On the recording front I'd have to rate 1999 a good year not a great one in terms of new releases. One of the year's most anticipated records was Lone Star Shootout featuring Lonnie Brooks, Long John Hunter and Phillip Walker. This turned out to be one of the best discs of the year and made number one on our year end lists. Veterans like Gatemouth Brown, Jay McShann, Rod Piazza and Louisiana Red also put out some great music. Speaking of veterans it was great to see 79 year old Jimmy "T-99" nelson cut his first full-length record. Nelson is a Houston legend who waxed some first rate sides in the 50's and 60' including the classic "T-99 Blues." Two other Houston legends, Big Al Dupree and Roy Gaines, also released excellent records. Gaines is definitely on a roll following up last year's fantastic Bluesman For Life with a tribute to T-Bone Walker that has to be one of the classiest records of the year. Comeback record of the year goes hands down to Wilson Pickett's It's Harder No his first session in twelve years and finds him at the top of his game. Lazy Lester also made a fine comeback laying down his first new record in ten years. There were some new faces as well with former Piano Red guitarist, Beverly Watkins, making her debut on Cello/MusicMaker plus George Stancell who's Gorgeous George on JSP is one of the year's best soul/blues records. Another notable debut was Lil' Buck Sinegal, best known as a session guitarist, who released the sizzling blues/funk disc The Buck Stops Here on NYNO with the legendary Allen Toussaint on keyboards. Memphis legend Big Lucky Carter released his wonderful down-home debut on the British Blueside label. Not exactly new but new to the blues is Odetta who put her first blues record out on M.C. Records helped out by Dr. John.

  There were a number of blues labels that deserve special mention for consistently putting out fine releases in 1999. The Music Maker Foundation, who are committed to helping out elderly musicians, put out fine country blues records by little or never recorded artists like Neal Pattmon, Guitar Gabriel, Algia Mae Hinton, Cootie Stark and John Dee Holeman. The Music Maker tour has also been very successful and definitely worth catching if you get the opportunity. Fedora is another small label that's put out some very good records including the debut of harp man Arthur Williams who tore the place up at the Pocono Blues Festival. Fedora also released solid records by Mojo Buford, J.J. Malone and U.P. Wilson. Ron Levy's Cannonball label had a good year with releases by Johnnie Basset, Alberta Adams and Hash Brown's Blues Revue featuring Sam Myers and Zu Zu Bollin. The British JSP label put out a number of excellent discs including one of the year's best soul/blues records by Johnny Rawls. Blind Pig released very good records by Arthur Adams, Snooky Pryor and Lloyd Jones. Larger labels like Delmark, Alligator and Blue Thumb also had good years. Delmark released fine records by Jimmy Burns and Syl Johnson; Alligator with a killer live Luther Allison double set plus Lone Star Shootout and Blue Thumb with great records by Joe Louis Walker and Gatemouth Brown. Bullseye Blues, a division of Rounder, inaugurated their Blues Basics series with collections from Johnny Copeland, J.B. Hutto, Gatemouth Brown and Robert Lockwood in addition to releasing discs by Charles Brown and Wilson Pickett. Tone-Cool best known for Susan Tedeschi , released solid CD's by Rod Piazza and Paul Rishell & Annie Raines. Also worth mentioning is HMG a division of Hightone who put out Deep South Blues along with From Mississippi to Chicago a pair of excellent rural blues collections. They also released The Jelly Roll Kings with Sam Carr and Frank Frost.

  1999 saw some excellent classic blues being reissued. MCA dug into their vaults to put out a fantastic Earl Hooker collection plus B.B. King's Live In Japan form 1971 which has only been available in Japan. MCA also acquired the rights to Excello Records releasing the 4 CD Excello Story and single reissues by Slim Harpo and Lightning Slim. Yazoo Records continues to release fine country blues with a pair of rare piano blues discs: Down In Black Bottom and Barrelhouse Mamas. Evidence Records may have put out the best reissue set of the year- The 3 CD Living Country Blues is a stunning collection of country blues and gospel recorded by two German blues fans in 1980. These recordings had previously only been available as an import. Another great reissue is Vanguard's 3 CD set Chicago The Blues- Today! which has been beautifully repackaged and re-mastered and contains prime cuts by Jr. Wells, Otis Spann, James Cotton, Otis Rush among others. The music on the Swedish import I Blueskvarter is a 2 CD collection of Chicago blues from around the same period as the Vanguard set. These sides were recorded for the Swedish Broadcasting Company and have never seen the light of day before. You can find great performances by Sunnyland Slim, Johnny Young and Eddie Boyd among others. A couple of single artist collections are also worth noting: Norton's collection of early Long John Hunter sides called Ooh Wee Pretty Baby! And Electro-Fi's Little Mack Simmons sides from the 70', which are collected on The PM/Simmons Collection.

  1999 was also a good year for blues literature. Here's a partial list of some noteworthy books: The World Don't Owe Me Nothing: David "Honeyboy" Edwards , Chasin' The Devil's Music by Gayle Dean Wardlow, Mister Satan's Apprentice by Adam Gussow, Deep Ellum and Central Track, Zydeco!: Photographs, Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story and The Late Great Johnny Ace and the Transition From R&B To Rock `N' Roll.

  Unfortunately there have been a number of deaths in the blues world this year. 1999 has been a particularly tough year with the following passing away: Charles Brown, Lowell Fulsom, Katie Webster, Frank Frost, Beau Jocque, Tommy Ridgley, Brewer Phillips, Grace Brim, Mighty Joe Young, Joe Williams, Peppermint Harris, Vera Taylor, Lillian McMurry, Curly Miller and Johnny "Big Moose" Walker.

  All in all 1999 was a good year for the blues. While many of blues pioneers like B.B. King and John Lee Hooker are getting up there in age there seems to enough younger talent to keep the blue alive and well into the next millennium. Make sure to keep supporting the blues by buying the music, going to the shows and of course checking out Bad Dog Blues!