Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band - Hoodoo Man Blues (Remastered) (1965/2020) [Hi-Res]

Hoodoo Man Blues is not only Junior Well's initial LP appearance, it is damn near the first LP by a Chicago blues band. Chess and a few other labels had issued 45's by Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howling Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, etc. but virtually no one had tried to capture the Chicago blues sound free of limitations of juke-box/airplay promotion. Delmark is proud of the part Hoodoo Man Blues played in the popularization of the real Chicago blues and of Junior Wells. But the credit belongs to Junior, Buddy, Jack and Billy - they made the music. We just sat and dug it.

''One of the truly classic blues albums of the 1960s, and one of the first to fully document the smoky ambience of a night at a West Side nightspot in the superior acoustics of a recording studio. Wells just set up with his usual cohorts - guitarist Buddy Guy (billed as 'Friendly Chap' on first vinyl pressings), bassist Jack Myers, and drummer Billy Warren - and proceeded to blow up a storm, bringing an immediacy to Snatch It Back and Hold It, You Don't Love Me, Chitlin con Carne, and the rest of the tracks that is absolutely mesmerizing. - Bill Dahl, ALL MUSIC GUIDE.


This 1965 album is where vocalist and harmonica player Junior Wells comes into his own. An early collaboration with Buddy Guy, the two of them sum up the 1960s funk-rock-blues that lay ahead. Hoodoo Man Blues inspired Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, and a host of other musician-fans. Wells and Guy don't shy from creating James Brown-funkified blues, or from putting a rock edge to their blues; but neither do they shy from traditional blues. Their version of "Good Morning Little School Girl" is a proper update--still menacing, with less of a country blues feel. Also not to be missed is the instrumental workout "Chitlin Con Carne." --Robert Gordon