On Buddy Guy's second Silvertone release, he continues the practice of guest appearances begun on Damn Right, I've Got the Blues. In this case, the notables include Paul Rodgers, Travis Tritt, and John Mayall. The finest combination comes when Bonnie Raitt joins Guy on John Hiatt's "Feels Like Rain." Raitt's gritty vocals and sweet slide guitar add a pleasing nuance to the bittersweet track, and it is ultimately the high point of the record. Certain critics and blues purists have derided Guy's search for mainstream success as evidenced by his penchant for guest appearances and non-traditional blues forms, but Guy sounds fantastic in these unconventional situations (witness his burning version of the Moody Blues' "I Go Crazy").

Alligator Records shows a different side of its house-rocking face on this 13-cut collection of acoustic blues. While Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and Bukka White don't appear here, other performers – some of whom one normally associates with overdriven electricity – are. Buddy Guy is present, as is Stevie Ray Vaughan. Koko Taylor's "The Man Next Door" is here and it's one of her greatest performances on record. In addition, Johnny Winter, who was no stranger to a National Steel string bottleneck earlier in his career, returns to give it another go, and the true roots doctor Corey Harris is here with "God Don't Ever Change," and Carey and Lurrie Bell with "Stop Running Around." Guy's "Hi Heel Sneakers" is terrific as is Winter's "Evil on My Mind." But it's those that are normally associated with the acoustic blues like Harris, Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women, Cephas & Wiggins, John Jackson and the legendary Sonny Terry who come off best, bringing the true rhythm and mystery with them into their songs.

The Blues Don’t Lie is the amazing new 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 will be released exactly 65 years to the day that Buddy Guy arrive in Chicago on a train from Baton Rouge, Louisiana in September of 1957, with just the clothes on his back an 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.”

This is easily a "super super blues bust." Power trios, of course, were hip in the late '60s – even at down-home Chess Studios, where ad hoc "supergroups" were assembled for 1967's Super Blues and its sequel, Super Super Blues Band. (No one ever accused Chess Records of being subtle.) The band on Super Super Blues Band included two-thirds of the original Super Blues headliners – Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley – with Howlin' Wolf replacing Little Walter to round out the trio. Unlike Walter, who was willing to cede the spotlight to Diddley and Waters on Super Blues, Wolf adamantly refuses to back down from his rivals, resulting in a flood of contentious studio banter that turns out to be more entertaining than the otherwise unmemorable music from this stylistic train wreck.

The 1996 concert video A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan gathers Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, B.B. King, Art Neville, Dr. John, and brother Jimmie Vaughan to celebrate the talent and life of the modern electric blues guitar virtuoso. Double Trouble and the Tilt-a-Whirl Band support these stars as they interpret Vaughan's songbook in an 80-minute concert; brief interviews with the featured artists enrich the proceedings with even more respect and affection. Highlights of Vaughan's performance on the PBS series Austin City Limits hit home just how great a talent was lost when he was killed in 1990. Ultimately, though, A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan focuses on the uplifting memory of his warmth and musical gifts, keeping them alive with the help of his very able friends.

This Grammy-winning comeback set brought Buddy Guy back to prominence after a long studio hiatus. There are too many clichéd cover choices – "Five Long Years," "Mustang Sally," "Black Night," "There Is Something on Your Mind" – to earn unreserved recommendation, but Guy's frenetic guitar histrionics ably cut through the superstar-heavy proceedings (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Mark Knopfler all turn up) on the snarling title cut and a handful of others. The Expanded Edition of Damn Right, I've Got the Blues features two bonus tracks, "Doin' What I Like Best" and "Trouble Don't Last."

Encountering this material in a fresh setting, stripped of the familiar configurations of the original albums, we can reassess this important music in contemporary terms. Right off the bat, As Good As It Gets receives a demerit for omitting "Mary Had a Little Lamb," easily Guy's best known … waxing. Otherwise, the CD provides a reasonable overview of the mercurial guitarist's output. Best of all, the set uncovers three previously unreleased items from the '67 sessions.

This is B.B. King's most delightful recording of the '90s. He duets with other blues greats, including Koko Taylor ("Something You Got"), Buddy Guy ("I Pity the Fool"), Etta James ("There's Something on Your Mind"), Ruth Brown ("You're the Boss"), and his dear friend John Lee Hooker ("You Shook Me"). The peaks come in his guitar shootout with Texas Telecaster slinger Albert Collins on "Call It Stormy Monday" and his high-spirited run-in with Katie Webster, who steals their performance of "Since I Met You Baby" with her saucy asides.

Limited pressing housed in Japanese mini LP sleeve packaging with obi strip. Digitally remastered edition of this classic '60s Soul release. For years, Motown was always referred to as the most influential Soul label of the '60s. However, one cursory glance at Atlantic's vast catalog of '60s Soul releases proves that Atlantic may have had the edge in regards to it's roster of influential talent. This remaster is just one in a series of Japanese Atlantic Soul and R&B reissues that comes housed in a min LP sleeve, which replicates the excitement of opening the album back when it first came out!

The Godfather of contemporary blues, who took modern Chicago blues and embellished it with the bite, fire, and flash of rock & roll, Buddy Guy had not yet broken through in America (although he was much appreciated in Europe) when he recorded three albums for JSP Records between 1979 and 1981, including this, the middle one, which found Guy working with a solid session band of guitarists Doug Williams, William McDonald, and Phil Guy, saxophonist Maurice John Vaughn, keyboardists Gene Pickett and Eddie Lusk, bassists Nick Charles and J.W. Williams, and drummers Merle Perkins and Ray Allison. It's vintage Guy, and shows the raw but applied talent and showmanship that would eventually bring him the large American audience he so justly deserved in the 1990s.