10 Seminal Chicago Blues Albums

One of the main crucibles of seminal blues music during the mid 20th century was the city of Chicago. It was a primary destination for many of the early blues musicians during what is called the “Great Migration.” It was when African Americans left the Jim Crow South for cities in the North and West. There were more employment opportunities and Chicago was a major industrial center with unskilled jobs in major industries. It was an opportunity for a better life and Chicago had a vibrant and diverse music scene that provided musicians with fertile ground for exploration. Chicago was where they could connect with a larger audience as well as it being the location of major record labels and recording studios. It was a different cultural experience than the South with different regions from the South settling in the same neighborhood. At the same time it was part of the “Electric Blues Evolution” that played an important role in the transformation of acoustic to electric blues. These ten albums are vinyl records of that time period, some of the key players involved and the Chicago based Record companies that provided the catalyst for the transformation.

Muddy Waters – At Newport 1960

On Sunday, July 3, 1960, Muddy Waters performed a historic concert at the “Newport Jazz Festival” and it was recorded for the “Chess” record label. Muddy was born as McKinley Morganfield in 1913 in Issaquena County, Mississippi, and is often referred to as the ‘father of modern Chicago blues.’ Waters’ band at the time included Otis Spann on piano and vocals along with James Cotton on harmonica. The festival was an important transition point where the blues first went mainstream to a white audience. After its release a floodgate of opportunity was opened as the world heard the dynamic raw energy that Muddy Waters exuded through songs like “I’ve Got My Mojo Working.”

Howlin’ Wolf – Moanin’ in the Moonlight

Chester Arthur Burnett was born in West Point, Mississippi in 1910 and went by the stage name “Howlin’ Wolf.” In 1959, “Chess Records” released Moanin’ in the Moonlight which is considered one of the seminal works in the history of blues music. The influence on the blues genre from Howlin’ Wolf cannot be underestimated when it comes to his gravely raw blues singing, guitar playing, and harmonica proficiency. The album contains classics like “Forty-Four,” “Moanin’ at Midnight” and “Smokestack Lightning” which featured his unique vocals combined with an emotive delivery that became his style when he blended Delta blues with the electrified sound of the streets of Chicago.

Buddy Guy – Left My Blues in San Francisco

After nearly ten years of releasing singles, Buddy Guy released his debut album on “Chess Records” in 1967 titled Left My Blues in San Francisco. It didn’t even chart because “Chess Records” wasn’t sure how to market him because his passionate vocals and fiery guitar driven performance were so unique at the time. It was the same year that Jimi Hendrix released Are You Experienced, his debut album. Buddy Guy was born in Lettsworth, Louisiana in 1936 and after making his own guitar and playing around Louisiana he moved to Chicago and was discovered by Muddy Waters which led to being a session musician for everyone from Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf to Little Walter and Koko Taylor. At the same time he released singles since 1958 but didn’t actually get the full recognition that he deserves until 1991 when he won his first of eight Grammy Awards for his album Damn Right I Got the Blues. Left My Blues in San Francisco is comprised of eleven cuts that are a mix of three original compositions and eight covers of blues artists like Sonny Boy Williamson and Willie Dixon.

Junior Wells – Hoodoo Man Blues

Junior Wells was born as Amos Wells Blakemore Jr. in 1934 in West Memphis, Arkansas. After teaching himself how to play the harmonica he became a street musician at the age of seven and moved to Chicago in 1946. After hearing the blues and Sonny Boy Williamson on harmonica he had a musical direction to move in. Williamson’s effect on him would have a lasting influence on him to the degree that Hoodoo Man Blues a signature Williamson song became associated with Wells. The album Hoodoo Man Blues was released on “Delmark Records” in 1965 and is considered to be one of the essential and influential recordings in the Chicago blues genre. One of the primary features of the album is the interplay between Junior Wells’ harmonica and Buddy Guy’s guitar on songs like “Snatch It Back, “Messin’ with the Kid” and “Hoodoo Man Blues.”

Sonny Boy Williamson II: Down and Out Blues

Sonny Boy Williamson II was the adopted name of Aleck or Rice Miller and to distinguish himself from another Chicago Blues musician of the same name he added the suffix II. Both the date and location of his birth are questionable but generally accepted as 1912 in Glendora, Mississippi. By the time that he was six or seven years old he taught himself how to play harmonica and played in churches and parties. He first gained recognition as a blues harmonica player when he performed on the then groundbreaking King Biscuit Time radio program. Chicago writer, historian, and radio personality Studs Terkel wrote the liner notes for Down and Out Blues and expressed his opinion: “With a background, rock’n’roll in nature, we hear a dozen short stories. In a number of instances, the year, the place, the hour – all down as a piece of court reportage.” The album is comprised of twelve original compositions that are the culmination of thirty years of performing with everyone from Elmore James to Howlin’ Wolf as well as releasing his own work on singles.

Koko Taylor – Queen of the Blues

Koko Taylor’s 1985 blues release on “Alligator Records” was the culmination of a quarter of a century of recording. Taylor was born in 1928 in Shelby County, Tennessee near Memphis. She left Tennessee with her truck driving husband Robert “Pop’s” Taylor who managed her career after they moved to Chicago in 1952. Her first hit was the Willie Dixon composition “Wang Dang Doodle” released in 1965 which became her signature song. Her powerful and soulful voice earned her eleven Grammy nominations before she finally won the Grammy Award in 1985 for “Best Traditional Blues Album” with Queen of the Blues. It had a stellar band backing her with artists like Lonnie Brooks, Albert Collins, James Cotton, and Son Seals.

Hound Dog Taylor – Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers

Theodore Roosevelt “Hound Dog” Taylor was born in 1915, in Natchez, Mississippi. He had six fingers on both hands, a condition called “polydactylism” but he claimed that it helped him to be a more proficient slide guitar musician. Due to the anomaly he created his own unconventional style which was a unique and influential sound in the blues genre. He formed the “HouseRockers” as a trio with himself on guitar and vocals, Ted Harvey on drums and Brewer Phillips on second guitar. They played a bare boned no frills style of blues with a raw unpolished sound and authentic approach that had a gritty quality. Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers self-titled debut album was released in 1971 on Chicago-based “Alligator Records. Their most popular tracks include “Give Me Back My Wig” and “She’s Gone.

Magic Sam – West Side Soul

Samuel Gene Maghett A.K.A. “Magic Sam” was born in Grenada, Mississippi in 1937 and tragically died of a heart attack while on tour in Europe in 1969 at the age of 32. He performed in his native Grenada where country hoe downs and square dances were more popular than the blues. After he moved to Chicago in the mid-1950s and learned blues and boogies it influenced his “hillbilly style” and he developed a house-rocking blues style unparalleled in its rhythmic drive. He was part of the youthful cadre of artists that included Buddy Guy, Freddie King, and Otis Rush with their electrifyingly explosive new style of playing the blues. “Magic Sam” had a distinctively powerful singing voice and in 1967 after a decade of performing in Chicago and releasing a score of singles he released West Side Soul on the Chicago based label “Delmark Records.” The album is considered by many to be his best work as well as being a classic that showcases his skillful guitar work and ability to blend traditional blues with a more contemporary sound. Some of the album’s best tracks are “All Your Love” and “I Need You So Bad” to name a couple.

Etta James – At Last!

Etta James was born as Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California in 1938 to a fourteen year old mother. She became a child prodigy as a gospel singer singing in church and on the radio. At the age of 12, she moved to San Francisco where she formed her own band and then joined Johnny Otis’. By 1954 she moved back to Los Angeles and began her solo career the next year. In 1960 she signed a recording contract with Chicago’s “Chess Records and released her debut album At Last! on the “Argo” record label a subsidiary of Chess. There are ten songs on the album and many of them are embellished with orchestral arrangements. The album was re-released in 1999 on the “Chess” label with four bonus tracks, three of which were co-written by James and her then boyfriend Harvey Fuqua. The original 1960 recording spawned four radio singles, “All I Could Do Was Cry,” “At Last,” “My Dearest Darling” and “Trust in Me.” Her signature song after 1968 became “I’d Rather Go Blind” and over the course of her career she won six Grammy Awards as well as a “Lifetime Achievement Award, 17 Blues Music Awards and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

John Lee Hooker – Plays and Sings the Blues

Plays and Sings the Blues by John Lee Hooker was released by “Chess Records” in 1961 with songs that Hooker recorded and released as singles during his heyday back in the early 1950s. There are a total of 12 cuts on the album with only two covers and the rest original compositions. John Lee Hooker was born in 1917 near Clarksdale, Mississippi and his family were sharecroppers. His musical influence came from his stepfather, William Moore who was a blues musician who taught him to play guitar in his unique style. In the 1940’s he moved to Detroit, Michigan where he worked as a janitor in the auto industry during the day but at night he played at house parties. He was discovered by Bernard Besman who owned “Sensation Records” and was the first to record Hooker who then went on to became a blues superstar as the “King of Boogie” with the driving beat of his stripped back, raw blues sound.