The blues road is getting very narrow. You can count the truly cool purveyors on one hand. One of the blues roadside joints with the brightest lights, not to mention the coldest beer and rollin'st dance floor, is Blind Pig Records. Doing bidness in the same location since 1977, Blind Pig Records.
Blind Pig Records started out as an all the way live blues bar. That's how you're supposed to do it. It was the coolest blues bar the Ann Arbor-Detroit, Michigan area had ever seen. The Blind Pig Café earned a deep reputation for setting out blues playboys with a whole lotta soul. It was standard procedure for the bar to offer up Johnny Shines, Boogie Woogie Red, J.B. Hutto and The Hawks, Walter Horton, and Hound Dog Taylor (I'll never forget watching Hound Dog drink whiskey out of beer mug, filled to the top, at 4 am in the Blind Pig basement...rocking till sun up, those were the days), to name just a few. The Blind Pig Record label naturally fell out of this rolling barroom action. The label still captures the essence of that groove in every tune they slap onto a disk. Listen...close your eyes...can you hear it? Somebody just broke a beer bottle on the floor...a couple just slipped out the back door...a jealous husband came in the front...the band's driving it hard in open E...the joints packed. It must be on the Blind Pig Records label.
This 25th anniversary collection of blues scientists spans not only 25 years of recording history, but a whole lot more time and distance in talent. Dig it deep, from Muddy Waters to Jimmy Thackery, from Johnny Dyer to Bill Perry, from Magic Slim to Deborah Coleman - this is serious blues space and time. On a scale of 1 to 5 stars this collection is solid 6 stars tribute. You need this double disk set not only at the home AND at the office but on the dashboard of your sled too. I think of this record label as my ankle holster piece of the blues, solid blues back up in any situation. You can also think of Blind Pig Records as square insurance. If you should find yourself in a lame musical situation, maybe one of your little sister's parties or a shopping center opening, just put on any Blind Pig Records recording - problem solved, babe.
Thank you, Blind Pig Records for serving us well over the past quarter century. Stay on it, you loveable little knuckleheads. Keep up the good work, you all deserve raises.