Putumayo Presents Blues Café
Artist: Various Artists
Label: Putumayo in collaboration with the Music Maker Foundation
Released: 2022
Number of Tracks: 10
Duration: 44:37
Website: https://www.putumayo.com/blues-cafe
Review by Craig Whittington
This release is a collection, all tracks are from different artists. The Music Maker Foundation provides financial support to elderly blues musicians and some of the proceeds from this release will go for that purpose. I have absolutely no idea how “Putumayo” is pronounced. There are tracks by some blues legends and a few by performers that are less known, but it’s all the blues we pledge allegiance to. Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, James Cotton with Otis Spann and Muddy Waters, Lurrie Bell, Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, Alabama Slim and Little Freddie King. There was only one song on here that I’d heard before, so they found some deep cuts by the founding fathers. Until I had a listen, I feared that the lesser known folks’ material wouldn’t check all the boxes I need checked. I was wrong, and it was my musical snobbery that got put in check, I’ll own it. Hell, I do stupid stuff every damn day, but I don’t hear music this worthwhile very often.
