

With its searing fretboard licks, the album is a quintessential example of the guitarist’s flamboyant electric blues style. A compelling synthesis of seasoned blues standards (Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “Too Tired”) and potent original material (“Avalanche”), Ice Pickin’ was Collins’ sixth long-player and, arguably, his best. Albert Collins: Ice Pickin’ (Alligator, 1978)īorn Albert Gene Drewery in Texas and nicknamed “The Ice Man,” Collins was a cousin of blues maven Lightnin’ Hopkins but was inspired to sing and take up the guitar after hearing a John Lee Hooker record. Listen to 100 Years Of The Blues on Apple Music and Spotify, and scroll down for our list of the best blues albums ever. How many do you have? And just as importantly, what have we missed? Let us know in the comments below. Suffice to say, every album here should be in any discerning blues fan’s collection. We have given you our list of the best blues albums alphabetically, having given up trying to number. Then there are some albums that you may not know, like Blind Mississippi Morris’s Back Porch Blues, Koerner, Ray & Glover’s Blues, Rags and Hollers, and Tampa Red’s Don’t Tampa With the Blues they are all equally worthy of inclusion. There are blues albums that everyone acknowledges as among the best – Robert Johnson’s King of The Delta Blues Singers, Junior Wells’s Hoodoo Man Blues, Albert King’s Born Under a Bad Sign, and Magic Sam’s West Side Soul.
