Mahalia Jackson

Album: The World's Greatest Gospel Singer
Format: LP
Label/Info: 1955 Columbia CL 644 ("6-eye" LP, her first for the label. Inexpensive copies can be found at GEMM.)

Ms. Jackson says in the liner notes that she doesn't do blues records. Somebody should have told the session's guitarist.

Pete La Roca

Album: Basra
Format: LP
Label/Info: Blue Note Vinyl Reissue

Favorite cut: "Basra" - A one-chord ride up the Tigris and back down the Euphrates.

Andrew Hill

Album: Grass Roots
Format: CD
Label/Info: Blue Note Connoisseur Series

There are more critically-acclaimed Hill records, but I come back to these 1968 sessions again and again.

Otis Redding

Album: The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads
Format: LP
Label/Info: 4 Men With Beards - 180 Gram Reissue


Favorite cut: "Nothing Can Change This Love"

John Cale

Album: Paris 1919
Format: LP
Label/Info: 4 Men With Beards - 180 Gram Reissue

Favorite cut: "Paris 1919" - In the aftermath of the war to end all wars, a pop song about chasing illusions.

George Jones

Album: Trouble in Mind
Format: LP
Label/Info: 1965 United Artists
UA-3408/UAS-6408 (stereo)
Never released on CD, but turns up in thift stores and flea markets from time to time.

The Feelies

Album: Crazy Rhythms
This album holds up in memory only, since I no longer own this record and haven't heard it in 20 years. It's currently unavailable (a shame), and used copies can be expensive.

Al Green

Album: Gets Next To You
Format: LP
Label/Info: Get Back Reissue

Joseph Spence

Album: Good Morning Mr. Walker
Format: CD or LP
Label/Info: Arhoolie CD contains bonus tracks. Originally released as Arhoolie LP in 1972.

Gang of Four

Album: Entertainment!
Format: LP
Label/Info: Rhino 180 Gram Reissue

Buddy Holly

Album: Buddy Holly
Format: LP
Label/Info: MCA Heavy Vinyl remastered from original analog tapes

Tina Brooks

Album: True Blue
Format: LP
Label/Info: Blue Note Vinyl Reissue

Thelonious Monk

Album: Monk's Music
Format: CD
Label/Info: Riverside 2004 Hybrid SACD

Blind Willie McTell

Album: Pig 'n Whistle Red
Format: CD
Label/Info: Biograph 2003 Remaster.
1950 recordings featuring Curley Weaver

Skip James

Album: Complete Early Recordings of
( -1930)
Format: CD
Label/Info: Yazoo Compilation

Sandy Bull (with Billy Higgins)

Album: Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo
Format: LP
Label/Info: Vanguard

Julius Hemphill

Album: Reflections (released on LP as 'Coon Bid'ness - Arista/Freedom 1012)
Format: CD
Label/Info: Freedom

Favorite cut: "Hard Blues"

Alexander "Skip" Spence

Album: Oar
Format: LP
Label/Info: Sundazed Vinyl Reissue

Favorite cut: "War In Peace"

Bob Dylan

Album: New Morning
Format: LP
(Note: the "Nice Price" CD sounds terrible)
Label/Info: 1970 Columbia; also 2001 Simply Vinyl Reissue

The Kinks

Album: Muswell Hillbillies
Format: CD
Label/Info: Konk/KOCH SACD Hybrid

Television

Album: Marquee Moon
Format: LP
Label/Info: Elektra (also 4 Men With Beards 180 Gram Reissue)

Probably my favorite rock album of all time. Never grows old.

Tony Williams

Album: Life Time
Format: CD
Label/Info: Blue Note 1999 Remaster - Rudy Van Gelder Edition

Jackie McLean

Album: Jacknife
Format: CD
Label/Info: Blue Note

Donny Hathaway

Album: Live
Format: LP
Label/Info: 1972 Atlantic/Atco

Ornette Coleman Trio

Album: At the "Golden Circle" Stockholm, Volume One
Format: CD
Label/Info: Blue Note 2002 Remaster - Rudy Van Gelder Edition

Sly and the Family Stone

Album: Fresh
Format: CD
Label/Info: 2007 Sony Remaster w/Bonus Tracks

John Fahey

Album: The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites
Format: CD
Label/Info: Takoma

Blind Willie Johnson

Title: Dark Was the Night
Format: CD
Label/Info: Sony Compilation

Various Artists

Title: American Primitive II
Format: CD
Label: Revenant

Ray Bryant Trio

Album: All Blues
Format: LP
Label/Info: Pablo 2310-820

Al Green

Album: Call Me
Format: LP
Label/Info: Hi 1973 (original); also 2005 Get Back Vinyl Reissue

Bob Dylan

Album: Highway 61 Revisited
Format: CD
Label/Info: Sony 2003 Hybrid SACD

Lee Morgan

Album: Sidewinder
Format: LP
Label/Info: Blue Note Vinyl Reissue - 180 Gram Audiophile Pressing
(1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition on CD is a fine substitution.)

Favorite cut: Totem Pole