If You Love These Blues / Play 'Em As You Please

Michael Bloomfield | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 26, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Kicking Mule
• ASIN: B00064VQQM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,471 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Originally recorded for Guitar Player magazine and released as "Guitar Player 3002" in 1976, this album is regarded as one of the highlights of Bloomfield's later career. Michael Bloomfield takes you through the blues guitar style of B.B. King, Jimmy Rogers, T-Bone Walker, Jim Jackson, Howling Wolf, Guitar Slim, Eddie Lang and others. The album was previously released in poor, butchered form on two budget CDs, but this is the first time it has been released in its entirety, including Bloomfield's track-by-track commentary. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This CD is a national treasure, January 22, 2005

By 

R. Richard - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If You Love These Blues / Play 'Em As You Please (Audio CD)

This CD is a collection of two Mike Bloomfield albums that include an instructional album done for Guitar Player magazine in the 70's and the hard to get Bloomfield/Harris. You can forget about the hard charging sounds of Butterfield Blues/Electric Flag/Super Session. This is stripped down accoustic blues and gospel played by one of the greatest guitar players of all time.
The first 22 tracks are the instructional album "If you love those blues play 'em as you please", accoustic blues with a very interesting narrative by Mr. Bloomfield himself before each song. The remaining tracks are accoustic gospel with Woody Harris and Mike Bloomfield. The sound mix is excellent.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Hardcore Blues Fans Only, December 19, 2005

By 

Lee R. Toman (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If You Love These Blues / Play 'Em As You Please (Audio CD)

I have the record for "If You Love these..." so my comments are related only to that parts of the CD from that record.

Anyway, I rate this very highly but for hardcore blues fans only. Bloomfield does a great job re-creating the feel/style for each song using the style of the original artist/time period. My favorites are Mama Lion, WDIA, and Hey Foreman.

This is not your Bloomfield guitar slinger album, rather a serious study in the diverse styles of the blues. He shows why he was so great.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In a way, the best of Bloomfield., April 9, 2006

By 

. (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: If You Love These Blues / Play 'Em As You Please (Audio CD)

Mike Bloomfield's trademark style was a foundation of BB King riffs with jazzy noodleing and raga-like easternisms in the spaces where King would simply not have played at all. When MB first hit the scene, this style shook every young guitarist up; it was no longer ok to just learn the tunes, you had to learn how to -play-. His ahead-of-the-barlines phrasing, and melodic fearlessness conveyed a sense of constant exploration. As time has passed, the original blues artists' simplicity has come to be appreciated by a mass audience, and Mike's busy style has become less in vogue. On that basis, this may be the best place to start your Bloomfield collection: because he is referencing the styles that influenced him, more than performing, the performance itself is more rooted and bluesy than much of his other work.