The Best Blues Albums Of All Time Ranked
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or “worried notes”), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove. Here are all of the the best Blues albums.
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10. Texas Flood – Stevie Ray Vaughn
“Heavily influenced by Albert King and Jimi Hendrix, Vaughan was a virtuoso guitar slinger from Dallas, Texas, whose meteoric career was cut short by a fatal helicopter crash. Of the five albums he made in his 35 years, this, his debut, is arguably his best, showcasing his compelling fretboard style and commanding tone. Although it includes super-charged versions of Howlin’ Wolf and Buddy Guy songs, the most impressive cuts are the original “Pride & Joy” and the rhythm and blues-rocker, “Love Struck Baby.”
9. Born Under A Bad Sign – Albert King
“Albert King was a massively influential blues musician during his time (as with most of the ‘Kings’). He was best known for his wailing Flying-V guitar playing and howling voice, culminating at a peak with his 1967 album Born Under A Bad Sign, and its title track, which have become almost synonymous with the blues since the album’s release under Stax Records.”
8. The Delta Meets Detroit: Aretha’s Blues – Aretha Franklin
“Though she was reared on gospel music and grew up singing in church, the late “Queen of Soul,” Aretha Franklin, was no stranger to the blues, or what God-fearing Christian folk called “The Devil’s Music.” This compilation draws on bluesy gems from the Memphis-born diva’s Atlantic repertoire, including inspired renditions of “Today I Sing The Blues,” B.B. King’s 1969 smash, “The Thrill Is Gone,” and Cecil Gant’s 1944 hit, “I Wonder.”
7. Let’s Dance Away And Hide Away – Freddie King
“As one of the “Three Kings of the Blues Guitar”, Freddie King’s influence can be heard in the playing of many later guitarists and bluesmen, such as Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. FK had a unique picking style, playing with a mixture of his fingers, a thumb pick, and a finger pick. This technique, combined with his emphatic playing, gave him a uniquely fast, sharp, and aggressive twangy tone.”
6. I Am The Blues – Willie Dixon
“Arguably the poet laureate of the blues, Dixon was born in Mississippi but is synonymous with the postwar Chicago electric style. Though he possessed a distinctive gravelly singing voice and played bass and guitar, he’s more famous as a prolific songwriter; he was responsible for penning some of the key blues songs of the 1950s, including “Spoonful,” “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man,” and “The Little Red Rooster.” He serves up his own striking interpretations of those three blues evergreens on this 1970 LP, the sixth album of his career, on which he sings and plays bass in the company of a smoking band that includes harmonica player Big Walter Horton and Chess Records’ session pianist Lafayette Leake.”
5. At Fillmore East – The Allman Brothers Band
“A legendary group who at their peak represented the pinnacle of southern blues-rock, the Allman Brothers Band was formed in Florida in 1969 and thanks to the dueling guitars of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts quickly made a name for itself. The sextet’s commercial breakthrough came was this incendiary live album, recorded over two nights in rock promoter Bill Graham’s New York venue.”
4. The Real Folk Blues – John Lee Hooker
“John Lee Hooker’s electric Delta blues style and deep, wallowing voice are exceptionally unique in the saturated genre. Hooker’s voice is bellowing, and undeniably blue. The Real Folk Blues is a truly blue album, plodding and passionate and sorrowful, carried by the sheer weight of Hooker’s voice.”
3. King Of The Delta Blues Singers – Robert Johnson
“A pall of myth and legend has clouded the public’s perception of Johnson, a mysterious figure who supposedly sold his soul to the devil in a Faustian pact and died from poisoning aged 27. What is abundantly clear, though, is the visceral power of Johnson’s music, originally released on a series of 78-rpm singles between 1936 and 1937. King Of The Delta Blues Singers was the first-ever compilation of his music and helped Johnson reach a new audience in the 1960s. It contains some of his most famous and influential songs: “Hellhound On My Trail,” “Crossroad Blues,” and “Come On In My Kitchen.”
2. Moanin’ In The Moonlight – Howlin’ Wolf
“This compilation album, released in 1959 under legendary Chess Records, was the debut album from the equally legendary Howlin’ Wolf. It contains some of Wolf’s most popular singles, such as “Smokestack Lightning”. In 2020, Rolling Stone placed the record as 477th on their list of “the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.”
1. Live in Cook County Jail – B.B. King
“One of the Mississippi blues maestro’s more unusual live performances was this one, recorded on September 10, 1970, at an outdoor concert within the walls of a large Chicago penitentiary, where he played to an audience of over 2,000 prison inmates. Backed by a band with horns, King is in majestic form, serving up some of his most famous numbers, including his then-recent hit, “The Thrill Is Gone,” and a medley of his big 1950s R&B hits. The album topped the US R&B charts but proved to be King’s only No. 1 LP.”
