Charlie Musselwhite - Juke Joint Chapel (2013) CD-Rip

Among the most celebrated harmonica players in the blues, Charlie Musselwhite rose to fame as part of the blues-rock explosion of the mid- to late '60s. Despite that, while he hasn't been averse to collaborating with rock musicians, his heart has always been firmly rooted in the blues, and his sound is a potent, muscular blend of rootsy Delta blues influences and the harder-edged tone of classic Chicago blues (a fitting blend given his formative years in Memphis and Chicago). Musselwhite is also a performer whose passion is matched by solid technique, and after overcoming an addiction to alcohol in the late '80s, he welcomed the most productive and popular period of his career after more than two decades in the music business. Though his allegiance to the blues is strong, he knows how to fuse his style with a wide variety of artists; few other instrumentalists of any stripe could successfully record with John Lee Hooker, Cyndi Lauper, and Tom Waits. Highlights of his recording career include his striking debut on 1967's Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band; 1993's In My Time, the best of his early-'90s comeback albums for Alligator Records; 2000's Up and Down the Highway Live: 1986, one of the best of his many live albums, and 2013's Get Up!, the first of two collaborations with Ben Harper that won the veteran bluesman his first Grammy Award. They followed with No Mercy in This Land in 2018. 100 Years of Blues followed in 2020, and Mississippi Son landed in 2022.

~ Mark Deming, All Music