Page 88 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2015

Marooned:

My Desert Island

Blues lIst

Illustration by Matt O’Brien

By Reverend Billy c. Wirtz

Jan. 15, 2027 – Onboard the 50th annual Legendary With the first few bars of “Born in Chicago,” the blues
Rhythm & Blues Cruise, there’s general panic. Not because revival of the ’60s was ushered in. We sat there stunned,
Jimmy Thackery has misplaced his teeth, but due to a listening to Mike Bloomfield’s stinging guitar solo on “Shake
navigational error – the Hoogiffsadamm, flagship of the Your Moneymaker,” Sam Lay’s atomic backbeat on “Mojo,”
Cruise Lines, is headed straight for a desert island in the and knew we had just crossed over into another dimension.
Caribbean. From here, we blues addicts began searching for something
Knowing that I might never leave this place, I’m faced stronger, with an even better kick. One of the first collections
with having to select 10 blues albums to help me survive I ever bought was:
the ordeal. Fortunately, a solar-powered record player was 2 – The Blues Volume 2, Chess CH 9267
discovered under a palm tree. Although I could easily pick It opens with a hillbilly beat by Chuck Berry. Then it goes
50, the lifeboat captains and editors limit the castaways to from John Lee Hooker to the sophisticated stylings of Jimmy
just 10. Witherspoon. This 30-minute sampler released in the ’60s
This is trickier than you might think. Up until the late ’60s, was simply a dip into Chess Records’ enormous vault. It
blues was not an album-driven market. Before that, it was was one of the first records it released when its executives
almost all 45 and 78 R.P.M. singles. Many great songs and suddenly became aware that whites were buying the blues.
artists suffered from lack of decent reissues and collections. Also in this reissue series is my favorite one by Muddy
The ones listed here aren’t supposed to be the best blues Waters:
albums of all time, just ones that I’ve worn out the grooves on
over the last 40 years of listening. 3 – Muddy Waters, The Real Folk Blues, Chess
At last count, there are nearly 200 Muddy Waters albums
1 – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Elektra 7294 (stereo) available. There are none finer that this one, guaranteed.
Elektra 294 (mono) Muddy put together the best band in post-war Chicago
This is the album that changed everything – I mean – Otis Spann on piano, Jimmy Rodgers on guitar and Little
everything – for a generation of blues musicians and fans. Walter on the harmonica – and made records that just have
Prior to this album, most white folks considered “blues” to be to be heard to be believed. They are carefully orchestrated,
the domain of septuagenarian black artists from Mississippi arranged and performed by Muddy in the prime of his
singing about going to the penitentiary. creative period, not a weak one here. Repeated listening

86 Blues Festival Guide 2015