John Hammond - 1965 - So Many Roads (vinyl 24 96) FLAC

John Hammond - 1965 - So Many Roads
Vinyl rip, 24 bits, 96 KHz

So Many Roads is Hammond's most notable mid-'60s Vanguard album, due not so much to Hammond's own singing and playing (though he's up to the task) as the yet-to-be-famous backing musicians. Three future members of the Band -- Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, and Levon Helm -- are among the supporting cast, along with Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica, and Mike Bloomfield also contributes. It's one of the first fully realized blues-rock albums, although it's not in the same league as the best efforts of the era by the likes of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band or John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. In part that's because the repertoire is so heavy on familiar Chicago blues classics by the likes of Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, and Muddy Waters; in part that's because the interpretations are so reverent and close to the originals in arrangement; and in part it's also because Hammond's blues vocals were only okay. Revisionist critics thus tend to downgrade the record a notch. But in the context of its time -- when songs like "Down in the Bottom," "Long Distance Call," "Big Boss Man," and "You Can't Judge a Book By the Cover" were not as well known as they would become -- it was a punchy, well-done set of electric blues with a rock touch. (AllMusic)

Track list:
01 - Down in the Bottom
02 - Long Distance Call
03 - Who Do You Love
04 - I Want You to Love Me
05 - Judgement Day
06 - So Many Roads, So Many Trains
07 - Rambling Blues
08 - O Yea!
09 - You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover
10 - Gambling Blues
11 - Baby, Please Don't Go
12 - Big Boss Man

Personnel:
John Hammond (g),
Charlie Musselwhite (harmonica),
Robbie Robertson (g),
Levon Helm (d),
Mike Bloomfield (p),
Jimmy Lewis (b),
Eric Hudson (Hammond organ)

Enjoy and share!