Top 100 Country Blues Favorites (1960s to today)

These are my personal favorite country blues and acoustic blues records because people have repeatedly asked me to advise them. They are not compiled from musicological research but they are albums that I own and love. As a disclaimer, I should say that I have always felt it presumptuous for anyone to make a list and call it “definitive” simply based on their own perspective. This is just personal opinion, that’s all.

1. Blind Connie Williams – Philadelphia Street Singer – Testament
2. Snooks Eaglin – Country Boy in New Orleans – Arhoolie
3. Muddy Waters – Folk Singer – Chess
4. Ry Cooder – Boomer’s Story – Warner Brothers
5. Mississippi Big Joe Williams and his Nine String Guitar – Smithsonian Folkways
6. Mississippi John Hurt – Avalon Blues 1963 – Rounder
7. Big Bill Broonzy – Trouble in Mind – Smithsonian Folkways
8. Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing – Smithsonian Folkways
9. Snooks Eaglin – New Orleans Street Singer – Smithsonian Folkways
10. Philadelphia Jerry Ricks – Deep in the Well – Rooster Records
11. The Best of Mississippi Fred McDowell – Arhoolie
12. Brownie McGhee – Sings the Blues – Smithsonian Folkways
13. John Lee Hooker – The Country Blues of John Lee Hooker – Riverside
14. Brownie McGhee Blues – Sings – Smithsonian Folkways
15. Big Joe Williams and Short Stuff Macon – Hell Bound and Heaven Sent- Smithsonian Folkways
16. Bonnie Raitt – Give it up – Warner Brothers
17. Bukka White – Big Daddy – Biograph
18. Woody Guthrie – Dust Bowl Ballads – Rounder (yeah, it’s blues to my ears)
19. Josh White – Free and Equal Blues – Smithsonian Folkways
20. Joseph Spence – Good Morning Mr. Walker – Arhoolie (yeah, it’s blues to my ears)
21. Big Bill Broonzy – House Rent Stomp – Blues Encore
22. Lightnin’ Hopkins – How Many More Year I Got – Fantasy
23. Mississippi John Hurt – Legend – Rounder
24. Mance Lipscomb – Live at the Cable – Arhoolie
25. Blind Mississippi Morris and Brad Webb – Back Porch Blues – Boogie Barbecue
26. James Cotton – Deep in the Blues – Verve
27. Honeyboy Edwards – Delta Bluesman – Indigo
28. Little Sammy Davis – I ain’t lyin’ – Delmark
29. Rev. Gary Davis – If I had my way – Smithsonian Folkways
30. Furry Lewis – Voice and Guitar – Smithsonian Folkways
31. Son House – The Legendary Son House: Father Of Folk Blues – Columbia
32. Big Joe Williams – Blues on Highway 49 – Delmark
33. Little Whitt and Big Bo – Moody Swamp Blues- Vent Records
34. Taj Mahal – The Natchl Blues – Columbia/Legacy
35. Brownie McGhee – The Folkways Years – 1945-1959 – Smithsonian Folkays
36. Pink Anderson – Carolina Medicine Show Hokum & Blues – Smithsonian Fokways
37. Son House & JD Short – Blues from the Mississippi Delta – Smithsonian Folkways
38. Sleep John Estes – Newport Blues – Delmark
39. John Jackson – Country Blues & Ditties – Arhoolie
40. John Jackson – Front Porch Blues – Alligator
41. Maria Muldauer – Richland Woman Blues – Stony Plain
42. Archie Edwards – The Toronto Sessions – Northern Blues
43. Arthel “Doc” Watson – Country Blues Collection 1964-1998 – Sugarhill Records
44. James Blood Ulmer – The Sun Sessions – Label M pulse
45. Guitar Gabriel – Deep in the South – Music Maker
46. Taj Mahal- The Best of Taj Mahal – Columbia
47. Ed Gerhard – Sunnyland – Virtue Records
48. Memphis Slim – The Folkways Years – 1959-1973 – Smithsonian Folkways
49. Bob Dylan – World Gone Wrong – Columbia
50. Lonnie Pitchford – All Around Man – Rooster Blues
51. Robert Belfour – What’s Wrong with You – Fat Possum
52. Sonny Boy Williamson – King Biscuit Time – Arhoolie
53. Kenny Neal & Billy Branch – Double Take – Alligator
54. Tony Furtado – Roll my blues away – Rounder
55. Washboard Chaz & Roberto Luti – Trio – Dog Days – Corrugated Records
56. Howard Armstrong – Louis Bluie – Arhoolie
57. Jesse Mae Hemphill – She-Wolf – HMG HighTone
58. Guy Davis – Chocolate to the Bone – Red House
59. Elizabeth Cotten – Shake Sugaree – Smithsonian Folkways
60. Cephas & Wiggins – Homemade – Alligator
61. Alvin Youngblood Hart – Big Mana’s Door- Okeh
62. Keb’ Mo’- Keb’ Mo’ – Okeh
63. Jimmy Thackery & John Mooney – Sideways in Paradise – Blind Pig
64. Otis Taylor – White African – Northern Blues
65. Ted Hawkins – The Next Hundred Years – DGC
66. Kelly Joe Phellps- Lead Me On – Burnside
67. John Hammond – John Hammond – Rounder
68. John Hammond – Frogs for Snakes – Rounder
69. Sheila Wilcoxson – Backwater Blues – Burnside Records
70. Blind Mississippi Morris – You Know I like that – Icehouse Records
71. Snookey Pryor – Shake my Hand – Blind Pig
72. John Long – Lost & Found – DeltaGroove
73. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells – Alone and Acoustic – Alligator
74. Lil’ Son Jackson – Blues Come to Texas – Arhoolie
75. Corey Harris – Fish Ain’t Bitin’ – Alligator
76. Robert Lockwood, Jr. – Delta Crossroads – Telarc
77. Paul Geremia – The Devil’s Music – Red House
78. Jimmy “Duck” Holmes – Back to Betonia – Broke & Hungry Records
79. Cootie Stark – Sugar Man – Music Maker
80. Paul Oscher – Alone with the Blues – Electro-Fi
81. CW Stoneking – Jungle Blues – King Hokum Records
82. Toby Walker – Shake, Shake Mama – Bugpie Music
83. Buddy Guy – Blues Singer – Silvertone
84. Eric Bibb – Good Stuff – Opus (Sweden)
85. Doug MacLeod – Come to Find – Audioquest
86. Ernie Payne – Coercion Street – Crossroads
87. Paul Rishell & Annie Raines – I want you to know – Tone Cool
88. Leon Redbone – Lazy River – Rounder
89. Chris Smither – Small Revelations- Hightone
90. Roy Book Binder – Live at the Fur Peace Station- Peg Leg Records
91. Catfish Keith – Jitterbug Swing – Fishtail Records
92. Rory Block – Gone Woman Blues – Rounder
93. Harry Manx – Dog My Cat – Northern Blues
94. Chris Cotton – I Watched the Devil Die – Yellow Dog
95. David Jacobs Strain – Ocean for a Teardrop – Northern Blues
96. Colin Linden – Big Mouth – Accord
97. Maria Muldauer – Sweet Lovin’ Ol’ Soul – Stony Plain
98. Anders Osborne – Living Room – Shanachie Records
99. Stan Hirsch – Covered in Blues
100. K.C. Douglas – Mercury Blues – Arhoolie