1988
Years Since Yesterday by the Paladins
The Paladins were formed by Dave Gonzalez in SoCal and released their first small label album in 1987. Their second, put out by Alligator Records, was a no-frills blues jam, with a touch of rockabilly. The title track kicks things off in fine blues fashion, while its follow-up, “Good Lovin’,” cranks up a raucous folk-blues vibe in a killer train song. Then, there is a rough-and-tumble cover of Titus Turner’s “Going Down to Big Mary’s.”
The rest of the album is filled with top-flight blues. There’s an organ on the up-tempo “She’s Fine,” and another one on the majestic “You and I.” In between, Steve Berlin is credited with the “voodoo bass” on “Your New Love.” They end with a series of high-octane rocking blues tunes, closing out one of the most energetic blues albums of the decade. The Paladins split up in 2004 but reformed in 2011 and are still cranking out blues today.
Superfuzz Bigmuff by Muhoney
It would be a few more years before grunge would push to the forefront of popular music, but it didn’t exactly spring out of Seattle’s skull fully formed like a rock & roll Athena. What would become known as Nirvana’s bailiwick was being developed by plenty of bands in the Northwest throughout the ‘80s. Mudhoney was among the very best. On their initial EP, they blast through six tracks in 23 minutes and set a pattern that many other bands would soon ride to success.
Mark Arm’s guitar and tortured vocals on the opening track “Need” could easily be mistaken for Cobain and Nirvana. He devotes more time to an actual solo, but his lyrics – “You’re killing me and I’m killing you – You can’t keep me from what I got to do” – are as grungy as they come. “Chain That Door” rides Dan Peters’ drums, mining a more pure punk vein, but “Mudslide” is back to that slow, sludgy sound, opening with the line “I got a mouthful of dirt.”
“In ‘n’ Out of Grace” opens with Peter Fonda’s plea from the biker movie The Wild Angels – proclaiming “We want to be free – and we want to get loaded.” Then the band hammers home that message, titling to the more metal side of grunge. The EP that came out in 1988 is dynamite, and it would be embellished with subsequent editions that included other singles, including Mudhoney’s most iconic late ‘80s number, “Touch Me I’m Sick.”
1928 Sessions by Mississippi John Hurt
As you may be able to tell from the title, this was not exactly a new collection of songs in 1988. It was a remastering of a group of tracks recorded sixty years earlier by one of the most important practitioners of delta blues. The recordings are almost 100 years old now, but Hurt’s voice and guitar still carry as much weight as most music produced today.
Whether it’s the spry syncopated optimism of “Ain’t No Tellin’,” the classic storytelling take on “Stack O’Lee Blues,” or the bawdy fun of “Candy Man Blues,” complete with his “stick of candy just nine-inch long,” Hurt’s fingerpicking is sublime, and his sweet voice can be pretty or world-weary – often both at the same time. On 1928 Sessions, you get thirteen tracks, every one a classic.
They are cleaned up nicely but still retain some cracks and pops to place them on their time. Other highlights include his take on “Frankie and Johnny” -- or in this case, Albert – entitled “Frankie” and his song about missing home, “Avalon.” Alongside albums from Skip James and Robert Johnson, a must for any fan of acoustic blues.
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