King of the Blues
Chicago blues guitar firebrand Freddie King did his best and definitive recording for the Federal label in the early '60s, when he helped define the Windy City's hard-edged West Side sound. Sadly, none of that material is included on these two CDs. However, we do get to hear King take a rare turn on acoustic guitar (on Elmore James's "Dust My Broom" and Jimmy Rogers "Walking by Myself") and rip through his late-career signature "Going Down" as well as 38 other tracks. There's also a half-dozen unreleased cuts, including a version of his classic "Hide Away." But too much of this stuff--tunes like John Fogerty's "Lodi," "Ain't No Sunshine," "Gimme Some Lovin'"--seems like a bad producer's notion of what King needed to record to reach a rock audience. Thankfully the strength of his vocals and gutsy guitar carry most of these performances. --Ted Drozdowski