For the first time ever in his 30-year career Robert Cray's live performance is felt on CD on his first live album release: The Robert Cray Band LIVE FROM ACROSS THE POND. Includes 2-CDs worth of live music!

Otis Taylor has found a unique niche in the blues continuum, dubbing his music "Trance Blues". Having played professionally for 30 years in Europe and the U.S., Otis has eight releases to date. His fifth Telarc release RECAPTURING THE BANJO, focuses on the Banjo, tracing the history of the instrument to it's African origins.

Whiskey Store

Jesus Is Waiting

Speak The Lyrics To Me, Mama Reed

John Lee Hooker On Vee-Jay 1955-1958

Jukin'

A Taste Of The Blues, Vol. 1

A Taste Of The Blues, Vol. 2

2016 release from the American music icon who is credited as creating folk-funk. Porcupine Meat will further enhance the legend of this Blues Hall of Fame inductee, three-time Grammy nominee, and 10-time Blues Music Award winner. Rush, at age 82, is at the peak of his powers as a singer, songwriter, harmonica player, and entertainer. Guest guitar soloists include Keb' Mo', Joe Bonamassa, and Dave Alvin. At a time when Southern soul music is having a comeback, Bobby Rush has never gone away. Includes "I Don't Want Nobody Hanging Around," "Snake In The Grass," "Standing On Shaky Ground," "I Think Your Dress Is Too Short" and more.

Bookeroo

The Hillbilly Blues Cats

Double 180gm vinyl LP pressing. On his acclaimed 2005 Blue Note debut Canvas, pianist and composer Robert Glasper proved he had jazz chops in abundance with his acoustic trio featuring bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid, while a hip hop sub-context lay just beneath the surface in the album's skittering beats, hinting at future directions that Glasper would take on albums like the Grammy-winning Black Radio years later. The album featured special guests Mark Turner on tenor saxophone plus vocalist Bilal, and presented Glasper's signature sound on 9 original tunes as well as a nod to one of his biggest influences Herbie Hancock with a version of "Riot."

ESSENTIAL ORIGINAL ALBUMS

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Though he first recorded in the late-1940s, Dexter Gordon's Blue Note debut Doin' Allright-recorded and released in 1961-marked a rebirth for the great tenor saxophonist after a decade in which drug addiction and legal troubles limited his output. But his Blue Note years put him back on top with a run of essential albums that stand as classics of the jazz canon. Doin' Allright featured a top flight quintet with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianist Horace Parlan, bassist George Tucker, and drummer Al Harewood on a set that presented bluesy hard bop originals like "Society Red" and highlighted Gordon's stunning balladry on the standard "You've Changed."

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. On his debut album Takin' Off-recorded and released in 1962-jazz legend Herbie Hancock arrived fully formed at the helm of an impressive quintet with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, bassist Butch Warren, and drummer Billy Higgins. Though rooted firmly in hard bop, the brilliant pianist and composer presented his own strikingly original voice on this 6-song album consisting entirely of his own compositions from the funky hit "Watermelon Man" to the timeless ballad "Alone and I."

All songs written by Wilson Blount, published by Little Big Beat Musikverlag/GEMA aka Bad Love Music/BMI, except as otherwise noted. Recorded at Bessie Blue Studios in Stantonville, TN in December 2018 Additional recordings at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL

2020 release. If you know anything about Joe Bonamassa -the post-millennium's breakout bluesman/pre-eminent Anglophile - you'll know that a lifelong ambition is to blow the roof off Abbey Road. Royal Tea brings Bonamassa full circle, the backdrop of Abbey Road demanded British Blues, reconnecting with the guitar-slinging kid who stumbled across Jeff Beck Group, John Mayall, Cream, etc. In his dad's vinyl collection. Co-written by notables like Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake), Pete Brown (Cream) and Jools Holland.

Bessie Smith was not only the first significant female blues singer to emerge during the early electric recording era, but her influence and reputation is such that she is still rightly hailed as the most important and greatest female blues artist in the annals of the genre, rightly given the title "The Empress Of The Blues". Her recording career was compressed into the decade covered by this collection, her career being blighted by the Depression, although she was actively performing and expanding her audience when she was killed in a car crash in 1937. This excellent value 48-track 2-CD set is selected from the 160 recordings she made for Columbia, and does not duplicate any titles which appear on the Fabulous label's existing Bessie Smith 2-CD set "Bessie Smith Greatest Hits" (FADCD2004), and so the two together will give collectors around half of her entire recorded output, including some lesser known material alongside the famous classics. During her career, she recorded with eminent musicians of the day accompanying her and most of them are featured in this collection, including Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Clarence Williams, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden and Don Redman.

Reference Recordings proudly presents our 6th release with the outstanding, multi-Blues Music Award winner Doug MacLeod. Internationally acclaimed for his original songwriting, warm, soulful vocals, guitar wizardry and witty storytelling, Doug teamed with producer Andreas Werner and engineer Joe Funderburk in Nashville's Creative Workshop studio for "Between Somewhere and Goodbye". Supported by Nashville notables, drummer Lynn Willaims, Mark T. Jordon on piano, Wurlitzer electric piano and B3 organ, and bassist Paul Ossola plus the vocal harmonies of The Shoals Sisters: Cindy Richardson Walker, Marie Tomlinson Lewey and Carla Russell, Doug offers up a collection of eleven of his compositions presented in both solo and ensemble settings. "A Sublime Masterpiece... MacLeod's playing carries the weight of a lifetime-and the fire of someone just getting started. It's the blues of wisdom. And it's never sounded better"- Living Blues. "his talents as a storyteller, his extraordinary guitar playing, and his signature vocals, are present from the opener onwards... another wonderful and unique journey with DOUG MACLEOD as your guide, who treats you to extraordinary stories." - Roots Time - BE. Between Somewhere and Goodbye is the sound of someone who is comfortable in his skin and comfortable with how his life turned out. It's someone you'll want to listen to. -Blues Music Magazine. Five stars: A peerless new album from one of today's most important blues artists. -FANFARE. Between Somewhere and Goodbye is yet another terrific journey from Doug MacLeod, who, in the best of blues' traditions, brings his heart and soul to every song. -Blues Blast

Double vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. The Blues Don't Lie is the amazing 2022 album from Buddy Guy, and is the legend's 34th studio album, and the follow up to 2018's Grammy winning album The Blues Is Alive and Well. Produced by songwriter/drummer Tom Hambridge, The Blues Don't Lie features guests including Mavis Staples, Elvis Costello, James Taylor, Jason Isbell, and more. The album is released exactly 65 years to the day that Buddy Guy arrived in Chicago on a train from Baton Rouge, Louisiana in September of 1957, with just the clothes on his back and his guitar. His life would never be the same, and he was born again in the blues. The Blues Don't Lie tells the story of his lifelong journey. Reflecting on this body of work, Buddy says "I promised them all: B.B., Muddy, Sonny Boy as long as I'm alive I'm going to keep the blues alive." He has indeed proven that again, and proclaims, "I can't wait for world to hear my new album cause The Blues Don't Lie."

Double vinyl LP pressing. 2013 release from the six-time Grammy winning Blues legend. The follow-up to his 2010 Grammy Award winning album Living Proof, this double-disc masterpiece features first time studio collaborations with A-list artists Kid Rock, Keith Urban, Gary Clark, Jr., Beth Hart and Aerosmith members Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. Produced by Grammy Award winning producer/songwriter and longtime collaborator Tom Hambridge (Skin Deep, Living Proof), Rhythm & Blues captures the 76 year-young Guy at the peak of his creativity. Replete with heartfelt vocals, straightforward lyrics and mesmerizing guitar licks, Rhythm & Blues not only exemplifies how blues continues to be the foundation of all genres of today's music, it also illustrates why Guy has been influential in the careers of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan and more.

Classical Music

GOOD INTENTIONS GONE BAD

2024 release. Tinsley Ellis unplugs and channels his masterful guitar skills and soul-baring vocals into a bracing collection of solo acoustic tracks steeped in the traditions of Muddy Waters, Skip James, Son House, Robert Johnson and even Leo Kottke. Nine newly-written originals sit alongside reverent, yet spirited, versions of House's "Death Letter Blues," Willie Dixon's "Don't Go No Further" and Kottke's "Sailor's Grave On The Prairie."