Various Artist - The Ace Records Blues Story (2012)

Johnny Vincent founded Ace Records in 1955 after being laid off from his job as an A&R man at Specialty Records -- he had also founded Champion Records earlier in the decade -- and although he based his operations in Jackson, Mississippi, he was also very much in tune with the New Orleans R&B and blues scene, signing and releasing singles by several Crescent City artists, including Huey "Piano" Smith & the Clowns ("Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu"), Frankie Ford ("Sea Cruise"), and Jimmy Clanton ("Venus in Blue Jeans"). But Vincent had several Mississippi blues artists on his roster, too, including Arthur Crudup, Sam Myers, King Edward, Pat Brown, and Willie Clayton, among others, and Ace became one of Mississippi's most successful labels in the '50s and '60s. This two-disc, 36-track set collects some of these rare blues cuts, including ten sides that are making their first appearance on CD.