West Side Soul

Magic Sam

album cover

Chicago Blues, West Side Division, Defined

Guitarist and singer Magic Sam Maghett (1937–1969) began his career in Chicago in the late 1950s, a period of intense competition within the city's impossibly talent-rich blues scene. Not only were established masters like Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon in their prime, but younger rebels from the West Side, notably Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, were beginning to draw attention. You had to be wicked good or otherwise magical, just to get a gig.

To differentiate himself, Magic Sam developed a distinctive, treble-heavy guitar tone. He used a tightly controlled tremolo to add emphasis, and phrased in a way that made everything he played feel like a harpoon to the heart. His singing was similarly raw, with a touch of high-revving R&B attitude, à la Otis Redding. This combination defines West Side Soul, one of the most electrifying blues records of all time. It begins in a Memphis mood, with the slippery "That's All I Need," then visits John Lee Hooker–style hypnotic boogie ("I Feel So Good"), pure uptight agitation ("I Don't Want No Woman"), painfully slow blues ("All of Your Love"), and a hard-shuffling version of Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago."

West Side Soul grows more intense as it goes along—after eight tracks, Magic Sam launches the whiplashing instrumental "Lookin' Good," three minutes and eleven seconds of lockedtight rhythm-guitar groove that reveals a whole new aspect of his art. He died the year after this came out, leaving behind a legacy of jaw-dropping club performances and just two radiant records.

Genre: Blues
Released: 1967, Delmark
Key Tracks: "Sweet Home Chicago," "I Don't Want No Woman," "Lookin' Good"
Next Stop: Buddy Guy: Damn Right, I've Got the Blues
Book Page: 465

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