VA - Chicago Slide Guitar Masters From Tampa Red To Elmore James [2004] (2 x CDs)

BLUES

VA - Chicago Slide Guitar Masters From Tampa Red To Elmore James [2004] (2 x CDs)

Alright, blues hounds, this one’s for the deep diggers, the late-night turntable obsessives, and anyone who knows their bottleneck from their bone nut. Chicago Slide Guitar Masters: From Tampa Red to Elmore James released by Saga Records as part of their Sagablues series, ain’t just another blues comp tossed together on a whim. These feels like it was curated by someone who’s poured over dusty 78s, catalogued matrix numbers, and still gets chills from a perfectly placed slide moan.

Split across two moods, prewar acoustic and postwar electric, it takes you from the ghost-toned alleyways of 1930s Chicago into the smoky clubs where the amps start to crackle and the attitude gets louder. Tampa Red, that original slide virtuoso with the clean touch and sly swing, kicks it all off with “Through Train Blues.” Then it’s a cascade of rare and raw brilliance: Kokomo Arnold’s razorblade bottleneck, Casey Bill Weldon’s sly lap steel, and Charlie McCoy’s dusty lamentations. Even lesser-known voices like Tampa Kid and Eddie Duncan drop in with cuts that feel plucked straight from the ether.

Then, bam, the power switches on. The second half hits like a juke joint after dark. Muddy Waters steps in with that ominous glide on “Long Distance Call.” Earl Hooker’s “Sweet Angel” just melts under the fingers, and Robert Nighthawk brings the mood low and slow with “The Moon Is Rising.” And you bet your last dime the set closes with Elmore James, that holy howler of electric slide, tearing into “T.V. Mama” and “Hawaiian Boogie” like his guitar owed him money.

But here’s the real kicker: some of these sides aren’t on your standard anthologies. You’ll catch late-period Tampa Red electrified, or Johnny Shines paired with Homesick James on a slow-burner that slips into your bones. It’s not a greatest-hits package, it’s a time machine, stitched together with hiss and howl.

Mastered just right, gritty where it should be, warm where it matters, this digipak speaks fluent blues geek. If you’ve ever debated who slid it better, or where the tone got dirtiest, this comp was made for you. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Tampa Red - Through Train Blues 2:42

02 Charlie McCoy - Motherless and Fatherless Blues 3:13

03 Kokomo Arnold - Old Original Kokomo Blues 2:54

04 Joe McCoy - Please Baby 3:05

05 Bob Dunn - Taking Off 2:52

06 Casey Bill Weldon - Long Eared Mule 3:24

07 Kokomo Arnold With Alice Moore - Dark Angel 3:06

08 Tampa Kid - .Keep on Trying 2:48

09 Kokomo Arnold - Crying Blues 2:59

10 Casey Bill Weldon - Spider Blues 2:52

11 Eddie Duncan - Peach Tree Blues 2:31

12 Robert Jr. Lockwood - Little Boy Blue 3:19

CD2

01 Muddy Waters With Saint Louis Jimmy - Florida Hurricane 2:56

02 Muddy Waters With Saint Louis Jimmy - So Nice and Kind 3:04

03 Muddy Waters - Long Distance Call 2:41

04 Tampa Red - Love Her With A Feeling 3:22

05 Earl Hooker - Sweet Angel 3:07

06 Tampa Red - Green and Lucky Blues 2:48

07 Johnny Shines - Ramblin' 2:33

08 Robert Nighthawk - The Moon is Rising 2:45

09 Homesick James & Johnny Shines - Homesick 3:09

10 Elmore James - I Can't Stop Lovin' You 2:17

11 Elmore James With Big Joe Turner - T.V. Mama 2:50

12 Elmore James - Hawaiian Boogie 2:19

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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