Jimmy Reed: I'm Jimmy Reed (LP)

"I'm Jimmy Reed" emphasizes the very raw nature of the recordings, but immediately showed why his music was so highly regarded by others, as the songs offered more melody and variety than other blues players. "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby" has fine melodic hooks that can easily be turned into rocking versions, while "Boogie In The Dark" set the template for so many groups in the sixties. The slower tracks like "You Got Me Crying" and "Little Rain" provide useful contrasts, while "Honest I Do" gives new meaning to the term "stripped down". Jimmy Reed was by far the most commercially successful bluesman in America during the 1950s, and as such his material was readily available to be plundered by artists looking to enrich their live repertoire. This reached its peak during the British beat boom, when virtually every working group included his songs in their sets. The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Them and The Animals covered his songs extensively in the first half of the sixties. "I'm Jimmy Reed", a compilation of singles from 1953 and 1958, is Jimmy Reed's first full-length LP. Originally released in 1958 on Vee-Jay Records, this album includes "Ain't That Lovin' You Baby", which reached #8 on the Billboard R&B charts. This reissue is pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in a replica tip-on sleeve. Record Collector Magazine praised the album as "arguably the first great blues album" and a "testament to the exciting talent of one of the music genre's most influential figures".