Rough Guide To Blues & Beyond

[jackdaw version]

I wonder about the omission of anything from Little Axe. Licensing problems or personal taste? Or?

The project has kind of wandered off into the wilderness for my taste, but the first two albums I thought were fabulous. Maybe that's just a bit ancient now.

[Charlie]

Joe , bless him, did his best to persuade the bearded one - but Seasick , as I understand it, decided that as a newly-signed big-time Warner Brothers fledgling superstar, such small-time, small-change comps were no longer for him...

That doesn't sound like Steve to me, Nigel. He has not changed at since being signed to Warner. Are you sure it wasn't simply that Steve doesn't call himself a blues singer and doesn't want to seem presumptuous in claiming classification alongside people he reveres?

Supporting Garth's introduction to this thread, I add my congratulations on the album, which I have only just listened to properly, letting it run in the order you so elegantly designed. Although I knew almost all the artists and many of the tracks, listening to it was like a brand new experience. The only track that made me reach for the 'skip' button was Robert Plant's. Even without my knowing who it was, it sounded phoney and out of place (dare I say it, like an English folk singer?).

The sequence from Olu Dara (taking the lead vocal on the track credited to Corey Harris) through Son of Dave to Tangle Eye is marvellous, and I look forward to cherry-picking the album on future radio shows.

Not sure that Goree is so good it deserves to be on the package twice, both as the final track on your compilation and then as part of Nuru Kane's solo debut that is a bonus disc.

[Nigel w]

Thanks Charlie. if you find the Plant/Justin Adams track phoney, I wonder what you would have made of it if you'd been there when it was recorded, in the Malian desert in front of an audience that was 50 per cent Tuareg (and all of whom seemed to love it!)

Can't disagree about the Nuru Kane thing - not my decision. A WMN marketing ploy, I guess !

[howard male]

I've not even been sent this yet. I tried contacting the Rough Guide people about a week ago via the email address on a previous Rough Guide press release , but got no response. Very odd.