Blues Masters, Vol. 2: Postwar Chicago Blues

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2003-12-07 rating:
****1/2. Fine sampler
This 1992 CD is one of the best installments in Rhino's generally excellent "Blues Masters" series.

It brings together 18 recordings by some of the best and most renowned artists on the Chicago blues scene, and the postwar Chicago blues scene is of course "where it's at" as far as classic electric blues goes.

Not every selection is perfect...they could have done better by Muddy Waters, Little Walter, and Junior Wells in particular, and where the heck are Elmore James and John Lee Hooker?
But what is here is mostly great, from Buddy Guy's slow, anguished "First Time I Met The Blues" to J.B. Lenoir's upbeat "Mama Talk To Your Daughter", and the compilers at Rhino have included some of the very best songs by men like Eddie Boyd (the slow blues "Five Long Years"), Howlin' Wolf (the menacing "Smokestack Lightnin'"), Jimmy Reed (the swinging, lethargic boogie of "Bright Lights, Big City"), Sonny Boy Williamson II (the magnificent, harp-driven "Don't Start Me to Talkin'"), Otis Rush (the fiery "All Your Love"), and several others.
Magic Sam is here as well, (his "All You Love" is not the same song as Otis Rush's), and so are Jimmy Rogers, Bo Diddley, and Johnny Shines, all well represented by really great songs.

"Blues Masters vol. 2" ranks alongside MCA/Chess' "Chess Blues Classics: 1947 To 1956", "Chess Blues Classics: 1957 To 1967", and "Chess Blues Guitar" as one of the best "various artists"-compilations available. Seasoned blues listeners will have most or even all of this music already, of course, but this is a really good place to start, and the liner notes are excellent as always.
4 1/2 stars.

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