Album review : SHAKE THAT THING ! The Blues In Britain 1963-73

Cherry Red [Release date 22.09.23]

Without the blues, there would be no rock’n’roll. That’s the history.

This 73 track, 3 CD package is an extensive collection of recordings by British bands and solo artists, all heavily influenced by American Blues.

In the 10 years between 1963 and 1973, these artists shaped the UK blues / rock genre into what eventually became known as Seventies Classic Rock.

There’s a bunch of of them who stayed true to their school – like Alexis Korner, Alex Harvey, John Mayall, Bert Jansch and The Climax Chicago Blues Band – all of whom ploughed a straight as an arrow blues furrow, often at the expense of commercial success. They are all here.

The research that’s gone into this collection is so impressive. The psychedelic Folk Blues of ‘Down And Out’, from Trader Horne’s one and only, 1970 album Morning Way (1st pressing now on sale Ebay for £400) is here.

The duo, John McAuley, ex Gene Vincent’s touring band, and Judy Dyble, ex Fairport Convention went on to help found Mungo Jerry. Funnily enough, whose song, ‘San Francisco Bay Blues’ sits right next to it on CD3. And even more funnily enough, sitting right next to that is McAuley’s pretty convincing version of Leadbelly classic, ‘Poor Howard’.

We are truly going deep now. The “died far too young” John Martyn has a great, self penned track on here: ‘Going Down To Memphis’, a tongue in cheek “blues song” that turned out to be most unfortunately prophetic for this flawed genius.

There’s plenty of mainstream, commercially facing blues songs/ bands here too. Humble Pie, Taste, Rory Gallagher, Long John Baldry, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, The Animals, Savoy Brown and many others.

Real highlights are two fabulous tracks from Pete Green’s Fleetwood Mac. ‘The World Keeps On Turning’, later rewritten by Christine McVie and Lindsay Buckingham in the later iteration of the band, and a pithy version of the great Robert Johnson’s 1937 classic, ‘Hellhound on My Trail’.

Get the package, learn a little bit of UK Blues history. *****

Review by Brian McGowan

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)