someone To Love and The Ten Commandments of Love. It's a comprehensive trawl across a brief but significant career.

Bobby Bland, often known as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was one of the best blues, R&B and soul singers of the post-war era, recognised as one of the finest interpreters of blues-influenced songs, comparable within his genre to the likes of Frank Sinatra in the broader popular spectrum. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame described him as "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis's Beale Street blues scene". He enjoyed chart success right through until the 1980s, but this extensive collection of his formative decade and more includes all his R&B No. 1s plus other landmark recordings. He recorded initially with Roscoe Gordon for both Modern and Chess before joining the Duke label - this great-value 56-track 2-CD set comprises the A and B sides of all his Duke singles through until 1962, plus selected sides from his early releases with Roscoe Gordon. It features the R&B No. 1s "Farther Up The Road", "I Pity The Fool" and "That's The Way Love Is", plus other Top 10 classics such as "I'll Take Care Of You", "Don't Cry No More", "Turn On Your Love Light" and the iconic "Stormy Monday Blues". It's a fine showcase for a unique and highly-regarded talent.

Blues singer and harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson II performed originally during the 1930s and '40s as Aleck or Alex Miller, Rice Miller and Little Boy Blue before adopting the name of earlier blues artist Sonny Boy Williamson, born around the same time but who died in 1948 - during the 1940s they were both using the name.

Robert Nighthawk, also known during the early years of his career by the name of Robert Lee McCoy, as well as other pseudonyms like Ramblin' Bob and Peetie's Boy, was a blues slide guitarist, singer and songwriter whose influence far outweighs the recognition and visibility his recordings have enjoyed in subsequent decades. Born in Arkansas, he was an itinerant musician, working in Memphis and St. Louis, before doing his first recordings for Bluebird in 1937 in Chicago, and continued his rambling lifestyle during what was a fitful recording career over the next fifteen years. Having recorded initially for Bluebird with Sonny Boy Williamson I (the original "Sonny Boy") as Robert Lee McCoy and Ramblin' Bob, he recorded in 1940 for Decca under the name Peetie's Boy, and during the late '40s for Aristocrat and it's later guise as Chess under the name Robert Nighthawk, taking the name from the best-known title from his first sessions "Prowlin' Nighthawk". His final recordings during this era were in 1951 and '52 for the United and States labels. He was rediscovered during the '60s and enjoyed a brief revival before his death in 1967. This great-value 48-track 2-CD set comprises the main body of his significant recorded output under his own names, with noted performers like Speckled Red, Willie Dixon, Ernest Lane, Pinetop Smith and Ransom Knowling featured on his sessions, and is a showcase for the intense bottleneck style he developed as he made the transition from acoustic to electric guitar which charted the way for the likes of Elmore James and others, for whom he was a significant influence.

Francis "Scrapper" Blackwell was a blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter from South Carolina, who was primarily active during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when he did all his early recordings, but re-emerged during the folk-blues boom of the late '50s and early' 60s to make further recordings. He was very much associated with blues pianist and composer Leroy Carr, by whom he was sometimes overshadowed, but this collection mostly focuses on his work released under his own name or variations of it. This 43-track 2-CD collection comprising releases from 1928 through to 1935 on the Vocalion, Gennett, Champion, Bluebird and Decca labels as Scrapper Blackwell, Francis Blackwell and Frankie Black, including a duet tribute to Leroy Carr with pianist Dot Rice, who appears on some of his other recordings, plus all the titles from his 1960 album "Blues Before Sunrise" and selected titles from his 1961 album "Mr. Scrapper's Blues". The collection therefore looks at his career from a different standpoint from many others, highlighting his talents as a distinctive songwriter and performer on noted songs like "Kokomo Blues", "Trouble Blues" and "Hard Time Blues", but also demonstrating how his style and relevance to the blues endured across the decades.

Ray Charles was one of the most iconic and influential artists in the annals of pop as a singer, songwriter and pianist, and while he is considered one of the godfathers and great innovators of soul music, his work transcended the worlds of jazz, blues, gospel, R&B, rock 'n' roll and country and western as well. Afflicted by blindness, he turned to music in his early life, and began recording for the Swing Time label in 1949 as a member of The Maxim Trio. In a career spanning half a century, he racked up over 100 chart entries, with well over 40 coming in this seminal first quarter-century or so of his career. This excellent-value 125-track 5-CD collection comprises just about all his A & B sides released on the Swing Time, Atlantic, ABC-Paramount and Impulse labels during these years. It features all his 46 Pop, R&B and UK chart entries from this era, including the pop No. 1s "Georgia On My Mind", "Hit The Road Jack" & "I Can't Stop Loving You" and the R&B No. 1s "I've Got A Woman", "A Fool For You", "What'd I Say", "Unchain My Heart", "One Mint Julep" & "You Are My Sunshine", encompassing his time as the pillar of the Atlantic roster and the hits from his landmark albums for ABC-Paramount "Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music". It's a substantial and comprehensive overview of his chart-focused output during these years as part of a dynamic and exciting pop and R&B landscape, and a thoroughly entertaining showcase for his unique talents as singer, composer, pianist and arranger.

Every great artist has a moment when they realize who they are, Jeremiah Johnson has truly come into his own with his new release HI-FI DRIVE BY. Get ready for a high-fidelity sonic explosion that combines Johnson's master guitar work, songwriting skills and uniquely powerful vocals into ten tracks of pure brilliance. From the first track, featuring Victor Wainwright, to the third track featuring Brandon Santini, and all the way to the last note of the epic final track; HI-FI DRIVE BY delivers more hooks than fishermen's tackle box. Every song is carefully crafted with multiple layers of tasty musicianship; with new audio delights to discover every time you give this first-class release a spin.

One Of The Last Bluesmen Of His Generation: The unstoppable Little Freddie King (aka Dr. Bones) has certainly paid his dues. The past 82 years he has survived three shootings, stabbings, a near fatal bike accident that pressed his spine, a stomach ulcer doctors believed would kill him, an accidental electrocution, the hurricane that ripped New Orleans apart in 2005, and now a pandemic. On his voice you can feel the trials of life. The music inside is the dose of Blues Medicine that kept him going. King is a country-style blues musician, links to an era when live music poured from the back-of-town nightclubs that were ubiquitous throughout New Orleans' African-American neighborhoods, fostering a musical subculture of downhome Mississippi blues that developed from the ground up in New Orleans. Little Freddie King is an artist who is among the last of his kind. This album proves it.

In the Chicago Blues piano tradition, each player developed his own personal style, from Jimmy Yancey to Albert Ammons. Erwin Helfer's style and his compositions are his own. His playing and personality are honest, straightforward, and committed to strong personal connections, on the bandstand and off. On Erwin Helfer Way, Helfer plays solo, and he is also joined by some of his closest collaborators including Barrelhouse Chuck, John Brumbach, William Bugs Cochran, Lou Marini, and Skinny Williams. This disc is another masterpiece by Helfer, who is the last living link to the Yancy's.

Erwin Helfer follows up his 2003 W.C. Handy nominated solo recording I'm Not Hungry But I Like To Eat - Blues! With a trio on Careless Love, a diverse collection of blues, boogie, and jazz piano. Helfer has been an integral part of blues piano history for the past fifty years, and he is the last living link to the Yancey's legacy of Chicago blues and boogie piano. On this disc Erwin plays Mama Yancey's signature piece 'Make Me A Pallet On The Floor'; an original composition 'Paris But I Don't Know Why' which sounds like a classical etude, but also has a spunky barrelhouse flavor; jazz standards like 'Sunny Side of the Street' and 'All of Me' which jump off the keys; and the calypso-tinged 'Jambalaya'. Erwin has been an integral part of blues piano history for the past fifty years. As a teenager, he broke racial barriers, socializing and playing with Billie and DeDe Pierce, leaders of the first Dixieland jazz band at Preservation Hall in New Orleans. He 'rediscovered' Cripple Clarence Lofton (famous for recording 'The Fives'), and brought his music to the attention of others. In 1956, he made the only recordings of house rent party pianist Doug Suggs and also recorded Speckled Red, Billie Pierce, and James Robinson (on the LP entitled Primitive Piano for his Tone Records and subsequently reissued by The Sirens Records SR-5005). In the 1970's and 1980's Erwin toured and played with Chicago blues musicians, such as drummer S.P. Leary (who recorded with blues pioneers on Chess Records), and the great vocalist Estelle 'Mama' Yancey (wife of the 'Father of Chicago Blues Piano' Jimmy 'Papa' Yancey). Erwin Helfer has four other recordings on The Sirens Records: I'm Not Hungry - But I Like To Eat Blues! (5001), St. James Infirmary with Skinny Williams (5006), Heavy Timbre - Chicago Boogie Piano with Sunnyland Slim, Blind John Davis, Willie Mabon, and Jimmy Walker (5002), and 8 Hands on 88 Keys with Barrelhouse Chuck, Detroit Junior, and Pinetop Perkins (5003).

JOHN LEE HOOKER - BURNIN (60th ANNIVERSARY) - This expanded 60th anniversary edition of John Lee Hooker's electrifying blues classic, Burnin', offers both stereo and newly mixed mono versions of the album. Audio has been remastered from the original analog tapes. The tracklist features the King of the Boogie's signature hit, "Boom Boom," plus a previously unreleased alternate take of "Thelma," captured during Hooker's 1961 session. Includes new liner notes by the GRAMMY®-nominated music historian, Bill Dahl, offered in an 8-page poster booklet.

Muddy Waters - Hollywood Blues Summit 1971 - A 1971 performance from Muddy Waters from one of the most important singer-songwriter/guitarists of the post-modern blues era - Rock and roll hall of fame inductee Muddy Waters is one of the most important singer-songwriter/guitarists of the post-modern blues era. His early 1960s touring of the UK inspired many British musicians including the Rolling Stones that took their name from his classic song, "Rollin' Stone". Over the '60s into the early 1970s Waters became an international force performing on various bills and artist pairings on club, concert hall and festival stages. This eight-song never before released set was recorded at the legendary Ash Grove club in Los Angeles over the Blue Summit weekend (with Freddie King and Lightnin' Hopkins) over July 27-August 1, 1971. The show was recorded not long before his infamous London sessions recordings. That album was one of his six Grammy winning Traditional Folk recordings throughout the '70s.

Born in Mississippi in 1932, Herman "Junior" Parker moved with his family to Memphis in the '40s and grew up surrounded by the blues, learning harmonica and being mentored by the great Sonny Boy Williamson. He toured with Howlin' Wolf and then with B.B. King and Bobby Bland in The Beale Streeters before forming The Blue Flames, and being spotted by Ike Turner, who recorded him for Modern Records. He signed to Sam Phillips' Sun Records, before moving to the Duke label. He had developed what one critic called a "honeyed, velvet-smooth" voice, and as another writer said, "deserted downhome harmonica blues for uptown blues-soul music", having ten R&B and pop hits during the '50s and into the 1960s. This 50-track 2-CD set comprises all the A & B sides he released on the Modern, Sun and Duke labels in this era, and naturally features all his hits during this key first decade of his career, when he had all his Top 20 hits. It features the Top 10 R&B entries "Feelin' Good", "Next Time You See Me", "In The Dark", "Driving Wheel" and "Annie Get Yout Yo-Yo". It also includes his original version of "Mystery Train", recorded for Sun, which Elvis Presley recorded a couple of years later. It's a fine showcase for an artist who has not generally had the attention which he merits and who was a fine songwriter, as well as a top-class and distinctive blues stylist.

James "Kokomo" Arnold was a blues singer, songwriter and left-handed slide guitarist from Georgia, who eventually landed up in Chicago where he ran a bootlegging business during the prohibition years of the 1920s. After making a record in Memphis in 1930 under the name of Gitfiddle Jim, he started playing professionally in Chicago when prohibition came to an end in 1933, and began recording for Decca after being introduced to producer Mayo Williams. He recorded regularly in Chicago from 1934 to 1937, sometimes working with pianist Peetie Wheatstraw, and wrote and recorded many songs which proved highly influential in later years. This great-value 49-track 2-CD collection comprises selected A and B sides of the 40 or so solo releases he had during his career, which we trust provides a substantial and representative cross-section of his career output, before he became disillusioned and simply gave up performing and recording when he realised how little he was making from his work. It features his most influential songs, including "Original Kokomo Blues", the song which gave him his name, and which Robert Johnson adapted as "Sweet Home Chicago", "Millk Cow Blues", which Johnson also adapted as "Milkcow Calf's Blues" and was later recorded by Elvis Presley, "Sagefield Woman Blues", which introduced the phrase "dust my broom" into blues parlance, and "Sissy Man Blues". It's a fascinating showcase for a performer who had a significant influence during his short career as a recording artist

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Lightnin' Slim (real name Otis Hicks) was born in Louisiana in 1913 and was a pioneer and first prominent exponent of the "Swamp Blues" style, coming relatively late in life to recording in his early 40s to record his best-known work during the late 1950s and early '60s, before retreating from the business until being re-discovered and brought back to performing in the early 1970s. His music became a significant influence on British artists during the '60s blues boom. Swamp blues, focused in the clubs of Baton Rouge, is a laid-back but highly rhythmic blues style, influenced by Cajun music, and which the book "Music USA: A Rough Guide" states is characterised by "eerie echo, shuffle beats, tremolo guitars, searing harmonica and sparse percussion". This great-value 46-track 2-CD set comprises all the titles which Lightnin' Slim recorded for the Feature, Ace and Excello labels during these years, including the only R&B chart hit of his career "Rooster Blues". He is accompanied on these recordings by a variety of other Louisiana musicians, most notably the harmonica player Lazy Lester. This collection offers an entertaining insight into the music of a highly individual artist as well as a distinctive strand of regional blues.

A compilation of singles released from 1953 and 1958, I'm Jimmy Reed is his debut full-length album. Initially released in 1958 on Vee-Jay Records, this album features "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby," which hit #8 on the Billboard R&B chart. Record Collector Magazine hails the album as "Arguably the first great blues album" and "testament to the thrilling talent of one of the form's most influential figures." Bluesville Acoustic Sounds Series is remastered from the original tapes.

Memphis Minnie - The Queen Of Country Blues: Selected Recordings 1929-53 Lizzie Douglas, otherwise known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, singer and songwriter from Mississippi, born in 1897, who ran away from home when she was 13 to start playing on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. She started performing with her second husband Kansas Joe McCoy and they made their first records in 1929 - she remained active as a performer and recording artist until the 1950s. She was without doubt one of the true pioneers among female country blues artists. This 99-track 4-CD collection comprises selected A and B sides from her releases on the Columbia, Vocalion, Decca, Bluebird, Okeh, Regal, Checker and J.O.B. labels covering the spectrum of her career - she recorded over 200 titles, so this set offers a representative selection. It Includes classics like "Bumble Bee", "When the Levee Breaks, "Me And My Chauffeur Blues", Nothing in Rambling" and many more. Apart from the recordings with Kansas Joe McCoy, it also features performances with Casey Bill Weldon, Little Son Joe and others. Among the blues artists of her era, she was particularly influential, not least as her career spanned a crucial quarter century in the genre. This collection offers a substantial and nicely representative showcase for her distinctive style of blues.