Last fall, we gave you a preview of the Music Maker Relief Foundation‘s (MMRF) 25th anniversary compilation album in the form of a track from longtime MMRF supporter and board member Taj Mahal and promised we’d bring you more on the album upon its release. Although the names of many of the artists on the 21-track Blue Muse may not be as familiar as Mahal and Eric Clapton — the latter captured here doing the slow blues instrumental “Mississippi Blues” with MMRF founder Tim Duffy during a 1995 jam and then discussing with Duffy where the piece is originally from (Willie Brown) and how Stefan Grossman included it on one of his blues guitar tutorials (from which Duffy learned it) — that doesn’t make the songs of any lesser quality, with other highlights including a gritty, hypnotic “I Got the Blues” from Alabama Slim that sounds like it could easily have come off Buddy Guy’s Sweet Tea in addition to borrowing a few lines from Otis Rush’s “Double Trouble”, a “Hambone” that finds John Dee Holeman joined by Taj Mahal on the hambone playing (body-slapping), Boot Hanks and Dom Flemons‘ (Carolina Chocolate Drops) “I Wanna Boogie” with Hanks on guitar and vocals and Flemons on hambone, and the slow folk-country blues of a “Widow Woman” on which Drink Small‘s deep, scratchy vocals are somewhat reminiscent of the late Paul Pena.
With Confessin’ the Blues (BMG), the Stones provide blues fans with another terrific gift, this one in the form of a 2-CD, 2-LP or 5 10-inch vinyl compilation featuring original versions of some of the genre’s greatest artists and tracks as selected by the Stones. While the Stones have probably performed or recorded most of these songs themselves at some point throughout their five and a half decades together, this compilation presents its 42 tracks as originally recorded by the likes of Waters, Wolf, Berry, Guy, Little Walter, Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James and more.
Bonfanti and Milner share primary vocals, with Milner’s smooth, often jazzy delivery nicely balancing Bonfanti’s gruff voice to create the aural equivalent of the chocolate and peanut butter combination of a Reese’s peanut butter cup.