25 More Sun Blues Classics

Performer: Various Artists
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Compilation producers: Cary E. Mansfield, Bill Dahl. Includes liner notes by Bill Dahl. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Liner Note Author: Bill Dahl. Recording information: Sun Recording Studios, Memphis, TN (10/09/1952-04/07/1962). Photographer: Bill Dahl. Because it digs into the second layer of blues recorded at Sun Records, this CD, unlike its predecessor, Sun Records: 25 Blues Classics, doesn't contain the handful of Sun blues recordings that might be familiar to the non-specialist (Junior Parker's "Mystery Train," Rufus Thomas' "Bear Cat," Billy "The Kid" Emerson's "Red Hot"). Those songs were on 25 Blues Classics, and for that reason alone, Sun Records: 25 More Blues Classics is a little less valuable. Still, Sun's blues catalog was deep and worthy enough to make this second dip another good sampling of early electric Memphis blues, almost all of it recorded between 1952 and 1955, ten of those tracks unissued at the time (though a couple more modern-sounding items from 1962 close out the set). Plenty of big blues and R&B names are represented, too: Parker, Thomas, Emerson, Walter Horton, Earl Hooker, Doctor Ross, and James Cotton. There are a bunch of names, though, that remain little-known outside blues collecting circles, like Charlie Booker, Boyd Gilmore, Kenneth Banks, Hot Shot Love, Eddie Snow, Sammy Lewis, and Frank Ballard. This track selection might confine its appeal to the small niche between general blues fans and the type of obsessive collectors who probably have all of this stuff on imports and box sets. But if you do fall in the category of listeners who want fairly but not massively deep blues libraries, this is a good-value trek into the less-exposed regions of Sun blues. The sound and performances are primal and recorded with effective starkness, and though the variety of approaches isn't huge, it does encompass some ballads, piano blues, and boogies in addition to the more guitar- and harmonica-driven, uptempo sleek raunchy stuff that is the most esteemed section of Sun's blues output. It's a little odd, however, that there's nothing from a couple of the more prominent blues-R&B names on Sun's roster, Little Milton and Rosco Gordon. ~ Richie Unterberger

Rolling Stone (2/20/03, p.67) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Heavy on the obscurities, demonstrating the depth of Sun's roster..."

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