Recorded Live At The Carter Barron Amphitheater, Washington DC. With Special Guests Bob Margolin, Pinetop Perkins, Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson, John Hammond and Toru Oki. This album is dedicated to the immortal spirit of Muddy Waters.

This album has it all, upbeat, blues- rock, but with a blend of R&B,and solo acoustic blues and rock ballads and more. Bryce Janey began his career in his hometown of Marion, IA at the age of 13 in a blues-rock trio called The Janey’s. With his mother on drums and his father BillyLee on guitar, The Janey’s played regionally and nationally from Chicago to Los Angeles. They shared the stage with over 50 national acts, including Buddy Guy, Delbert McClinton, Blues Traveler, Johnny Winter and Koko Taylor. While still in The Janey’s, Bryce began a solo career and released his first CD, Practice What You Preach, in 1996 on Hot Fudge Music label.

Bryan Lee could be called one of the last of the old-school blues guitarists. Born in 1943, Lee grew up to the sounds of the same seminal blues guitar idols (Albert King, Elmore James, etc.) that influenced scores of British and American blues and rock players. Based in New Orleans, Lee fortifies his approach to electric blues with aspects of Louisiana musical culture, both pop and blues. KATRINA is a tribute to that hard-hit metropolis, consisting of well-crafted originals (the emotion-laden title song) and choice covers (the oldie "Barefootin,'" the anthemic "Nobody's Business"). To put the icing on the cake, KATRINA is produced by contemporary blues ace Duke Robillard (no slouch himself on the guitar), who also contributes some fine acoustic six-string sounds.

Allen Hinds was raised in Alabama and now resides in California. His eclectic blends of blues/jazz/rock all mesh into a very distinct style of his own. Like a cross between Robben Ford, Alan Holdsworth and Jeff Beck, his music is intelligent, phrasing sophisticated and tone for days. Jimmy Haslip says "It SMOKES", Will Kennedy says "his songs are not based around notey licks, he's all about strong melodies, great phrasing"

Born in 1949 Oscar Benton had a long career in the blues. His worldwide break through came when actor Alain Delon used a song, recorded by Oscar Benton, in the movie 'Pour la peau d'un flic' in 1981. Originally written by Artie Kaplan and Artie Kornfeld, the Bensonhurst Blues was recorded by Oscar almost a decade earlier. Catching dust ever since. The movie would change that instantly. An almost sixty year blues career, with the inevitable ups and downs, ended abruptly after an accident and a coma, causing Oscar to fight his way back, just to live a normal live. His struggle to overcome the effects of the coma resulted in a farewell concert in 2010. After this show, performing and singing were history.

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Tom Principato has long been a regional star in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. He has toured nationally around the U.S., Canada, and Europe, but often the venues are clubs. His particular blend of blues-rock is highly specific; jazz guitar master Pat Metheny said of Principato, "He has an enormous talent at telling stories in his solos; he doesn't play 'standard' licks." Raised in suburban Washington, D.C., his early guitar-playing heroes included Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton. He listened to his parents' recordings by the likes of Chet Atkins and the Benny Goodman Sextet with Charlie Christian, and like a lot of kids, discovered the power of Chicago blues in his high-school years.

When your father was the late Chicago blues and Chess Records icon Jimmy Rogers (not to be confused with pioneering country singer Jimmie Rodgers), some would argue that you have a hell of a lot to live up to. But the question "How does Jimmy D. Lane compare to Jimmy Rogers?" is both unrealistic and unfair – it would be like expecting Ravi Coltrane to accomplish what John Coltrane accomplished, or expecting Hank Williams, Jr. to be another Hank Williams, Sr. Besides, Lane is a fine Chicago bluesman in his own right. With Rogers making a guest appearance on "One Room Country Shack" and Muddy Waters' "Another Mule Kicking in Your Stall," listeners get to hear father and son playing alongside one another. Rogers, who died on December 19, 1997, had only two months to live when this historically important album was made. But Legacy is not only noteworthy because it contains the last recording of Rogers; it's also noteworthy because of the rich singing and expressive guitar playing that Lane brings to Memphis Slim's "Four O'Clock in the Morning" and Howlin' Wolf's "Big House," as well as heartfelt originals like "In This Bed," "Clue Me," and "Pride." Lane is someone who really understands the blues, and that fact is impossible to miss on this excellent date.

About half of this two-record set features Janis Joplin with Big Brother & the Holding Company in 1968, performing songs like "Down on Me" and "Piece of My Heart." The rest, recorded in 1970, finds her with her backup group, Full Tilt Boogie, mostly performing songs from I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! Joplin puts herself out on-stage, both in terms of singing until her voice is raw and describing her life to her audiences. Parts of this album are moving, parts are heartbreaking, and the rest is just great rock & roll.

Recorded in Ghana in 1981, Mick Fleetwood's solo debut reveals more diversity and depth of feeling than any of Fleetwood Mac's multi-platinum monsters. Six of the tracks are not overt attempts at worldbeat, instead using a variety of West African musicians as sidemen, sidewomen, and, in the case of drum ensemble Ebaali Gbiko, sidechildren. Of these six tracks, several stand out. "Walk a Thin Line," written by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, is an infectious pop song blending Adjo Group's enchanting backing vocals with guest George Harrison's lush 12-string and slide guitars. Another Fleetwood Mac veteran, Peter Greenbaum (aka Peter Green), accompanies a multinational percussion section for a remake of his "Rattlesnake Shake," originally found on Then Play On. Even the Buddy Holly classic "Not Fade Away" gets supercharged with a percussion ensemble made up of Fleetwood on drums and Lord Tiki and Adjo Group on hand drums and percussion. The West African tracks that make up the remainder of the album are pure pleasure.

Blues on the South Side is probably the best album slide guitarist Homesick James ever laid down (originally for Prestige in 1964). The stylistic similarities to his cousin, the great Elmore James, are obvious, but Homesick deviates repeatedly from the form. Tough as nails with a bottleneck, he goes for the jugular on "Goin' Down Swingin'", "Johnny Mae", and "Gotta Move", supported by pianist Lafayette Leake, guitarist Eddie Taylor, and drummer Clifton James.

It is no exaggeration to call Little Walter the Jimi Hendrix of the electric harp: he redefined what the instrument was and what it could do, pushing the instrument so far into the future that his music still sounds modern decades after it was recorded. Little Walter wasn't the first musician to amplify the harmonica but he arguably was the first to make the harp sound electric, twisting twitching, vibrant runs out of his instrument; nearly stealing the show from Muddy Waters on his earliest Chess recordings; and so impressing Leonard Chess that he made Muddy keep Walter as his harpist even after Waters broke up his band. Chess also made Walter into his studio's house harpist and started to release Little Walter solo records with the instrumental "Juke" in 1952. "Juke" became a smash hit and turned Little Walter into a star, making him a steady presence on the '50s R&B charts.

Having shared stages with The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, .38 Special, The Little River Band and The Outlaws, Hurts Like Hell creates an electrifying, all-original rock and blues experience that draws on the rich sonic history of rock and roll in the sixties and seventies – Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, Robin Trower and Bo Diddley. Sharing more than a century of experience performing professionally, the four band members have forged their authentic sound through a shared musical vision, a relentless passion for creating music and the expert use of increasingly rare vintage gear.

Capturing a homecoming gig for the conquering hero, Live at Grossman's 1994 finds blues-rocker Jeff Healey returning to a favorite club. Looking back, it’s easy to see that Healey was between stages: his most popular albums were just behind him and the years of him carving out a niche as a working bluesman who dabbled in jazz were ahead of him. Here, he was performing with the velocity and volume of a blues-rocker at his peak, invigorated by an intimate setting where he could just play, not worrying about throwing in “Angel Eyes” or “I Think I Love You Too Much.” The result is a set where he salutes his idols – Clapton, Elmore James, Albert King, Howlin’ Wolf, Hendrix, even the Beatles via an excellent “Yer Blues” – and it’s one of his purest and best records as a straight-ahead blues-rocker.

Sparky Parker is a blues/rock/soul guitarist and vocalist from
Houston, Texas with the grit, drive, and talent needed to stand tall in the eternally-competitive Texas music scene. Houston fans knew him as a young blues guitar prodigy but Parker has grown far beyond that kind of simple label. Parker is now a triple threat who writes quality songs, sings with a feeling, and plays with ferocity. His latest release with his power trio The Sparky Parker Band, In The Dark, will see daylight in the Fall of 2019 and those close to Parker feel that the record will break him to a larger, national audience.

"Hell, everybody's sick of all my f–-ing happy songs anyway," Steve Earle declares in the liner notes to his 2015 album Terraplane as he explains why he chose to cut a blues album. If you feel like you somehow missed Earle's Pollyanna period, you're not the only one, but if he was motivated to turn to the blues because of personal troubles – he was going through his seventh divorce while he wrote and recorded these songs – it sure sounds like he chose the right kind of musical therapy. Terraplane is the most relaxed and least fussed-over album Earle has made in quite some time, and frankly, he sounds like he's having a ball on these sessions; with rare exceptions, this isn't music that ponders the dark night of the soul, but semi-acoustic roadhouse boogie that rocks with a steady roll and gives Earle a chance to crow like a rooster as he ponders broken hearts, long lonesome highways, battles with the forces of destiny, and the enduring appeal of women in go-go boots.