VA - Harp Blues (1999)

Review by Cub Koda
This 25-track collection brings together some of the most inspiring blues harp performances on record. With the exception of John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's "Bring Me Another Half a Pint" (what's better known as Jimmy Rogers' "Sloppy Drunk" and originally penned even earlier by Lucille Bogan) from 1948, everything on here was recorded in the '50s to the late '60s at the height of the electric blues boom. Representative and sometimes definitive performances from Big Walter Horton ("Easy," "Need My Baby" and the solo on Jimmy Rogers' "Walkin' By Myself"), Little Walter ("Roller Coaster"), Jimmy Reed ("Found Love"), Snooky Pryor ("Boogie Twist"), Sonny Boy Williamson ("99"), Jerry McCain (the rare, alternate take of "Steady") and Little Junior Parker ("Sweet Home Chicago") pepper this set. But the rarities from Eddie Hope (the raucous "A Fool No More"), Little Willie Foster ("Little Girl"), Papa Lightfoot (an explosive transfer of "Wine, Women, Whiskey"), Howlin' Wolf ("Howlin' Wolf Boogie"), Sammy Myers ("Sleeping in the Ground") and Joe Hill Louis ("Western Union Man") are every bit as potent as the bigger names aboard. Great selections from Doctor Ross, Billy Boy Arnold, Frank Frost, James Cotton, Junior Wells, George Smith, Shy Guy Douglas and the mysterious Cousin Leroy complete the collection.