Various Artists - Blues Masters, Volume 4: Harmonica Classics (1992)

This blues compilation is Volume 4 in an extensive blues series of CDs from Rhino which is slowly finding its way to my collection. In both the liner notes and the song selection, the focus is on Chicago blues and its use of amplified harmonica to be heard alongside electric guitar, ignoring the use of harmonica with acoustic guitars down in the Mississippi Delta. Nevertheless, there's great variety here and it is one my favorite Rhino Blues Masters CDs I've encountered thus far.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

	Song	Artist	Year
1	Juke	Little Walter & His Night Cats	1952
2	Ends & Odds	Jimmy Reed	1958
3	Rocket 88	Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet	1965
4	Help Me	Sonny Boy Williamson	1963
5	Messin' With The Kid	Junior Wells Chicago Blues Band	1965
6	Blues With A Feeling	The Paul Butterfield Blues Band	1965
7	Sugar Coated Love	Lazy Lester	1958
8	Steady	Jerry McCain	1961
9	I'll Be Around	Howlin' Wolf	1954
10	I Was Fooled	Billy Boy Arnold	1955
11	Take A Little Walk With Me	Big John Wrencher with Joe Carter	1976
12	Easy	Jimmy & Walkter	1953
13	Boogie Twist	Snooky Pryor	1963
14	Wolf Call Boogie	Hot Shot Love	1954
15	Last Night	George "Harmonica" Smith and The Chicago Blues Band	1968
16	I Got Love If You Want It	Slim Harpo	1957
17	Cherry Pink & Apple Blosson White	The Fabulous Thunderbirds	1981
18	Christo Redemptor	Charlie Musselwhite	1967

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None with these particular tunes, but I do recall several failed attempts to learn to play harmonica. My first musical instrument was the trumpet, an instrument through which you have to blow air to produce a sound and only inhale to take a breath. The harmonica, on the other hand, produces different notes when you inhale and exhale and my mind simply couldn't make that paradigm shift. These days, this dog is too old to learn new tricks.

Previously revisited for the blog:

Volume 2: Postwar Chicago Blues (1992)	Volume 8: Mississippi Delta Blues (1993)
Volume 3: Texas Blues (1992)	Volume 15: Slide Guitar Classics (1993)
Volume 6: Blues Originals (1993)	Blues Masters Sampler (1993)
Volume 7: Blues Revival (1993)