Pure Raw Blues

Despite the billing on this double-disc set, very few of the 40 songs on Pure Raw Blues feature well-known sparring partners Buddy Guy and Junior Wells co-credited. There's a handful of those, numbering even fewer than the cuts that weren't cut in the late '50s and early '60s. These years may not mark the period when the pair were officially playing together, but they often showed up on each other's sessions, several of which are collected here. The sourcing is a little incomplete -- there are dates and information from where the license is derived, but not much more than that -- and this skips around a lot, so it's not necessarily instructional listening. But what is here is often very good, so if it's viewed as a sampler, it's worthwhile. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine