Customer Reviews

Satisfy Me

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Chicago is a tough town to be a Blues harmonica player. It's not that there aren't enough places to play, it's simply that Chicago is home to so many great harp masters. On any given night you can find dozens performing at bars in nearly every section of town and in the outlying suburbs. To stand out, you have to be one hell of a great harp blower.

Billy Branch definitely stands out as one of the best. Branch learned his Blues growing up in Los Angeles and honed his skills when he came back to Chicago to attend school. Stints with Willie Dixon and The Sons Of The Blues only served to make his raw talent even better.

This recording stands as a shining example of why Branch is held in such high regard by his fellow harmonica players. He surrounds himself with some very capable sidemen, let's them build a solid musical base and then proceeds to dazzle the listener. Each song is a classic in itself and the album demonstrates Branch's amazing vocal ability as well.

I hope that Billy Branch makes a lot more recordings in the future. He definitely deserves the limelight in a city that already shines so brightly.

The variety of styles on this CD, clearly show Billy Branch's masterful versatility and expertise on the harp. In addition, this Blues harmonica maestro has a voice that straightforwardly expresses the soulful and sometimes passionate depth of the lyrics. I highly recommend it! I also recommend the following sites on this incredibly talented man: http://members.home.com/jlemko/billy http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/theofficialbillybranchclub

One of the least imaginative blues CDs I'd heard in a long long time. And from one of the alleged blues harp "masters." Please. If you're looking for great harp, stick with Carey Bell, Kim Wilson, Rod Piazza, Charlie Musselwhite, Sugar Blue, Paul de Lay or James Harman. Billy lives in Chicago and seemingly has hogged up the lion's share of studio work there over the past decade or more. For the life of me, I don't know why that is. Connections, I suppose. At any rate, maybe his other efforts are more vital but this one is to Chicago blues harp CDs what frozen pizza is to Chicago deep-dish pie.