Various Artists – Rare Chicago Blues – 1962-1968 – Bullseye Blues Records CD BB 9530 

Mastered from the original analog recordings to digital tape, this generous 20-song collection released in 1993 captures the following Chicago-affiliated bluesmen from a very bountiful seven-year period; Little Brother Montgomery, John Lee Granderson, Robert Nighthawk, Otis Spann, Big Joe Williams, Johnnie Jones, Reverend Robert Wilkins, Paul Butterfield, Billy Boy Arnold, James Cotton, Elvin Bishop, Robert Pete Williams, and Maxwell Street Jimmy (Davis), either solo or in combinations of two, three, and four.

There is not a single throw away cut among the bunch, and the songs range in such diverse blues styles as to render this collection a thoroughly refreshing listen.  By the time of these efforts, the blues heydays of Chicago’s late 1940s and 1950s were long in the rearview mirror, but what is demonstrated here is just how profoundly dedicated and deep still was Chicago’s blues sphere.

This CD acts as a time capsule of sorts when these blues artists were still at the lofty zeniths of their crafts, and to sit back and bear witness to these works of blues art is indeed time very well spent.

This is not a compilation that this reviewer would deem essential; however, this is top-shelf blues.  Without qualification!

This collection is truly a feast for the ears and most certainly worthy of being in any serious blues collection

Highly-recommended, indeed!