T-BONE WALKER "You're My Best Poker Hand" The Definitive Collection (1940-1959)

"Nicely presented compilation of prime recordings in a 3CD set...remain potent and hypnotic." - MUSIC WEEK
"If Blues guitar is your bag, it all started here...a must for all Blues guitar fans." - 4/5 RECORD COLLECTOR
"this set is simply the best T-Bone anthology since the old Mosaic box-set and, naturally, comes highly recommended." - REAL BLUES MAGAZINET-Bone Walker was crucial to the formulation of modern blues. Lovers of blues piano might not like that fact, but without T-Bone’s innovatory approach to playing the guitar there would have been no B.B. King, no Buddy Guy, no Freddie King, no Eric Clapton, nor any of the plank-spankers who strut the stage at blues festivals and club gigs. The line began with T-Bone, who along with his friend Charlie Christian invented the vocabulary for the amplified guitar.

Christian died early but T-Bone adapted the improvisatory techniques of the jazzmen he encountered, creating free-flowing phrases whose originality became the inescapable language that blues guitarists had to learn. Throughout the late 1940s, T-Bone cut a sequence of singles for labels like Black & White and Capitol that laid the groundwork for what became the prevailing style of blues recording. With musicians of the calibre of Jack McVea, Teddy Buckner, Bumps Meyers, Lloyd Glenn and Willard McDaniel, he created a supple and subtle repertoire of vocal and instrumental artistry that today’s taste for hyperbole would describe as genius. Heard sixty years after their creation, these records, including ‘Mean Old World’, ‘Call It Stormy Monday’ and ‘T-Bone Shuffle’, still impress for the conviction with which they were played. T-Bone transferred to the Imperial label in 1950 but the music continued in an unbroken line of creative superiority, heard in ‘The Hustle Is On’, ‘Strollin’ With Bone’, ‘I Get So Weary’ and ‘Here In The Dark’.

In 1955 he began recording for Atlantic, who issued two singles, ‘Papa Ain’t Salty’ and ‘Play On Little Girl’, part of a sequence of sessions that included one cut in Chicago with Junior Wells on harmonica. These tracks, including remakes of ‘Mean Old World’ and ‘Stormy Monday’, form a fitting climax to a set that encapsulates the sound and expertise of T-Bone Walker, a master of the blues.

trax disc 1:

01 T-Bone Blues 02 I Got A Break Baby 03 Mean Old World 04 My Baby Left Me (Blues) 05 Come Back To Me Baby (Blues) 06 She Is Going To Ruin Me 07 I Can't Stand Being Away From You 08 No Worry Blues 09 Don't Leave Me Baby 10 Bobby Sox Blues 11 I'm Gonna Find My Baby 12 I'm In An Awful Mood 13 It's A Low Down Dirty Deal 14 Don't Give Me The Runaround 15 Hard Pain Blues 16 I Know Your Wig Is Gone 17 T-Bone Jumps Again 18 Call It Stormy Monday 19 She's My Old Time Used To Be 20 Midnight Blues 21 Triflin' Woman Blues 22 Long Skirt Baby Blues 23 Goodbye Blues 24 On Your Way Blues 25 The Natural Blues

trax disc 2:

01 T-Bone Shuffle 02 That's Better For Me 03 Vacation Blues 04 Prison Blues 05 Home Town Blues 06 I'm Gonna Move You Out And Get Somebody Else 07 She's The No-Sleepin'est Woman 08 Plain Old Downhome Blues 09 Born To Be No Good 10 I Want A Little Girl 11 I'm Still In Love With You 12 You're My Best Poker Hand 13 West Side Baby 14 Glamor Girl 15 Strollin' With Bone 16 You Don't Love Me 17 The Hustle Is On 18 Baby Broke My Heart 19 Evil Hearted Woman 20 No Reason 21 Look Me In The Eye 22 Alimony Blues 23 Life Is Too Short 24 You Don't Understand 25 I Get So Weary

trax disc 3:

01 Tell Me What's The Reason 02 Cold, Cold Feeling 03 Get These Blues Off Me 04 Street Walkin' Woman 05 Here In The Dark 06 Party Girl 07 Love Is Just A Gamble 08 I'm Still In Love With You 09 Vida Lee 10 When The Sun Goes Down 11 I'll Always Be In Love With You 12 Teen Age Baby 13 Papa Ain't Salty 14 Why Not? 15 T-Bone Shuffle 16 Play On Little Girl 17 T-Bone Blues Special 18 Mean Old World 19 T-Bone Blues 20 Stormy Monday Blues 21 Blues For Marili 22 Evenin' 23 Blues Rock 24 Two Bones And A Pick 25 Shufflin' The Blues

...served by Gyro1966...