Sunday, July 18, 2010

Magic Sam's Blues Band - West Side Soul


Appropriately titled, Magic Sam encompasses soul and blues and mixes it into a terrific combination that reminds you of plenty of other greats (hints of Bo Diddley/John Lee Hooker here, Muddy Waters/Willie Dixon there, Otis Rush somewhere else, etc) while sounded wholly original.

Sam's voice stands out as one of the stronger ones from the Chicago scene, but his guitar screams and stings and bobs and weaves and works with the band not unlike Steve Cropper in Booker T and the MG's. This is definitely the blues, but with a strong soul feel to it, as well.

This is another cat that I've read about for ages, but hadn't heard til now, but will be playing this often. Truly superb!