The Best Of Freddie King: The Shelter Years

King’s Shelter years were covered in toto on the 1995 double-CD King of the Blues, which had everything from all three of his Shelter albums and then some. Although all of the 18 songs on this single-disc anthology were on King of the Blues, this is a more manageable survey of the same era. Not an era, it should be said, that was King’s best, with more ordinary material and less canny production than was used on his best earlier work. It does, however, have some of the better cuts from his 1970s recordings, such as “Going Down,” “Lowdown in Lodi,” the string-drenched Leon Russell tune “Help Me Through the Day,” the brassy instrumental “Guitar Boogie,” and covers of chestnuts like “Reconsider Baby,” “I’d Rather Be Blind,” and “Please Send Me Someone to Love.” – Richie Unterberger