Well, it wasn't quite enough to knock Queen Etta from her lofty perch, but Ruthie Foster debuted strong this week at number two with her new studio album, Let It Burn. The Billboard magazine blues chart for the week ending February 18, 2012 shows that Etta James' hits collection Icon retains its grip on number one, while James' The Dreamer album swapped a spot with Gary Clark, Jr. Still, considering Foster's widespread appeal, I expect her to take number one sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Last week's big debut, Dion's Tank Full of Blues, slipped a bit but holds strong at number five, while much of the rest of the chart is the same old usual suspects. Surprisingly, Joe Louis's Walker's Hellfire, an excellent album by any measure, is bubbling under at number eleven, though I wouldn't be surprised to see it knock Hugh or Wynton/Eric off the chart in a week or two.
The biggest surprise this week, however, is the independently-released debut album from Americana/roots artist Lincoln Durham, The Shovel vs. The Howling Bones, which comes in at number twelve. Now mind you, the Reverend has only heard scraps of Durham's songs, and they sound pretty good, but what I've heard has only the most tenuous link to the blues...I guess that any artist with a Southern drawl that isn't country just must be blues. What do y'all think? Here are this week's Top Ten blues albums, ranked by sales:
10. Tedeschi Trucks Band - Revelator (Sony Masterworks)
9. Johnny Winter - Roots (Megaforce Records)
8. Hugh Laurie - Let Them Talk (Warner Brothers)
7. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Playlist: The Very Best Of (Sony Legacy)
6. Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton - Play The Blues (Warner Brothers)
5. Dion - Tank Full Of Blues (Blue Horizon)
4. Etta James - The Dreamer (Verve Forecast)
3. Gary Clark, Jr. - The Bright Lights EP (Warner Brothers)
2. Ruthie Foster - Let It Burn (Blue Corn Music)
1. Etta James - Icon (Geffen Records)
New releases this week: Omar & the Howlers' Essential Collection (Ruf Records), Otis Taylor's Contraband (Telarc Records)
Photo of Ruthie Foster's Let It Burn courtesy Blue Corn Music
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