AMG Review of Taste of the Blues, Vol. 1

Cub Koda
All Music Guide

After his tenure at Chess Records, Lenoir made a handful of 45s for a variety of smaller Chicago labels and this 25 track compilation of largely obscure sides from the Vee-Jay vaults is where you go to find one of them. Although the singular reason for its listing here is the inclusion of the a-side of J.B.'s lone Vee-Jay single( the rocking "Do What I Say"), there's plenty of other classic tracks aboard by Elmore James ("The 12 Year Old Boy" and his original version of "It Hurts Me Too"), Jimmy Reed ("Boogie In The Dark"), Billy Boy Arnold ("Don't Stay Out All Night"), Eddie Taylor ("Bad Boy"), John Lee Hooker ("Tupelo") and the highly unheralded Morris Pejoe ("Hurt My Feelings"). The J.B. track, a thinly disguised version of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say," is a rockin' lost gem.