“I’m a bluesman moving through a blues-soaked America, a blues-soaked world, a planet where catastrophe and celebration – joy and pain sit side by side.” – Cornel West
With a pandemic taking lives and a global recession taking livelihoods, now seems like as good a time as any to delve into the blues. Here are a dozen essential albums to help you deal with the current state of the world.
B.B. King, Live at the Regal (1965)
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Junior Wells’ Chicago Blues Band, Hoodoo Man Blues (1965)
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John Mayall with Eric Clapton, Blues Breakers (1966)
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Nina Simone, Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967)
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John Lee Hooker, Live at Cafe Au-Go-Go (1967)
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Taj Mahal, Taj Mahal (1968)
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Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper & Stephen Stills, Super Session (1968)
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Magic Sam Blues Band, West Side Soul (1968)
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John Mayall, The Turning Point (1969)
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Fleetwood Mac, The Pious Bird of Good Omen (1969)
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Muddy Waters, Muddy “Mississippi” Waters Live (1979)
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Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Texas Flood (1983)
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