Consumer Guide Album

Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers: Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers [Alligator, 1971]
This had been around for a while when, in a low mood, I innocently put it on after three sides of Warner Bros. rock and roll as folk Muzak--the new Youngbloods, the new double Stoneground. Yawn, sigh, and then pow--electronic gutbucket from the Chicago blues bars, the rawest record I've heard in years. Taylor makes a neoprimitivist showboat like James Cotton sound like a cross between Don Nix and the Harmonicats, and about time. N.b.: a guitar-playing friend tells me the axe Hound Dog brandishes on the cover is the cheapest you can buy. A-