Junior Kimbrough and the Soul Blues Boys

Album: Sad Days, Lonely Nights
Format: LP
Label/Info: Fat Possum (also available on CD).

Talk about some hypnotic hill-country groove. Recorded live at Kimbrough's juke joint in Chulahoma, MS, in 1993. Produced by writer/music critic Robert Palmer.

Wilson Pickett

Album: The Exciting Wilson Pickett
Format: LP
Label/Info: 4 Men With Beards - 180 Gram Reissue; originally released in 1966 as Atlantic 8129 (SD 8129, stereo).

The Stooges

Album: The Stooges
Format: LP
Label/Info: Sundazed Vinyl Reissue (5149). This is their first album for Elektra - produced by John Cale. Released in 1969.

Alice Coltrane

Album: Ptah, the El Daoud
Format: CD
Label/Info: 1996 Impulse Remaster
(20 Bit). Vinyl copies are out there, but can be quite expensive.

Muddy Waters

Album: The Best of Muddy Waters
Format: LP
Label/Info: MCA/Chess Vinyl Reissue; also 180 Gram Speakers Corner Reissue. (I don't normally recommend "Best of"s, but this is an essential collection of early singles.) Recorded between 1948-1954.

Chuck Berry

Album: After School Session
Format: CD
Label/Info: 2004 Geffen Remaster; originally released in 1957 as Chess LP 1426.

Favorite cut: "Drifting Heart"

Sun Ra and the Arkestra

Album: Super-Sonic Jazz
Format: LP or CD
Label/Info: 180 Gram Saturn Vinyl Reissue (left) and Evidence CD 22015 (bottom left). Also released in 1973 as Super-Sonic Sounds, Impulse AS-9271 (bottom right). Originally recorded in 1956.
Favorite cut: "Kingdom of Not"