A while back, I reviewed Magic Slim’s Rooster Blues classic, Grand Slam. He is one of 20 artists featured on the Rooster Blues sampler, Rooster Blues Records, 1980-2000.

Among the other artists featured here are Carey and Lurrie Bell, Eddy Clearwater (whose The Chief is considered one of the best Chicago blues albums of the 80s), and Eddie and Vaan Shaw.

Other artists who did their first recording for Rooster are also featured, among them are Lonnie Shields, Johnny Rawls (with L. C. Luckett), and Mississippi John Hurt disciple "Philadelphia" Jerry Ricks. Some of Mississippi’s finest are represented as well (Booba Barnes, Robert "Bilbo" Walker, Big Jack Johnson and his nephew, the one and only Super Chikan).

There are several artists here who have since passed on (Barnes, Larry Davis, Valerie Wellington, Foree "Guitar" Wells, Good Rockin’ Charles, and Lonnie Pitchford).

Among the highlights are Shields’ "Fistful of Dollars" (from his wonderful debut album, Portrait), Davis’ "Worried Dream," Carey and Lurrie Bell’s modernized take on "Rollin’ and Tumblin’," Rawls and Luckett’s "Can’t Sleep at Night" (one of the better soul/blues CDs of recent years).

Also featured is Super Chikan’s "Down in the Delta," which won Living Blues’ Critics Award for Best Blues Song in 1998. One thing that jumps out at you is that even though Rooster Blues’ output has been somewhat limited over the last twenty years, it has been consistently excellent.

Most of the material sampled here represents all of the various artists at their best. Founder Jim O’Neal’s main interest was in capturing the sounds of these artists to make it seem like you were actually listening to them live in their normal settings. He stayed out of the way as much as possible.

Chances are that you have probably never even heard some of these songs before (Rooster has always scored better with the critics than with the record-buying public, mostly due to distribution problems in the past), but that shouldn’t stop you from checking out this excellent, budget-priced sampler. It’s seventy-plus minutes of the best blues you’ve never heard.