Cray found himself in some pretty intimidating company for this Grammy-winning blues guitar summit meeting, but he wasn't deterred, holding his own alongside his idol Albert Collins and Texas great Johnny Copeland. Cray's delivery of Muddy Waters' rhumba-rocking "She's into Something" was one of the set's many highlights…

A Christmas Celebration of Hope is the thirty ninth studio album by American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter B.B. King released in November 2001 through MCA Records. It is a holiday album. The album earned King two Grammy Awards at the 45th Grammy Awards (2003): he, Anthony Daigle and John Holbrook were presented the award for Best Traditional Blues Album and the track "Auld Lang Syne" earned King the award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter John Campbell had the potential of turning a whole new generation of people onto the blues in the 1990s, much the same way Stevie Ray Vaughan did in the '80s. His vocals were so powerful and his guitar playing so fiery, you couldn't help but stop what you were doing and pay attention to what you were hearing. But unfortunately, because of frail health and a rough European tour, he suffered a heart attack in his sleep on June 13, 1993, at the age of 41. Collection includes: A Man And His Blues (1988); One Believer (1991); Howlin Mercy (1993).

The Fab T-Birds were considered the best bar band to come out of Austin, Texas, in the late '70s. Which is saying a lot, since we're talking about a musical hotbed. Frontman and harmonica player Kim Wilson and Stevie Ray Vaughan's older brother, Jimmie Vaughan, melded together two of Austin's favorite sounds–blues and rock–scoring a major-label deal and eventually becoming the only band to be produced, at separate times, by both Rockpile leaders, Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. You won't find the Edmunds stuff here, nor "Tough Enough," their one Top 40 hit. Still, these tracks are taken from the group's first three Chrysalis LPs as well as their Tacoma indie-label debut, the albums most aficionados still consider their best. ~ Bill Holdship

Eddy Clearwater is equally talented as a bluish singer and as an improvising guitarist. On Reservation Blues, he ranges from Chicago blues to rock & roll, throwing in a couple instrumentals too. His repertoire includes both socially relevant lyrics and good-time music, featuring some of the latter when the former gets a bit too somber. Although there are some solid solos from his supporting players (including three guitar spots for Duke Robillard, two fine solos from tenor saxophonist Dennis Taylor, and a guest appearance by Carey Bell on harmonica during "Find Yourself"), Clearwater is the main star throughout. Fortunately, he is heard in prime form, whether happily jamming "I Wouldn't Lay My Guitar Down" and "Blues Cruise" or singing in a more serious mood on "Winds of Change" and "Everything to Gain." A gem.

Jimmy Burns, Born in 1943 near the Delta town of Dublin, Mississippi, embodies that increasingly rare combination of blues roots deep enough to tap into 'the real thing', while still possessing the youth and vitality to present his music with plenty of life and real excitement. He honed his vocal skills singing with vocal groups in the '50s, and over the years has perfected an appealingly melodic, vocal-inflected contemorary guitar style to complement the down-home picking he'd learned in his youth. In the studio Jimmy and his regular band played off one another with a musical empathy that comes only from countless nights of proving themselves on the bandstand. With Leaving Here Walking, Jimmy pays tribute to his earliest musicla inspirations, revisits the era of classic R&B, and presents well-crafted originals covering all the facets of his long and varied life in music.

The term blues guitarist has been so abused and misused, that when the real player comes along, it sounds like a jaded cliché to utilize it. Bob Margolin is a blues guitarist. His tenure in the Muddy Waters band from 1973 to 1980 netted him that distinctive title, and My Road, is his story. On this record, Margolin opted to go with a bare bones ensemble consisting of himself on guitar, Chuck Cotton on drums, and Ted Walters on the harmonica (harp). This has been his working outfit of late, and they are a tight cohesive unit. He wrote six of the twelve tunes, and as the main title reveals, they are pretty much autobiographical. This is primarily a vocal record, where his guitar is utilized in the accompanying role, with trademark bursts of genius.

The transcontinental soul/blues duo of Pittsburgh's Billy Price and France's Fred Chapellier took their show on the road (in Europe) to support the release of the duo's Night Work debut. The results are contained on this CD/DVD package, a logical and energetic follow-up to the studio recording that reprises some – but not all – of those tunes, adds logical covers, and generally ratchets up the sparks, as live albums typically do. The 11-song audio CD runs about half the time of the far more extensive two-hour DVD, but both nail the vibe of shows that featured tough, resilient backing musicians augmented by two horn players.

Born in Dublin, Mississippi in 1943, Jimmy Burns derived his earliest inspiration from the records of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and others. After Jimmy moved to Chicago in the mid-'50s he discovered a scene that was perfect for the meld of traditional blues, churchy emotionalism, and forward-looking pop/R&B sophistication that by then comprised his musical aesthetic. When he finally signed with Delmark in the mid-'90s, he was primed and ready to take his place as a leading blues recording artist. Live at B.L.U.E.S. captures perfectly the indelible combination of joyful spirits, warm-hearted intimacy, and sharp-witted intelligence that characterizes Jimmy Burns, as both a musician and a man. With special guest vocalist Jesse Fortune.

When he's not turning somersaults, doing backward flips, and standing on his head – all while playing, of course – Guitar Shorty is prone to cutting loose with savagely slashing licks on his instrument. Live, he's simply amazing – and after some lean years, his latter-day albums for Black Top, Evidence, and Alligator have proven that all that energy translates vividly onto tape. Collection includes: I Go Wild! (2001); Watch Your Back (2004); We The People (2006); Bare Knuckle (2010).

On this 2006 release, Tab Benoit, the blues guitarist who throughout his career has embraced virtually every shade of American roots music, reconnects to his earliest and most profound influences with the help of some old friends. The thirteen-track set features Benoit's solid guitar and vocal attack supported by the popular Louisiana band, LeRoux, with the addition of special guest appearances by some of the most seasoned country and Cajun songwriters and musicians of the past three decades: Jim Lauderdale, Billy Joe Shaver and fiddler Waylon Thibodeaux.

Not a prolific composer, Thackery's strength lies in strong arrangements that make other people's material his own. He covers Stevie Ray Vaghan's "Rude Mood," and one suspects there will be comparisons made in this direction. His solos burn the motel down on Luther Johnson's "Lickin' Gravy," and he manages a more than credible job on Hendrix's "Red House." Of the two self-penned numbers, the title track is a convincing boogie driven by an ultra-cool, echoed, chicken-scratch guitar riff, while "Getting Tired of Waiting" offers a more traditional blues shuffle.

All of King's recordings for the Bobbin label are on this 22-track disc, including everything from his 1959-1963 singles for the label and previously unissued alternate takes of "Why Are You So Mean to Me," "The Time Has Come," and the previously unissued "Blues at Sunrise." While these are decent journeyman urban blues/R&B, they're not up to the level of his subsequent recordings for Stax. Albert King just sounds too much like the records another King – B.B. King, that is – was making during the same era. There are similar horn arrangements and alternation of stinging guitar with smooth, confident vocal phrasing. It's a tribute to Albert King's abilities, in a way, that it does sound confident, and not the work of an imitator, despite the similarities.

90 years young Jimmy Johnson returns to the recording studio for the first time in over a decade. It has been precisely forty years since his Delmark debut 'Johnson's Whacks'. Delmark celebrates Jimmy's homecoming by releasing 'Every Day of Your Life', an album comprised of four original songs and Jimmy's unique take on five other tunes including a solo performance of Jimmy singing and playing piano on the Bobby 'Blue' Bland hit 'Lead Me On'. Two different stellar Chicago bands back Jimmy throughout this album. Johnson was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He has playing professionally in Chicago since 1959 and has worked with Freddy King, Albert King, Magic Sam and Otis Rush among many others. Jimmy has always had an R&B style of blues and he brings it to this new album, his fourth for Delmark.

Luther Allison seemed to be on a roll when he died in 1998. He was back home after many years in Europe, and was winning awards and making a good living. This, his debut album, was cut in 1969 when he was 30 years old. He sang as if barely able to keep a lid on his emotion, and the elegance and precision of his guitar playing belied the fact that he had only been playing the instrument for a few years. If this debut can be faulted it's only in that it relies too heavily on overfamiliar standards like "Little Red Rooster," "Five Long Years," "Dust My Broom," "Sky Is Crying," and "Every Night About This Time." The CD reissue has been expanded with alternate takes and bonus cuts.