Released in August 2019 in conjunction with the 90th Anniversary celebration of the Johnson City sessions, 'Tell It To Me: Revisiting the Johnson City Sessions, 1928-1929' is intended to demonstrate what music historian Ed Ward meant when he tweeted 'Johnson City Sessions: Lots more fun than the Bristol Sessions. Fewer stars, more insight into a vanished world.' Intended to distill onto a single CD the groundbreaking research found on Bear Family Records' award-winning 4-CD boxed set, The Johnson City Sessions: Can You Sing or Play Old-Time Music?' (BCD 16083), released in 2013, 'Tell It To Me' offers 25 essential highlights from Columbia Records' historically significant location recording sessions in Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1928 and 1929 recording sessions in Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1928 and 1929.. Featuring 25 recordings by 25 different musical acts that were active in the late 1920s, 'Tell It To Me' presents a diverse and dynamic overview of Appalachia's vernacular music at the cusp of the Great Depression. While representing a range of genres and styles and showcasing both secular and sacred material, this album is thematically unified by the fact that all of the tracks hail from commercial location recording sessions held by Columbia Records in Johnson City, Tennessee, during successive Octobers in 1928 and 1929. With precisely 25% of the released sides from those two Johnson City recording forays, 'Tell It To Me' documents timeless performances from the 1928-1929 sessions and bolsters recent assertions by discerning aficionados of 78 RPM records that those sessions generated a particularly memorable canon of historical recordings.

Roy Milton - Rocks / A brimful CD compilation dedicated to the important R&B pioneer Roy Milton in the continuously updated 'Rocks' series on Bear Family Records�. -Milton is considered one of the originators of the jump blues genre on the U.S. West Coast. -The album features his rockin'est, fast numbers recorded with his great band between 1946 and '63 for such record labels as Specialty, DooTone, King, Warwick, Cenco and Thunderbird. -Musical highlights include Red Light, Milton's Boogie, Hop, Skip And Jump, Junior Jives, You Got Me Reeling And Rocking and Rocking Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu. -His 1955 Specialty single What Can I Do is reissued here for the first time on CD. -Johnny 'Junior' Rogers, Roy Gaines and Roy Montrell are three of the outstanding guitarists. -Expertly narrated by Bill Dahl, plus lots of photos and illustrations in the substantial booklet and recordings carefully remastered for this edition. Any comprehensive list of postwar rhythm and blues pioneers has to position Roy Milton and his band, The Solid Senders, right near it's top. The Los Angeles-based Milton was a rock-solid drummer whose rich, full-bodied vocals were perfect for the swinging stormers that comprise Bear Family's 'Roy Milton Rocks.' His combo, anchored by Camille Howard's rippling boogie piano and accentuated by a punchy small horn section (and as time went by, Johnny 'Junior' Rogers' dazzling guitar work), helped define the jump blues genre, which in turn provided an indelible blueprint for the first wave of rock and roll. This compilation spans the band's incredible career from their early days of recording in L.A. with the madly jumping Red Light to their hitmaking heyday on Specialty Records (Milton's Boogie, Hop, Skip, And Jump, Oh Babe!, and the jaw-dropping Rogers-led instrumentals Junior Jives and Junior Jumps are among the highlights) through his mid-'50s hookups with DooTone, a.m.o.

Vinyl LP pressing. Whenever it's time to wait for Santa, decorate the tree or get together at Christmas parties: You can be sure that Bear Family puts together the perfect soundtrack for the holiday season every year. Our 2024 Christmas compilation focuses exclusively on classic blues and R&B material and is available in two formats to ensure everyone gets their money's worth. The vinyl album delivers fourteen festive songs ranging from favorites like Clyde McPhatter's Drifters, B.B. King and Charles Brown to obscure highlights from the Jackson Trio, blues guitarist Ralph Willis and Bay Area keyboardist Lonnie Hewitt, whose You've Been A Bad Little Girl is a Christmas revelation. The ultimate gift. When the record is placed under the Christmas tree, every R&B fan will be delighted.

The Blues - the iconic music that changed everything! Memphis - the iconic city where it happened! And now - the Memphis Blues Box from Bear Family Records� - the best of the best from the best! -An incredible 534 individual tracks on 20 CDs packed into an LP-sized box - total weight almost 10lbs. -Memphis recordings from 1914 to 1969 featuring musicians from the city and region. -Introduction by blues harmonica star and Grammy� winner Charlie Musselwhite. -Biographies of every performer, many newly researched; notes about every song and recording, index and track listing. -Many unseen photographs -Produced and part-written by Martin Hawkins This magnificent new 20-CD boxed set with it's 534 tracks and an accompanying 360-page book traces the blues as recorded in Memphis and by Memphis-area musicians and singers. Starting a hundred years ago with W.C. Handy's tune Memphis Blues, this set includes classic blues, jug band blues and itinerant blues from the 1920s and '30s, the R&B bands and small combos of the 1940s and '50s, and the tougher blues styles recorded up to the close of the 1960s. The box presents the recorded Memphis Blues as defined by the performers and their recording companies during the years 1914 to 1969 - the period when blues in it's various forms was issued on single discs, 78 rpm and then 45 rpm, for consumption largely by the original audience - the people who listened on street corners, in juke joints, at local house parties, or in the bars, night clubs and theatres of Memphis. The box focuses on how each disc sat within the evolving picture, either contributing something new, reinforcing trends of the moment, or harking back to tradition. At least one side of every relevant 78 or 45 rpm disc issued during the period is included, showing off the Memphis blues as it was offered year on year by artists and record companies.

Highly enjoyable Christmas CD with a total of 28 great tunes, favorites of the Bear Family Records� team. -Black music from the golden age of rhythm 'n' blues and blues, a balanced mix of well-known and obscure recordings. -Notes and biographical details from Chicago's Bill Dahl on each song in the illustrated, full-color booklet. -Carefully remastered original recordings in Bear Family's trademark brilliant sound quality. -Also available as a vinyl LP: BAF18075 Whenever it's time for Santa Claus, tree trimming, and holiday celebrations, you can safely anticipate Bear Family assembling the perfect Yuletide soundtrack. Our 2024 holiday compilation focuses solely on vintage blues and R&B material, and it comes in two formats to please everyone. The vinyl version offers 14 festive tracks ranging from beloved classics from Clyde McPhatter's Drifters, B.B. King and Charles Brown to obscure gems by The Jackson Trio, blues guitarist Ralph Willis and Bay Area keyboardist Lonnie Hewitt, whose You've Been A Bad Little Girl is a Yuletide revelation. The CD collection adds 14 more holiday gems, including both sides of The Voices' jumping 1955 single (Santa Claus Boogie b/w Santa Claus Baby), John Greer's jolly We Wanna See Santa Do The Mambo, and Big Maybelle's spine-chilling rendition of the timeless Silent Night. This is the ultimate stocking stuffer that any dedicated R&B fan will be overjoyed to find under her or his Christmas tree.

In his lifetime, Memphis Slim was probably the best-known blues singer in the world, moving from Memphis to Chicago and finally to Paris in the early 1960s. But it's no exaggeration to say that Memphis Slim could rock with the best of them - and this CD is here to prove it!-Memphis Slim was born Peter Chatman in Memphis in 1915.

-Second album with more great recordings from the earliest sessions (1951 and 1952) featuring Chester Burnett aka The Howlin' Wolf. -The recordings were made by Sam Phillips at his Memphis Recording Service. -At the time, these recordings remained unreleased! -These masters and alternate versions were discovered decades later. -Howlin' Wolf is one of the giants of the blues with his hard electric blues style and his unique voice that is just bursting with power. -Guitarist Willie Johnson - one of the first to get such brutal sounds out of an amp in the blues... luckily the amp barely survived those sessions. -Digitally copied from the original sources and currently remastered for the vinyl edition using state-of-the-art studio technology: both 10" albums sound fantastic! -The liner notes and discographical details in the illustrated booklet are by British blues expert and music historian Martin Hawkins. -Also available: 'Boy, You Got The Blues There!' (BAF14031) with another 10 originally unreleased early Memphis recordings. This and the recently released 10" vinyl LP 'Boy You Got The Blues There!' (BAF14031) provide radically remastered early recordings that already reflect the later Chicago blues style of one of the most important exponents of the blues ever! Captured between May 1951 and early 1953 at the Memphis Recording Service by producer and engineer Sam Phillips, these very first recordings of Chester Burnett aka The Howlin' Wolf were made when the singer, guitarist and harmonica player was already over forty years old. A true Methuselah among fellow bluesmen, his modest reputation at the time was an insignificant local radio show across the Mississippi River at KWEM in West Memphis. It was Sam Phillips who first saw the man's potential. He had never heard a voice like that, that power, that manliness. That very spring of 1951, Phillips sold his Wolf recordings to Chess Records in Chicago.

Studio recordings, most of which had been posthumously released on now long deleted CDs on the small Watch Dog label. Including a previously unreleased recording with Luke 'Long Gone' Miles. Compiled by producer and harmonica player Bob Corritore, who also wrote the liner notes. Carefully remastered by Tom Meyer and pressed by Optimal media, 180-gram edition in a gatefold sleeve, limited to 1.000 copies After some tough early years in which he managed to stay afloat with mostly poorly paid gigs in small clubs and only occasionally came out of Los Angeles or Southern California, William Clarke (March 21, 1951 - November 2, 1996) signed with the famous Alligator Records label. With his debut album 'Blowin' Like Hell' for the Chicago blues factory, the West Coast's blues secret became an endlessly touring international star of the scene! With 'Heavy Hittin' West Coast Harp' we pay tribute and respect to one of the greatest harmonica stylists. As an instrumentalist William Clarke was strongly influenced by George 'Harmonica' Smith, a Chicago contemporary of Little Walter and Walter Horton. Smith came to Los Angeles for a recording session in 1956 and settled on the West Coast. Similar to his iconic idol Smith, from whom he learned a lot of tricks in countless joint appearances, Clarke was equally at home on the cross harmonica as on the chromatic. The combination of Chicago-style harmonica and the cool groove and swing of West Coast blues and jazz met the open ears of blues fans all over the world. On his first album 'Hittin' Heavy' he is accompanied by Hollywood Fats on guitar, later recording sessions include Ronnie Earl, Junior Watson, Rick Holmstrom and Alex Schultz a.m.o. Bob Corritore, for many years a prolific blues musician and first-class harp player, producer and influencer, has compiled this album and written the liner notes for Bear Family.

2020 collection. On this very personal selection - mostly up-tempo numbers and brilliantly arranged pop - you will find rarities and greatest hits. Among them her smash hits 'What A Diff'rence A Day Made' (she sang makes instead of made), 'September In The Rain', 'Mad About The Boy' as well as the two duets with Brook Benton: 'A Rockin' Good Way' and 'Baby (You Got What It Takes)'! Rarities such as the hard-to-find Mercury single 'Honky Tonky', which was released in 1958 under the pseudonym The Queen, are also included With this Juke Box Pearls edition from the great Dinah Washington we are erecting a small but fine memorial. This compilation of 29 songs does not follow a chronological order, but it outlines the great career of the artist, who died far too early.

Blues expert Martin Hawkins tells the story of local blues singers and players that got onto records. The story goes beyond the Excello sound and the music of Lightnin' Slim, Slim Harpo, and also features folk music by Willie B. Thomas, Robert Pete Williams and others. A detailed introduction to the topic and artist biographies for each individual performer can be found in the extensive 52-page illustrated booklet. The recordings have been carefully remastered for this edition. Limited edition of 1,000 copies worldwide! These two CDs contain a more or less chronological taster of the blues from Baton Rouge, one of the several cities alongside the mighty Mississippi that has been thought of or thinks of itself as a blues town. Like New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis and some smaller places, Baton Rouge's local blues players made a big contribution to the recorded legacy of the blues. We really don't know what the blue sound of Baton Rouge was before about 1954, when it's first bluesman was recorded, and by the 1970s the blues as current, recorded, black music was dying out, melding with R&B and the sounds of soul. Those newer sounds were still a part of black culture and, increasingly, of white culture locally and internationally, but a different muse, a different music, a different story. We concentrate on the period between 1954 and 1971, featuring here, together for the first time, those Baton Rouge singers and players who got onto records, one way or another. Some were aspiring professionals aiming for the stars, or at least for a local juke box spin, while others were local 'folk' performers plucked from their everyday life to sing for the man with the remote tape machine and a microphone.