Short Cuts

The two latest releases in Craft Recordings’ ongoing, and quite superb, Bluesville reissue series sing the joys electric and acoustic blues from two generations of legendary blues artists. The 180g 1LP Bluesville editions of Buddy Guy’s 1968 live Vanguard debut This Is Buddy Guy! and Scrapper Blackwell’s 1962 Prestige Bluesville classic Mr. Scrapper’s Blues are both being released concurrently today, May 16, 2025. These LPs are a relative bargain, and both of them are worthy of snapping up before they disappear, especially when compared to the cost of clean, rare originals — if you can even find any OG copies of them, that is.

Before I dig down into the nitty-gritties on these two fine albums, let’s first recount the all-important DNA underlying both releases, starting with what we’ve learned from the official Craft Recordings team’s press release: “Both LPs [are] issued on vinyl in partnership with audiophile leader Acoustic Sounds, and feature all-analog mastering by Grammy-nominated engineer Matthew Lutthans (The Mastering Lab). The albums are pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings (QRP) with faithfully reproduced tip-on jackets. Rounding out each title is an insightful obi strip with new notes by Grammy-winning producer, writer, and musician Scott Billington.”

Each LP has a respective SRP of $32.99, and they both can be ordered from Music Direct via the MD link graphics that appear before each LP’s tracklisting section below. At the time of this posting, Craft Recordings themselves have a pretty cool bundle deal that offers both albums for $53 inclusive, which is not a bad amount of savings at all. If you want to get ’em both right now, you can check out that Craft offer right here.

In keeping with most every release I’ve reviewed on AP from the Craft Recordings Bluesville universe (Footnote 1), these two albums sound great in their own unique ways, as they are very different recordings, after all. Both LPs are pressed on dark, black, and well-centered dead-quiet vinyl. The discs come to you perfectly clean, as they each reside in high-quality, audiophile-grade plastic-lined inner sleeves. Also, the LP covers feel super-substantial — indeed, like vintage releases from the 1960s — but they are actually a quite a bit better than that. These covers are more like certain super-sturdy LP releases from the early 1950s — and I mean that in the best possible way!

And with that preamble now out of the way, it’s time to get to each review, with Buddy Guy up first, and Scrapper Blackwell to follow.

BUDDY GUY
THIS IS BUDDY GUY!
180g 1LP (Vanguard/Craft Recordings)
MUSIC: 10
SOUND: 8

If you know modern day blues, then you know Buddy Guy, an icon who emerged on the scene in the 1960s and influenced the likes of Jimi Hendrix, among many other guitar greats. Guy has since gone on to win eight Grammys, in addition to garnering a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as well as being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The man clearly does not rest on his laurels — and seven decades on, he is still going strong, performing live when he can (including partaking in the final date of the 2025 Hendrix Experience tour in Atlanta back in April), and putting out new releases to boot. For many fans, appreciation for Buddy Guy’s music began with his 1968 Vanguard debut live LP, This Is Buddy Guy! (VSD-79290). This scorching set was recorded at Berkeley, California’s then-popular New Orleans House, which is where the Jefferson Airplane spin-off blues-rock band Hot Tuna recorded their own self-titled 1970 RCA debut LP a year later.

I must confess — and am somewhat ashamed to admit — that I didn’t have a copy of This Is Buddy Guy! in my collection prior to this review. However, the reality is, you don’t see a lot of Guy’s early records showing up in the wilds of collecting, or even in many record stores these days. Even though I have seen Guy perform live a couple times over the years, I didn’t yet own this most excellent album, for some odd reason.

That said, when I went to Discogs to check on the relative scarcity for original pressings of This Is Buddy Guy!, I was surprised to find just three copies listed in NM condition, each asking around $80 for the album. Heck, later reissues are not super widely available either — so clearly, a good reissue of this gem of an album was very much in order!

Buddy and his band are on fire all throughout This Is Buddy Guy!, tackling some popular hits of the day but infusing them with his distinctive brand of smokin’ electric blues, well beyond the scope of the originals. I’ve never heard a cover of Eddie Floyd’s classic “Knock on Wood” scorching quite like this funky, bluesy version (Side One, Track 4). And Buddy’s smoky-sexy explosive version of Little Willie John’s 1956 King hit “(You Give Me) Fever” (Side One, Track 3) heats up as well.

Ultimately, many fans like myself get into albums like this one for the guitar playing, and This Is Buddy Guy! is rich in his ripping, overdriven, natural-sounding electric guitar tone. And, as live recordings from back in the day go, it also sounds real good, all things considered. Ratings-wise, the Music on This Is Buddy Guy! gets a 10, and the Sound gets an 8.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea that the Bluesville edition of This Is Buddy Guy! is a keeper for the collection. And again, it also signals the start of a process for me to fill in a sorely vacant void in my own collection that must change right away. (Footnote 2) For any/all comers, starting at the beginning of Buddy Guy’s recording career with This Is Buddy Guy! is an ideal place to do so.

BUDDY GUY
THIS IS BUDDY GUY!
180g 1LP (Vanguard/Craft Recordings)

Side One
1. I Got My Eyes On You
2. The Things I Used To Do
3. (You Give Me) Fever
4. Knock On Wood

Side Two
1. I Had A Dream Last Night
2. 24 Hours Of The Day
3. You Were Wrong
4. I’m Not The Best

SCRAPPER BLACKWELL
MR. SCRAPPER’S BLUES
180g 1LP (Prestige Bluesville/Craft Recordings)
MUSIC: 10
SOUND: 8

Looking back on how I built up much of my music collection, I often discovered vintage rock & roll, jazz, and blues artists randomly by trial and error, finding albums that look interesting along the way while I’ve been cratedigging out in the wilds of record collecting at flea markets, thrift shops, garage sales, etc. Sure, I received (and still get) recommendations from friends, something that I have sought out consistently over the years — but many times, I just wing it and take a chance on things. I enjoy the thrill of discovery! (We bet you do too, at times!)

Case in point: A few years ago, I had the good fortune of walking into an off-the-beaten-track thrift shop that had a sizable stack of used vintage blues, gospel, and jazz albums in their crates in varying conditions. They were cheap, so I grabbed almost all of them — 30 albums in total, for $1 apiece! — as I didn’t own copies of most of them. Among them was a 1966 second pressing on Prestige Bluesville by early bluesman Scrapper Blackwell, Mr. Scrapper’s Blues. This album was recorded in July 1961 — the month I was born, in fact — and initially released in May 1962 on Prestige Bluesville (BV-1047). That 1966 second pressing instantly became one of my favorites among those albums scored that day.

Mr. Scrapper’s Blues finds this legendary bluesman running through many of his classics, accompanied just by his own guitar or piano. It is a warmly intimate recording, with a slightly boxy sound on the guitar — which may be the actual sound of the instrument Blackwell was playing — and nice, round-sounding vocals.

It’s hard to pinpoint favorite tracks, as the album is solid start to finish. I can’t help but reflect on his version of Jimmie Cox’s classic “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” (Side A, Track 2), a 1929 depression-era hit for Bessie Smith that I first heard via a circulating copy of Jorma Kaukonen’s legendary Typewriter Tape demos with Janis Joplin — something that was finally, officially released on vinyl in 2022 by Omnivore as The Legendary Typewriter Tape 6/25/64 (OVLP-495), as sourced from his original master tape. The next track here, “‘A’ Blues” (Side A, Track 3), is a nifty instrumental with some inspiring, fingerpicked soloing going on.

I have since gone on to find handy compilations of Blackwell’s earlier recordings with pianist Leroy Carr, with whom he cut many sides in the 1920s. For one thing, I like the 1973 Yazoo Naptown Blues 1929-1934 LP a bunch. I also like the early-’60s Columbia compilation LP Blues Before Sunrise, which is also a good place to explore early recordings like “How Long Blues” (which the aforementioned Hot Tuna cover on their eponymously titled 1970 RCA debut LP, by the way, the first place I actually heard this song!) and “Mean Mistreater Mama,” which was later covered by the likes of Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, and others. There is much more history to read up on Blackwell’s music beyond the scope of this review, of course, but I think you get the idea that there is some great and important blues music happening here.

And Mr. Scrapper’s Blues also sounds really good too, for a simple recording of this nature. In fact, I think it may sound better than my 1966 second pressing, as this new pressing is certainly much, much quieter. Also, the cover art on the new Bluesville reissue is more true to the 1962 edition — when it was reissued, they printed it in a lighter blue color than what you see below.

Mr. Scrapper’s Blues is the polar opposite of Buddy Guy’s album — itself recorded some seven years earlier (and also in July, by the way!) — but it is no less influential. Blackwell’s music features his tight, single-note fingerpicked acoustic guitar style, which reminds me that I have to try to figure out some of these riffs on my own guitar soon! Ratings-wise, this Music gets a 10, and its Sound gets an 8.

Sadly, Mr. Scrapper’s Blues was to be Blackwell’s last release during his lifetime, as it was issued in May 1962, just a few months before he was sadly killed in an unsolved mugging incident that October. I have to hope that Blackwell would be pleased to know that, 60-plus years on, people are still discovering and grooving on his music. Me, I discovered Scrapper Blackwell’s Mr. Scrapper’s Blues in a willy-nilly random manner, but after you read this review, I hope you can take a more informed plunge into this nice Bluesville series reissue of the original album that both looks and sounds fabulous.

Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.

SCRAPPER BLACKWELL
MR. SCRAPPER’S BLUES
180g 1LP (Prestige Bluesville/Craft Recordings)

Side A
1. Goin’ Where The Monon Crosses The Yellow Dog
2. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out
3. “A” Blues
4. Little Girl Blues
5. George Street Blues

Side B
1. Blues Before Sunrise
2. Little Boy Blues
3. “E” Blues
4. Shady Lane
5. Penal Farm Blues

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Footnote 1: For more of our comprehensive Craft Recordings Bluesville series LP reviews, go here, and scroll down accordingly to see Mark’s takes on Craft’s top-shelf reissues of vintage blues LPs from John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Lonnie Johnson With Elmer Snowden, Albert King, Jimmy Reed, Skip James, and Lightnin’ Hopkins. –MM

Footnote 2: AP editor Mike Mettler notes: As follow-ups, I would suggest seeking out the 2020 180g 1LP Silvertone/Music on Vinyl version of Buddy Guy’s 1991 comeback album Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues (MOVLP2702), and the 2019 180g 1LP Silvertone/Music on Vinyl version of his 1994 Slippin’ In LP (MOVLP2456), which was produced by Eddie Kramer and features Stevie Ray Vaughan’s always in-sync rhythm section — bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton — on most of its tracks. These LPs get 9 and 9.5 for Music, respectively, and both are 8.5 for Sound.