Blues CDs New Releases - August 2009

England's Document Records is one of the leading archivists of pre-war American blues, jazz, and roots music, and since the Internet has made it possible to land the label's releases stateside, home-schooled blues fans have been able to discover some great music virtually ignored by American record labels. Case in point: Charlie Burse, a ukulele player better known as "Uke Kid." A former member of the Memphis Jug Band, and bandleader of his own Memphis Mudcats, Burse's Memphis Highway Stomp is a complete collection of the artist's late-1930s hokum and jug band tunes. (Release date: 08/11/09)

Dani Wilde's wildly acclaimed debut album Heal My Blues was released last year in Europe, but now stateside audiences can discover what the brouhaha is all about. The girl's got pipes that sound much older than her barely twenty-something age, and her finger-picked guitar style is a welcome throwback to an earlier age. Wilde is a young blues veteran as well, performing festivals for years and touring in 2008 with Candye Kane and Deborah Coleman as part of the "Blues Caravan." Eight of the eleven songs on Heal My Blues are Wilde originals, and two of 'em – Junior Wells' "Little By Little" and John Lee Hooker's "In The Mood" – are bona fide blues classics. (Release date: 08/11/09)

The Texas music legend's 13th studio album is his first effort in four years and features McClinton's usual mix of country, blues, rock, and soul combined with intelligent, insightful lyrics tempered by a lifetime of hard-won experience. Produced by Don Was (Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan), Acquired Taste is also available as a two-disc CD/DVD combo with the bonus DVD featuring six previously unreleased performances from the Austin City Limits TV show. (Release date: 08/18/09)

Professor Eddie Lusk was a keyboard wizard and a familiar face on the Chicago blues scene of the 1980s and early-90s, performing behind folks like Junior Wells, Luther Allison, and Koko Taylor, among many others. The 1989 album Professor Strut was Lusk's only album release as a bandleader, a blues and R&B revue styled effort featuring guest singer Karen Carroll. Professor Strut is being reissued by Delmark as part of the label's ongoing efforts to share the treasures in their seemingly endless vault of blues goodies. (Release date: 08/11/09)

This month hotshot guitarist and five-time Grammy™ nominee Robben Ford releases a long-awaited live album with Soul On Ten. Featuring the fretburner's usual mix of blues, jazz, soul, and rock music, the ten-song album includes eight live tracks, including a new original tune in "Earthquake," as well as covers of Willie Dixon's classic "Spoonful" and Elmore James' "Please Set A Date." Two new studio recordings – "Don't Worry About Me" and "Thoughtless" – are tacked on the end to complete Soul On Ten. Lest ye think that this seems a little "light" for a live disc, let it be trumpeted from the rooftops that the eight live jams clock in near an hour and feature plenty o' Ford's six-string virtuosity. So there…. (Release date: 08/11/09)

Cray's first studio album in four years features the artist's typical guitar-driven style of soul-blues music, backed by a new band that includes some familiar faces. Featuring nine songs written by Cray and his band members, This Time was produced by Cray and recorded in Santa Barbara, California. (Release date: 08/11/09)

Rory Gallagher is one of the greatest underrated blues-rock guitarists in the annals of the genre, a raging fretburner that was as skilled as Clapton and as edgy as Gary Moore. There have been other Gallagher compilations before, but this 24-song, two-CD set promises to be the perfect introduction to the artist's deep and satisfying catalog of music. Among the two-dozen jams are fan favorites like "Tattoo'd Lady," "Walk On Hot Coals," and "A Million Miles Away." (Release date: 08/25/09)

Castro's 11th album is his first for the notable Alligator Records label, and features the 2008 B.B. King "Entertainer of the Year" Blues Music Award winner's trademark sound on twelve rockin' tracks produced by John Porter (B.B. King, Buddy Guy). Castro told us about Hard Believer back in our March interview, saying "We did what I always try to do...find something different, something that I haven't done already, and try not to repeat the same formula, but remain true to ourselves and the tradition of the style of music that we play, which is blues, soul music, and rock 'n' roll, a combination of those things." (Release date: 08/11/09)

The timeless Boy Meets Girl: Classic Soul Duets is a collection of 18 duets by R&B artists like Johnnie Taylor, Eddie Floyd, Pervis Staples, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Mavis Staples, and Cleotha Staples, among others. Originally released in 1969, the album hasn't been released on CD before, and this reissue includes the inclusion of two duets that weren't on the original album. (Release date: 08/18/09)

Part of Document's ongoing series archiving the thriving early 20th century Memphis blues scene, Memphis Blues, Vol. 3 spotlights the Memphis Jug Band, featuring the talents of Jenny Pope, guitarist/harpist Will Shade, and guitarist Will Weldon, among others. The album has been remastered, with the best sound restoration possible, and includes extensive liner notes and a discography. (Release date: 08/11/09)