Looking for Blues with High Fidelity

Lots of excellent recommendations from others. I would also add Buddy Guy - Blues Singer and the great falsetto album Skip James - Blues from the Delta to go along with Muddy Water - Folk Singers stand out fidelity. It isn’t technically a blues album, but Van Morrison and John Lee Hooker - The Healing Game has excellent fidelity. There are so many others, but these are a couple that come to mind.

P.S there is often a wide range of fidelity quality on the same Howlin’ Wolf albums. There is an excellent high fidelity recording of Smokestack Lightnin’ on The Millennium Collection 20th Century Masters. The gain the engineer employed is quite low though.

So many great blues albums! I could go on for hours and write a book about it :).

This seemed like an opportune time to share this piece.

I would suggest eschewing any expectation of elite engineering with this type of music.

Late-1920s-through-mid-1960s recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Blind Willie McTell, Charley Patton, Huddie Ledbetter, Blind Willie Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Johnson, Skip James, Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi Fred McDowell and others are the cream of the crop. Recording quality ranging from rough to acceptable.

If I could have a fast food chain (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Clapton) or real Mexican food, I’ll take the real deal any time.

No amount of slick audio engineering can transform a pretender into a contender.

Mighty Sam McClain, especially “Give it up For Love”

Rocky Athas, especially “Shakin’ the Dust”.

Walter Trout

Recorded on the Telarc lable, Junior Wells, Come On In This House, and Everybody Getting Some, represent one of the masters of Chicago Blues at his finest.  Absolute musts for anyone who loves the blues.  Also, Johnny Winter's LP Roots is a classic.