Essential Blues Harmonica

Various Artists - Blues - Modern/Electric, House Of Blues (Series) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: House of Blues
• ASIN: B000003QYK
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #165,764 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. The Blues Overtook Me - Charlie Musselwhite

2. Scratch My Back - Frank Frost

3. The Jumpin' Blues - Magic Dick & Jay Geils

4. Ninety Nine - Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller)

5. Must Be Jelly - William Clarke

6. I Wish You Would - William 'Billy Boy' Arnold

7. My Home Is A Prison - Sugar Ray Norica

8. Wade In The Water - Little Sonny

9. Why Can't You Love Me - Paul DeLay Band

10. Cotton Crop Blues - Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet

See all 14 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. The Bounce - Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers

2. I Ain't Lyin' - Little Sammy Davis

3. Stick Way Out Behind - Snooky Pryor

4. Boogie In The Dark - Jimmy Reed

5. Gillum's Windy Blues - Bill 'Jazz' Gillum

6. Lowdown - Kim Wilson

7. Sittin' On Top Of The World - Howlin' Wolf

8. Carey Bell's Blues Harp - Carey Bell

9. Blues In The Dark - Little George Smith

10. Need My Baby - Walter 'Shakey' Horton

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent mixture of great blues harmonica artists, April 20, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Overland Park, KS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Blues Harmonica (Audio CD)

A lot of times when one purchases a blues recording, the tunes are all in the same style and sound the same. This is a great CD that mixes it up a bit, with harmonica greats from Little Walter to Rod Piazza. It is a great way to sample a lot of different artists and then buy more CDs once you know who you like. I hope House of Blues puts out another collection similar to this. Very enjoyable.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars okay for beginners, if you can get it cheap, November 3, 2010

By 

Redgecko (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Blues Harmonica (Audio CD)

Not a good selection of the core of blues harmonica, so "Essential" is a misnomer. For instance, only one song by Little Walter and not one of his best-known. The amount of music is on the chintzy side, with an average of only 56 minutes per disk. The liner notes are terrible, about the worst I've ever seen for a well-known label. There are no recording dates and no discussion of individual songs, just a scatter-brained discussion of the history of blues harmonica in multi-colored ink with various font sizes so it's hard to read. I think this misplaced attempt at art was supposed to fool the purchaser into thinking that this was somehow cool. Aficionados of the harmonica want facts, like the recording date and who played in the band besides the harp player, not fluff.

This is OOP, so you might want to pick-it-up to fill-in gaps in your collection, but don't waste a lot of dough on it.