If there's a blues harmonica player alive today who doesn't have this
landmark album in their collection, they're either lying or had their
copy stolen by another harmonica player. This 12-song collection is the
one that every harmonica player across the board cut their teeth on. All
the hits are here: "My Babe," "Blues With a Feeling,"
"You Better Watch Yourself," "Off the Wall," "Mean
Old World," and the instrumental that catapulted him from the sideman
chair in Muddy Waters' band to the top of the R&B charts in 1952,
"Juke." Walter's influence to this very day is so pervasive
over the landscape of the instrument that this collection of singles is
truly one of the all-time greatest blues harmonica albums, one of the
all-time greatest Chicago blues albums, and one of the first ten albums
you should purchase if you're building your blues collection from the
ground floor up.
(by Cub Koda , All Music
Guide)
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While the other players in Muddy Waters' band were electrifying the blues,
Little Walter was doing something unprecedented. Holding his harmonica
and a microphone in his cupped hands, Walter attacked the instrument with
the authority of the bop sax players who'd influenced him, bringing a
dynamic new sound to Chicago blues. In 1952, after Walter's own "Juke"
topped the R&B charts, he started his own group. Walter was a disciplined
musician, but he had less control of his personal life. "He was hellacious
when he drank," said Lazy Lester Johnson. Walter died at thirty-seven
after suffering head injuries in a street fight.
(Rolling Stone)
Total album sales: Under 500,000
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