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No bluesman has ever gotten more mileage out of a single riff than Elmore James, who provided a pivotal, plugged-in transition between the country blues of Robert Johnson and the electrified urban blues. The raw propulsion of his slide-guitar signature that introduces "Dust My Blues" (earlier recorded and more popularly known as "Dust My Broom," a song that James learned from Johnson) has inspired every blues-based rock guitarist from Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan, and that lick drives a third of this compilation's 18 tracks. While selections such as "Lost Woman Blues" and "I Believe" are transparent "Dust" clones, James shows a little more range on selections that extend from the piano boogie of "Rock My Baby Right" to the jump-blues instrumental of "Hawaiian Boogie" (featuring call-and-response interplay with saxophonist J.T. Brown) to the doo-wop harmonies of "Goodbye Baby." One of the many collections that feature James's original recording of "Dust My Broom" and his classic "The Sky Is Crying" would provide a better introduction to his influential artistry, yet the live-wire immediacy of both his vocals and guitar provides plenty of power surges throughout this grab-bag selection. --Don McLeese