Last year was the year of the blues, at least in the US. To be honest, every year should be year of the blues, for if there’s any genre that has helped shape the many faces of the music world, it’s the blues. Fortunately for fans of the blues, there are labels which don’t need some commemorative excuse to release a record, and American Blues is in fact not the first collection of blues from Putumayo.

This time, the accent is obviously on American artists, and who better to kick off the jam than the legendary BB King. He’s not the only star here either, with Albet Collins, Otis Rush, Taj Mahal, Robert Cray and Solomon Burke spicing up the line-up. It’s a balanced collection too, with Ruth Brown’s purist Good Day For The Blues outlining the blues’ slower side and Sunpie Barnes’ Romp and Stomp dishing out a more boogied-up style. Fantastic as only the blues can be!