My wife’s CDs have gone back-to-back here.
Of course, Mr.King is a stalwart of the blues world, wielding Lucille for about six decades and counting. But this is one of the weirdest collections of ‘classic’ tracks I’ve ever heard.
The album does showcase B.B.’s distinctive and highly influential guitar stylings. The wails from Lucille are splendid.
What is curious is the extent to which this not a blues album, but more of a mish mash of some blues classics, some mediocre R&B, and some down right lousy crooning.
I’m presuming this reflects this a particular cut-rate label’s poor (or is it just idiosyncratic?) song selection policy. I can find no decent information on the provenance of this CD beyond it being one in a serious of 90+ in some German label’s Blues Collection.
I haven’t been discouraged from chasing up more from this master (i.e. The Thrill Has [n’t] Gone), but I certainly wouldn’t recommend this compilation.
I can recomend B.B.’s suit in this clip though:
File under: A poor tribute to a well-dressed man
One Album a Day 