I hadn’t heard of Magic Sam, and I hadn’t heard this song, written before I was born, until it appeared in The Bikeriders.

With its driving raw-boned rhythm it’s perfect for a motorcycle movie, capturing the feeling of riding down the highway.

Samuel Maghett – “Maghett Sam” merging into Magic Sam – was a Chicago bluesman who had moved north from his Mississippi Delta birthplace in 1956 when he was 19.

Learning his trade from records by Little Walter and Muddy Waters, his debut single All Your Love was a local sensation and established the template for his career, showcasing a staccato fingerpicking style on the guitar, with generous use of the tremolo arm.

Sam soon became a name on the city’s new West Side sound in the late 1950s alongside Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, recycling the melody on songs like Everything Gonna Be Alright and Easy Baby, before changing direction for the searing rockabilly number 21 Days In Jail.

After his Army service was cut short when he was jailed for desertion, he returned to recording with another change of style on a version of Fats Domino’s Every Night About This Time, followed by a return to his roots with That’s Why I’m Crying and Out Of Bad Luck.

His most successful song was I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie) in 1963, earning him a UK tour. Two albums followed in 1967, including numbers like You Belong To Me and What Have I Done Wrong, the tribute to his adopted home, Sweet Home Chicago – and this version of J.P.Lenore’s 1955 tune Mama, Mama, Talk To Your Daughter.

Sadly his career ended in 1969 when he died from a heart attack at the age of only 32.

It’s no exaggeration to say John Mayall is the most important figure in the development of rock music in Britain. 

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Here’s a funny thing: I’ve never heard of Ray Agee, or heard his 1971 recording. But I’ve heard the song before – when it was recorded by The Cowboy Junkies.

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What a tune this is! Brilliant by The Rolling Stones, it’s equally brilliant by Jagger’s co-shrieker Merry Clayton, and perhaps even more brilliant in this funked-up version.

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I’ve never heard of Sugar Pie DeSanto before, and I’ll be surprised if anyone here has come across her music. But she deserves wider appreciation.

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One of the last of the old Chicago bluesmen still standing, Buddy Guy is still going strong at the age of 87. And arguably the best. (more…)

Charley Crockett is a new name to me, though I feel I ought to have heard of a guy who’s made 14 albums in nine years. His hybrid of country, blues and soul taps into that sound forged at Muscle Shoals in the late Sixties and Seventies, with smouldering horns and searing blues guitar matched to a country twang.

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Here’s a sultry slice of Southern soul from The Ohio Players’ debut album, long before they became disco-funkateers with a string of hits.

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One of the best riffs of all time when Muddy Waters recorded it back in 1955, it somehow sounds even better in the dextrous hands of George Thorogood a quarter of a century later.

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It’s always dangerous to try messing with perfection but this take on a Gil Scott-Heron classic stands up alongside his tribute to Lady Day and John Coltrane.

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