Sacred Cat Recordings
Blues artists with a great voice as well as phenomenal guitar chops are rare.
And there are even fewer double albums with one disc acoustic, the other electric. (In the blues category, Taj Mahal’s 1969 landmark “Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home” and Nick Moss and the Flip Top’s 2007 set “Play It ‘Til Tomorrow”come to mind.)
OKeh
In a modernization of the electric-guitar/steel-guitar format pioneered by Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant in the ’50s, Bill Frisell — aided by Greg Leisz on pedal steel, lap steel and slide guitar — puts a laidback spin on an instrumental collection of early ’60s guitar music that inspired him as a kid.
Bushbranch/Surfdog
The first question one might ask upon discovering Eric Clapton has released a heartfelt J.J. Cale tribute one year after Cale’s passing July 26, 2013, would be: How closely did the Oklahoman’s No. 1 disciple hew to that remarkably nonchalant, front-porch sound?
Yep Roc
Three decades after their last full album together (the Blasters’ 1985 “Hard Line”), the Alvin brothers are making beautiful “American Music” together again, thanks to a near-death experience and the “entrance drug into prewar blues.”
Blue Hat
For anyone who’s lost touch with Charlie Daniels over the past few decades, now’s a good time to check him out again.
