Steve Knopper

Johnny B. Moore Rockin' in the Same Old Boat (Delmark) Veteran West Side blues guitarist Johnny B. Moore recorded this album before suffering a stroke in July. According to his...

Jimmy Burns Back to the Delta (Delmark) Fifty-year Chicago resident Jimmy Burns makes blues-guitar records, but not in the way everybody else makes blues-guitar records these days. Rather than instruct...

Live at Ground Zero (Deep Rush) Not to be confused with the veteran Chicago politician, bluesy showman Bobby Rush has been a fixture on the "chitlin' circuit" -- a loose...

Long Time Coming (A&M) Jonny Lang's fans knew the "teen phenom" tag wouldn't last forever -- his voice was bound to deepen and his late-'90s "Hanson with the Blues" reputation...

St. James Infirmary (The Sirens) At 67, Chicago pianist Erwin Helfer no longer bothers with fancy solos. He aims for soul and feeling, as you can tell on his sad...

Hanapepe Dream (Tone-Cool) When most people travel, they bring home souvenirs. Taj Mahal, a practicing American bluesman since the mid-'60s, brings entire musical cultures. After collaborating with West African musicians...

Black Keys Thickfreakness (Anti-/Fat Possum) This duo strips down the blues into something as raw and minimalist as late-'60s garage rock or late-'70s punk. But what distinguishes "Thickfreakness" from similarrecordings...

Robert Belfour Pushin' My Luck (Fat Possum/Epitaph) Blues singer Robert Belfour is far quieter than R.L. Burnside, T-Model Ford and the rest of his northern Mississippi colleagues who record for...

Yardbirds Birdland (Favored Nations Entertainment) Tons of familiar-name bands go around these days without the superstar players that made them famous -- CCR, for example, makes a comfortable living on...

Marcia Ball So Many Rivers (Alligator) After three decades and nine albums of boogie-woogie piano, Austin, Texas, roadhouse fixture Marcia Ball isn't about to climb any mountains, stop any wars...