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.

Australian singer, songwriter and guitarist Kara Grainger teams up with acclaimed producer and engineer David Z (Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, Ana Popovic) for a soulful slice of Americana on her Eclecto Groove Records debut. Grainger's trademark fiery slide guitar and smooth sultry vocals fondly invites comparisons to American icon Bonnie Raitt on a selection of evocatively handcrafted originals, along with a few choice covers including Robert Johnson's classic C'mon in My Kitchen. Featured musicians include guitarists Josh Sklair and Kirk Fletcher, keyboardist Mike Finnigan, bassist Hutch Hutchinson, as well as drummers James Gadson and Jimi Bott.

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.

Released in 1970, Van Morrison's Moondance was a hit commercially and critically. Encouraged by his manager, Morrison and a sextet – including three players from the Moondance sessions – hit the studio and delivered His Band & the Street Choir in time for that year's holiday season. Morrison responded to the pressure by relaxing into it. The feel here is loose, often celebratory. He digs deep into his long-held fascination with the New Orleans R&B tradition for inspiration. "Domino" is his highest charting single. The funky guitar lick, left-hand piano rumbling, driving, Memphis-style horns, and pumping bassline kick things off in grand party style.

The 1980s and '90s brought about a blues recording boom that brought some well-deserved attention to veteran blues musicians: People like CeDell Davis, R.L. Burnside, Johnnie Bassett, and Robert "Bilbo" Walker found themselves on the road again, in demand at summer blues festivals and booked on extensive tours of big and small clubs around the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Although Al Garrett had been on the Los Angeles club scene since the late '50s, extensive touring under his own name had eluded him, other than in California. Garrett's debut album, Out of Bad Luck, was released in 1999 on the New York City-based Fedora Records.

This 1970 studio effort teamed up Albert with producer Don Nix, who supplied the majority of the original material here. Kicking off with a typical reading of the Stones' "Honky Tonk Woman" and including Taj Mahal's "She Caught the Katy and Left Me a Mule to Ride," the session is split between a Hollywood date with Jesse Ed Davis, Jim Keltner, and Duck Dunn in the band and one at Muscle Shoals with Roger Hawkins, David Hood, and Barry Beckett in the lineup.

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.

2008 collection that compiles the best of BB King's BBC recordings onto one CD for the very first time and includes some of his biggest hits such as 'Paying the Cost to Be the Boss' and 'The Thrill Is Gone' as well as 'When Love Comes To Town'. Featuring highlights from his three finest UK performances alongside a session recording made in the BBC's studios, this CD offer an incredible snapshot of an artist at the peak of his career performing some of his greatest material.

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.

Live at the Apollo is a Blues album by B.B. King and the Phillip Morris "Super Band" recorded at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. It was awarded the 1992 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.

It's not as if Albert King hadn't tasted success in his first decade and a half as a performer, but his late-'60s/early-'70s recordings for Stax did win him a substantially larger audience. During those years, the label began earning significant clout amongst rock fans through events like Otis Redding's appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival and a seemingly endless string of classic singles. When King signed to the label in 1966, he was immediately paired with the Stax session team Booker T. & the MG's. The results were impressive: "Crosscut Saw," "Laundromat Blues," and the singles collection Born Under a Bad Sign were all hits. Though 1972's I'll Play the Blues for You followed a slightly different formula, the combination of King, members of the legendary Bar-Kays, the Isaac Hayes Movement, and the sparkling Memphis Horns was hardly a risky endeavor. The result was a trim, funk-infused blues sound that provided ample space for King's oft-imitated guitar playing.

Don't Give Up on Me is a studio album by R&B/Soul singer Solomon Burke, recorded and released in 2002 on Fat Possum Records. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. It is noteworthy for the contributions of original and previously unreleased compositions by top-rank songwriters, the effect of which placed Burke back in the public eye for a time. Guest stars are Daniel Lanois, who plays electric guitar on "Stepchild", and The Blind Boys of Alabama, who feature on backing vocals for "None of Us Are Free".

The follow-up to his 2010 Grammy Award winning album Living Proof, this double-disc masterpiece features first time studio collaborations with A-list artists Kid Rock, Keith Urban, Gary Clark, Jr., Beth Hart and Aerosmith members Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. Produced by Grammy Award winning producer/songwriter and longtime collaborator Tom Hambridge (Skin Deep, Living Proof), Rhythm & Blues captures the 76 year-young Guy at the peak of his creativity. Replete with heartfelt vocals, straightforward lyrics and mesmerizing guitar licks, Rhythm & Blues not only exemplifies how blues continues to be the foundation of all genres of today's music, it also illustrates why Guy has been influential in the careers of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan and more.

A decent but short (nine songs) late '60s set, with somewhat sparser production than he'd employ with the beefier arrangements of the "Thrill Is Gone" era. Brass and stinging guitar plays a part on all of the songs, leading off with the eight-minute title track, a spoken narrative about his famous guitar.

My Kind of Blues was originally released in late 1960 on the budget label Crown. On this session, B.B. King dropped the smooth big band sound of his previous release, B.B. King Wails, to an instrumentally stripped-down unit of bass, drums, piano, and, of course, his beloved guitar Lucille. This date took one day to record and is said to be one of King's personal favorites. Any of B.B. King's early Crown releases are essential, and considering that the 2003 Ace reissues feature previously unissued bonus tracks and midline pricing, these are the ones to grab. According to the liner notes, these bonus tracks are included for being "small combo tracks that continue the traditional blues theme, and allow plenty of space for B.B.'s guitar." Unfortunately, recording dates for these aren't given, but they do include five previously unissued tracks from his Modern sessions, as well as an undubbed version of "Looking the World Over"; an overdubbed version of "Walking Dr. Bill"; and a previously unissued take of "Hold That Train..