Regardless of what shopping you may or may not have planned for this Black Friday, you might want to work in a visit to a local vinyl store or four to bag some bluesy Record Store Day (RSD) Black Friday exclusives from a few of the genre’s all-time greats. Here are a couple to look for.
T-Bone Walker – T-Bone Blues (Rhino Records)
You can’t go wrong adding this classic (originally released in 1959) to your collection, including such famous T-Bone hits as “Mean Old World”, “Call It Stormy Monday”, “T-Bone Shuffle” and “Papa Ain’t Salty”. Those songs alone would be enough to make this album worth owning, but this superb set truly is “all killer, no filler”, with other tracks including the strolling “T-Bone Blues”, swinging instrumentals “Two Bones and a Pick” and “Shufflin’ the Blues”, and a slithering “Play On Little Girl” (one of two tracks here on which T-Bone is backed by Junior Wells on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, and likely Willie Dixon on bass and Francis Clay on drums), among others.
Also included is a bonus 10″ record with four additional tracks, including a slow, jazzy take on Leroy Carr’s “How Long Blues”, a captivating “T-Bone Blues Special” and a swaying “Why Not” that blues fans will recognize as having been the inspiration for Jimmy Rogers’ “Walking by Myself”.
Charley Patton – Father of the Delta Blues: Selections from Paramount Recordings, Vol. 2 (Org Music)
We somehow missed the release of the first volume of this set last Black Friday, which included such famous numbers as “Pony Blues”, “I Shall Not be Moved”, “I’m Goin’ Home”, “Some Summer Day” and “A Spoonful Blues” from Patton’s Paramount sessions. You’re likely to recognize a few titles from this one as well, particularly
“Mississippi Boweavil Blues” and the gritty “High Water Everywhere, Pt. 1”.
But some of the best stuff here are tracks with which many might not be as familiar, from the bouncy “Going to Move to Alabama” and a “You’re Gonna Need Somebody When You Die” that shows the broader range of Patton’s vocals, to the steady rolling “Screamin’ & Hollerin’ the Blues” and, probably our favorite off this album, the gruff, chugging “Moon Going Down”.
If you do head out to the record shop(s), you can also be on the lookout for other RSD releases from B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and more!