Jimmy Rogers - Chicago Bound

Jimmy Rogers is best known as one of Muddy Waters' trusty guitar sidemen, though he also had own solo career, encouraged by the great Muddy, who played on many of Rogers' tracks. I already reviewed a Best Of his here, and there are some overlap with these two releases, of course, but this is well worth owning, as well.

I love Rogers' voice and guitar stylings, whether on his own or working with Waters and here he is also assisted by the genius of Little Walter, along with other Chicago stalwarts Otis Spann, Willie Dixon, Fred Below, Big Crawford, Elgin Evans and more. Everything here is high-quality Chicago blues, in the style of Muddy but with Rogers' personal touches, of course.

Everyone is top notch and damn, just hearing Little Walters' work is worth the price of admission by itself - listen to him blow on "Act Like You Love Me"! For some variety, there's some great piano/sax workouts in "Back Door Friend", doubled vocals on "Last Time", jumpin' jive in "Sloppy Drunk", hits like "That's All Right", the swingin' title cut and the great closer "Walking By Myself".

Another fantastic example of the best of Chicago blues by some of the best players in that city.