(Blues-rock, Rock`n`roll) [24/96] [LP] John Hammond - So Many Roads(1965) - 2003, FLAC (tracks)

-VPI HW-16.5 RCM
-Clearaudio Concept w/ Verify magnetic-bearing tonearm
-Clearaudio Concept MC Cartidge
-Musical Suroundings The Phonomena II preamp
-Zoom H4n
-Audioquest interconnects

Bass – Jimmy Lewis
Drums – Mark (Levon) Helm
Guitar – Jamie(Robbie) Robertson
Harmonica – Charlie Musselwhite
Organ – Eric (Garth) Hudson
Piano – Michael Bloomfield
Vocals – John Hammond

So Many Roads is Hammond's most notable mid-'60s Vanguard album, due not so much to Hammond's own singing and playing (though he's up to the task) as the yet-to-be-famous backing musicians. Three future members of the Band -- Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, and Levon Helm -- are among the supporting cast, along with Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica, and Mike Bloomfield also contributes. It's one of the first fully realized blues-rock albums, although it's not in the same league as the best efforts of the era by the likes of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band or John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. In part that's because the repertoire is so heavy on familiar Chicago blues classics by the likes of Willie Dixon, Bo Diddley, and Muddy Waters; in part that's because the interpretations are so reverent and close to the originals in arrangement; and in part it's also because Hammond's blues vocals were only okay. Revisionist critics thus tend to downgrade the record a notch. But in the context of its time -- when songs like "Down in the Bottom," "Long Distance Call," "Big Boss Man," and "You Can't Judge a Book By the Cover" were not as well known as they would become -- it was a punchy, well-done set of electric blues with a rock touch. ~ Allmusic

Although critically acclaimed, Hammond has received only moderate commercial success. Nonetheless, he enjoys a strong fan base and has earned respect from the likes of John Lee Hooker, Roosevelt Sykes, Duane Allman, Robbie Robertson and Charlie Musselwhite, all of whom have contributed their musical talents to Hammond's records. In addition, he is the only person who ever had both Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix in his band at the same time, if only for five days in the 1960s when Hammond played The Gaslight Cafe in New York City. To his regret, they never recorded together. It has been suggested by at least one author that Hammond deserves some credit for helping boost The Band to wider recognition. He recorded with several of the members of The Band in 1965, and recommended them to Bob Dylan, with whom they undertook a famed and tumultuous world tour.