John Morthland has been writing about music since the days of electronically rechanneled stereo and duophonic sound. His name has darkened the mastheads of Rolling Stone, Creem, Country Music, Texas Monthly and many other magazines and web sites. Born in Chicago, Morthland lives in Austin, Texas, and prefers his music rootsy; his favorite color is purple and his favorite food is bacon cheeseburgers.
The collaborative album is another concept that seems to work best when t… more »
More than a few artists cut live albums behind bars in the wake of Johnny… more »
Long celebrated as the ultimate live urban blues album, this 1964 set cap… more »
A slapped-together compilation of live and studio recordings that put a … more »
Perhaps this compilation of early-’60s instrumentals falls into the… more »
Unlike some bluesmen, B.B. King always understood and embraced show biz, … more »
This compilation collects two of B.B. King’s early LPs (plus some b… more »
This is essentially B.B. King’s first album, released five years af… more »
By now, nearly everyone knows the classic Christmas blues, starting with … more »
For years, the Chitlin’ Circuit – the network of mostly-South… more »
Each new album has represented a quantum leap forward for these Girls, an… more »
This Mississippi harmonica man spent the height of his career in St. Loui… more »
The Little Orphan Annie of blues rock, Carolyn Wonderland continues to gr… more »
These youthful Chicago favorites ostensibly explore “the intersecti… more »
This is a reasonably good introduction to the genre-busting West Coast … more »
Let me tell you about Let Me Tell You About the Blues, a series of three-… more »
These are not easy times for blues. That’s been true much of the ti… more »
Seals was the most formidable Chicago blues newcomer of the ’70s, w… more »
The slide guitarist’s trio (second guitarist, drums) was banging he… more »
From this, her 1975 label debut, until her death in 2009, Taylor personif… more »
This is arguably the biggest sleeper in Alligator’s catalog. Robins… more »
Collins had an impressive bag of tricks — minor key tunings, capo, … more »
Born on one side of the Texas-Louisiana border and raised on the other, B… more »
An acolyte of (and collaborator with) George “Harmonica” Smit… more »
As they age, extreme metal merchants often inject various non-metallic styles into their songs in order to hasten their musical growth. Sometimes, as with Alcest and Jesu, they develop to the point where their original… more »
