Customer Reviews

Blues Guitar Women

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What's so nice about this set, especially disc 1, is the sensational singing and playing of many unknown Women of the Blues. Although a huge blues fan and a big collector, several of the performers I had not heard of, such as the Lara Price Band, Alice Stuart and Carolyn Wonderland. But I have now, and they are sensational! I immediately went out and bought a cd of Stuart and Wonderland and Beverly Watkins. This is a big time gem of music. SENSATIONAL. Under $15.00 at most places, so, so worth the money. Have a quick listen to the samples and you'll be hooked and off to the store.

CD 1 is the electric or "contemporary" cd with deborah coleman, joana connor, ana popovic and 12 more. CD2 is the acoustic or 'traditional CD" WITH RORY BLOCK, SUE FOLEY, JO ANN KELLY and 11 more. No matter how deeply you're into the blues, there's going to be some artists and songs that are new to you and you'll probably like more than one artist you never heard of before.
Sue Foley provides liner notes and has a song on each CD.

An earlier review disses the producers of this CD for not showcasing Bonnie Raitt. While it's true she's not "on her own" here, she does a song (singing, playing slide guitar) with Maria Muldaur on the "Contemporary" side (CD 1) that's truly wonderful. I'd bet my thumbs that Bonnie wouldn't have it any other way, lest her fame overshadow the lesser-known blueswomen heard on this recording. In addition to Queen of the Blues, Bonnie's also known as the queen of payback, making sure others get (in many cases long-overdue) attention, often sharing the limelight (like her live duet with Sippie Wallace, who wrote and sang "Women Be Wise" long before Bonnie ever set foot on a stage) and playing/singing on innumerable recordings by other musicians - like this one!

Holy cow, this is an AWESOME 2-CD set!!!!! The second (traditional blues) CD is really good, but I absolutely LOVE the first CD (contemporary blues). These ladies are SMOKIN'!!! Laura Chavez plays just like SRV, and Carolyn Wonderland and Joanna Conner totally kick butt! This is now my favorite CD...highly recommended!! Now, where'd I leave that strat? LOL!

I picked this up on a whim and have to say that it's been a very regular visitor to my stereo. The variety here, the sheer number of new artists this collection will expose you to and the fact that this collection can be played in any company are just some of the good points here. As has been noted before, one disc here is full of acoustic material and the other electric. And boy some of these ladies can shred. What amazed me though was just how uniformly good each individual song was - although it took me several months to have each song seep into my brain given the number of tracks here. And evem more impressive was the track sequencing, which must have been a real pain, has been done very well. Each disc flows like it was all done by the same artist, the discs unfold before you and go up and down the gears in a very natural manner.

The liner notes are also impressive albeit brief as they give you some details of each performer and as such this compilation is a brilliant place to start if you are new to the genre (like me) as you can cherry pick your favourites and then explore that performers discography at your leisure.

Highly recommended even if this is not your usual musical genre.

I picked this up at a Border's that was getting rid of its cd's. Everything was half of half, and I just figured even if there were two or three cuts worth listening to, it would be a bargain. Boy was I wrong! This double disc set is all worth listening to. The traditional disc is more my cup of tea, but this cd is an explosion of sound that will make you want to hear it over and over again. Great compilation.

There is lots of new talent out there, women who can really play!

Lara Price Band was simply amazing.

I own a blues bar, and feel qualified to say that the producers have effectively snubbed the one woman who has done more for woman in Blues than any other for the last 35 years -namely by not show - casing Bonnie Raitt on her own- her vocals, slide guitar and songs have inspired all of these artists - at least Susan Tedeschi acknowleges that -
I shall NOT be playing this in public, out of respect to Bonnie.