It's That Riff Again

Elmore James was a huge infuence with young white musicians in the blues boom of the sixties but whereas many of his contemporaries such as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf lived long enough to enjoy at least some benefits from this unexpected interest and popularity, James died of a heart attack in 1963 while still in his forties. A master of the electrified slide guitar style, he has been made gentle fun of for the remarkable number of times that he re-recorded his signature tune Dust My Broom with just the very slightest of variations. It is a great number regardless, and there are enough slow blues and a few other differing up tempo tracks to make this compilation disk of 22 tracks, called The Sky Is Crying, a feast of late fifties / early sixties hard driving Chicago blues. As well as his slide, the songs often benefit from forceful horn sections. His distinctive harsh voice falls somewhere between Robert Johnson, who he is rumoured to have met, and Howlin' Wolf while another old companion Sonny Boy Williamson occasionally contributes harmonica. Because his death just per-dated the blues explosion and because there doesn't seem to be any film footage of him performing, he retains something of the air of mystery that surrounds Robert Johnson but as long as blues is played, someone somewhere will be churning out that riff and uttering those short asides of encouragement.