Blues Review of the 20th Century

TopCat Records of Dallas, Texas has announced the release of the CD, The Blues Revue Of The 20th Century - Volume 1, culled from the Lost Tapes of a 1971 concert tour featuring blues greats Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner, George "Harmonica" Smith, J.B. Hutto, and Bee Houston. The tour was managed by the late Link Wyler, Big Mama Thornton's manager at the time. Thanks to Wyler's Hollywood connections, the MCA Mobile Studio was hired on to record the audio using, at the time, state-of-the-art equipment and techniques,. The tour played Universities and prisons in Washington and Oregon with several hours of footage alone from the State Prison in Monroe, WA. Richard Chalk, president of TopCat Records, calls it "...the greatest concert film and audio collection of it's kind in existence; a goldmine of classic blues from the original Masters of the artform ." TopCat Records plans to release a series of videos and CDs to be culled from the footage, including last years' release of the Handy Award winning Muddy Waters - Lost Tapes CD on the Blind Pig label. Surely blues fans the world over will be overjoyed with this great discovery. Just to imagine Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton and George Smith in their prime for actual hours of never heard or seen before 'live' performances is mind-boggling and mouth- watering.