Howlin' Wolf

Album: Sings the Blues
Format: LP
Label/Info: Crown CLP-5240. Later released as the Custom LP "Big City Blues" (CM 2055) and from United Superior, also as "Big City Blues" (7717). 1951-52 recordings for the Modern label and its subsidiary RPM records. Features Willie Johnson on guitar as well as a very young Ike Turner on piano (same lineup as tracks on the Sam Phillips Memphis sessions included earlier on this blog).

Christian Scott

Album: Yesterday You Said Tomorrow
Format: CD
Label/Info: Concord CJA 31412-02.
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's classic studio. Is that a 60s-era Westrex 3D disc cutter pictured inside? Warm and trip-hoppy with hints of Tony Williams' Lifetime.

Abner Jay

Album: Folk Song Stylist
Format: LP
Label/Info: Mississippi Records MR-068. There must be an Abner Jay album on this blog. Thanks to Mississippi Records for making that possible. More great music from rural Georgia.

Wire

Album: Pink Flag
Format: CD or LP
Label/Info: Originally Harvest ST-11757 (1977). A perennial favorite. Includes "Ex Lion Tamer" which is about fish sticks, or so I am told.

Frank Sinatra

Album: In the Wee Small Hours
Format: LP (and only vinyl will do)
Label/Info: Capital W 581 (1955)
180-gram audiophile remaster "from the Capital vaults." Nelson Riddle's finest arrangements and quite possibly Sinatra's finest. period.

The Crickets

Album: The "Chirping" Crickets
Format: LP
Label/Info: DOY609 180-gram reissue. Originally Brunswick LB 54038 (1957).
Indispensable American music: teenage cold war angst, hiccups, drive-ins, crushes and crashes on the prairie.

V/A - Gospel

Album: In the Storm So Long
Format: LP
Label/Info: Mississippi Records MR-066.
One of many gospel collections that hold up. This time it's selections from the Pitch/Gusman Label of Savannah from 1961-1978. Electrified ring shouts from from rural Georgia and the South Carolina lowcountry. Soul-stirring, toe-tapping, smile-producing.

Nathan Abshire

Album: Pine Grove Blues
Format: LP
Label/Info: Swallow 6014.
There was time when I was digging on a regular basis and purchasing Cajun records that nobody seemed to want. (Many thanks to Jonathan at Voltage Records in Asheville, NC, for hooking me up.) Many were duds, but then I hit this one from my man backed by the Balfa brothers. Ce disque est formidable (I gar-on-tee).

Kenny Burrell & Jimmy Raney

Album: 2 Guitars
Format: LP
Label/Info: OJC-216. Originally Prestige 7119 (1957). I've got a number of OJC/Fantasy reissues on LP. They were cheap (still are) back in the '80s when I frequented Charlemagne and Wuxtry in Birmingham, AL, and they still sound great. I return to this 1957 session fairly often. Cool vibe, nice originals, great sidemen. But it's Jimmy Raney that brings me back. A complex and subtle player. Joining the guitar duo are Donald Byrd (t), Jackie McLean (as), Mal Waldron (p), Doug Watkins (b), and Art Taylor (d).