Recorded live in a studio in Hamburg, Germany, in October 1962. Includes artists involved with that year's American Folk Blues Festival tour. With generally relaxed and reflective performances. The artists include Memphis Slim, T-Bone Walker, Shakey Jake, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee and John Lee Hooker.

John Lee Hooker's 1948-1952 recordings made in Detroit, Michigan by Bernard Besman. Includes 19 previously unissued versions.

Joe Hill Louis must have been Sun president Sam Phillips' favorite bluesman. He recorded him for The Phillips, Chess, and Sun. The Sun tapes (1952-'53) are here, including Joe Hill's original versions of Tiger Man, We All Gotta Go Sometime, and the incredible Hydramatic Woman. Also included are Sun recordings with Walter Horton and Mose Vinson that feature Joe Hill. Altogether, 26 titles including West Winds Are Blowing, 44 Blues, Worry You Off My Mind, and Little Walter's Boogie. Essential for Sun fans and for lovers of raw electric Chicago-styled blues. 1-CD with 24-page booklet.

This is a three classic albums CD box set with the original artworked 'mini LP' CD wallets in deluxe packaging. It contains the albums "Hard Again", "I'm Ready" and "King Bee".

Although best known for his barnstorming blues-rock, Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher had a softer side, too. All of his studio albums contain at least one acoustic folk-blues track, and Gallagher included an unplugged set in the majority of his live shows way before that was fashionable. Almost eight years after his death, Rory's brother Donal compiled a 14-track collection of previously unreleased work dedicated to Gallagher's folkier approach. It's the second such posthumous album (the terrific live and very electric BBC Sessions came out in 1999), and focuses on an important if lesser recognized aspect of the guitarist's career. It's also an eclectic set that shifts from melodic ballads ("Wheels Within Wheels") to instrumental modified flamenco ("Flight to Paradise" with classical guitarist Juan Martin) and solo Delta blues (a studio take of Tony Joe White's "As the Crow Flies," the live version of which was a highlight of Irish Tour). And that's just the first three songs.

One of the best recordings in Chess Records' 50th Anniverary series is the first of two bookend Muddy Waters collections, His Best 1947-55. Documenting Waters's most creatively and commercially successful years at Aristocrat/Chess, this collection begins with his formative years and ends with Waters at his peak. So you're in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues; what's to criticize? Superb remasterings of "I Can't Be Satisfied", "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "I'm Ready", and "Mannish Boy" are simply beyond reproach. With simple bass accompaniment from Ernest "Big" Crawford, Waters's bottleneck tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues. And listening to Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Rogers piece together (and perfect very quickly) the classic Chicago sound is pure blues epiphany. At the very least, this collection shows you why Waters's rollicking stop-time classics like "Mannish Boy" and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" have sparked endless imitations over the years–and why nobody has played them better since.

Tupelo, Mississippi's Paul Thorn was a prizefighter and skydiver before becoming a rootsy singer/songwriter. As a boxer Thorn once fought against Roberto Duran, and as a musician he has toured and collaborated with Sting, Paul Carrack, Joe Diffie, Tanya Tucker, Ronnie Milsap, and Carole King, to name a scant few. Collection includes: Are You With Me? (2004); What The Hell Is Goin On? (2012); Too Blessed To Be Stressed (2014); Don't Let The Devil Ride (2018).

Corey Harris is an American blues and reggae musician. Along with Keb' Mo' and Alvin Youngblood Hart, he raised the flag of acoustic guitar blues in the mid-1990s. Collection includes: Between Midnight And Day (1995); Fish Ain't Bitin' (1997); Greens from the Garden (1999); Vü-Dü Menž (2000) with Henry Butler; Downhome Sophisticate (2002); Mississippi to Mali (2003); Daily Bread (2005); Zion Crossroads (2007); blu.black (2009); Fulton Blues (2012).

Broke, Black & Blue delivers multiple surprises within its 100 songs of prewar blues. Arranged chronologically by Joop Visser, the set admirably covers the first 22 years of recorded blues, 1924 to 1946, from vaudeville and Delta to boogie-woogie and jump blues. It's a swell gift for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of blues. But old-timers will be pleased, too, as special attention has been paid to culling rare and idiosyncratic tracks by the well-known and the obscure. The first three discs present single tracks by artists as diverse as the Memphis Jug Band, De Ford Bailey, Tommy Johnson, Son House, Skip James, Peetie Wheatstraw, Lonnie Johnson, and Bukka White, alongside unknowns such as Isaiah "The Mississippi Moaner" Nelson, Barbecue Bob and Laughing Charley, Ed Andrews, Chicken Wilson, and Bumble Bee Slim. On the fourth disc, this convention is jettisoned to luxuriate in a series of very rare sides of lovely, oddly subdued boogie-woogie and jump blues by Jimmie Gordon, Johnny Temple, and Lee Brown.