Elmore James: Blues After Hours 180g Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This 180g edition adds 6 bonus tracks to the complete album. Elmore James, the King of the Slide Guitar, joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

This edition

6 bonus tracks
180g vinyl
Pressed in the EU

About the album

One electrifying slide riff can carry a whole career, and Elmore James's opening lick from "Dust My Broom" just about did. He first recorded the Robert Johnson song in 1951 in Jackson, Mississippi, and it became a surprise R&B hit the next year, launching a run of records built on loud amplification, a stirring voice and that ringing bottleneck.

Blues After Hours gathers his recordings for the Bihari brothers, whose talent scout was a young Ike Turner, and his backing band, the Broomdusters, keeps everything rocking. "Dust My Blues" revisits the famous riff, "Standing At The Crossroads" and "Sunnyland" crackle, and "Dark And Dreary" smoulders. The bonus tracks bring in later gems, including "It Hurts Me Too" and the anguished "The Sky Is Crying." His vocals have a raw urgency that matches the guitar, and the band rolls along behind him like a freight train.

Guitarists from rock to blues have borrowed that slide sound ever since, and "Shake Your Moneymaker" still fills dance floors. The title King of the Slide Guitar has never been seriously contested, mainly because nobody wanted to go first.

Also at Kops: more Elmore James on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Side A
1. Dust My Blues [aka Dust My Broom]
2. Sunnyland
3. Mean and Evil
4. Dark and Dreary
5. Standing at the Crossroads
6. Shake Your Moneymaker
7. The Sun Is Shining
8. I Can't Hold Out [aka Talk to Me Baby]

Side B
1. Happy Home
2. No Love in My Heart (For You)
3. Blues Before Sunrise
4. I Was a Fool
5. Goodbye Baby
6. It Hurts Me Too
7. Madison Blues
8. The Sky Is Crying