A must-have for blues lovers! This album is a collaboration of four of the foremost Mississippi Delta blues players who carried their music to Chicago, and in so doing helped shape the sound of the blues in post WWII America. Bassist Willie Dixon leads the Allstars; credited alongside Muddy Waters as the most influential player behind the blues renaissance of the 50’s and 60’s, Dixon was also a major songwriter whose songs were recorded by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Dylan, Hendrix, the Doors, the Stones, etc. Dixon’s 29 Ways – ‘to get to my baby’s door, and when she needs me, I can find about 2 or 3 more…’ – has the band in a raunchy shuffle. Dixon called Big Walter Horton ‘the best harmonica player I ever heard’. Featured on every piece, Horton’s playing is reason enough to obtain this collection. His compositions Baby I Need Your Love and Little Boy Blue also display Horton as a gutsy, dark-voiced blues poet. Guitarist Johnny Shines was heavily influenced by blues legend Robert Johnson, with whom he toured from 1935-37. That influence can be heard in his guitar and vocals on his originals, Fat Mama and I Love The World. Writer Studs Terkel called pianist Sunnyland Slim “a living piece of our folk history…” Slim’s She Got A Thing Goin’ On and Everytime I Get To Drink let you know why it’s called the blues.
