United States Highway 61 starts in Wyoming, Minnesota and over its 1400 mile length generally follows the mighty Mississippi River to its terminus in New Orleans. It has earned the proud appellation as the “Blues Highway” primarily because of its route through the heart of the Mississippi delta country where the blues was born. It also intersects in Clarksdale Mississippi with Highway 49 at a spot known as the Crossroads that is stamped indelibly on the tale of the blues. In honor of this great highway and all of the blues men and women who have transited lengths of it over their careers , I present my list of the 61 best roadhouse blues albums of 2021.

The year 2021 will not be treated kindly by history. The dark foreboding shadow of the pandemic continued to loom over the months. Strife and division marked our public discourse and even enveloped the blues. But despite it all, thousands of blues artists continued to release new recordings in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia & New Zealand, South America, and Africa. Through my association with BluesMusicFan Radio and my own contacts in the industry, I received hundreds and hundreds of new releases. I reviewed them and rated each album song by song with additional factors for creativity and “paying the blues dues”. This list is not about an individual song but an album as a creative whole. Needless to say, it takes time to do this. I started culling the list down in mid November. First to 300, then 150, and now the final list. While the list includes 61 releases, it is not strictly a numerical listing. Artists are not in a sports competition with their fellow artists and most I have known over the years will be the first to sing the praises of other groups. With this in mind, I break the lists down by album of the year and then Best Ten albums as a group, Top Twenty, and so on. ANY album on this list is worth your time to listen to. And I hope many of you will AND pay the artists the ultimate compliment by purchasing their work.

The Ben Vee Roadhouse Blues Album of the Year 2021 is…..

Colin James – Open Road

Colin James got his big break in the 1980’s when he was drafted as a last minute replacement for a cancelled opening act for Stevie Ray Vaughan. He has been a rocker, blues rocker, and successful Swing music artist over the years and has won dozens of music honors in Canada. For the Open Road recording, he made a conscious decision to emphasize his love of the blues genre and we are all its beneficiaries. It has rockin’ blues songs, traditional blues numbers, and beautiful roots blues tunes. (For an in depth review of the album songs, please see my blog dated November 4, 2021). With echoes of Chuck Berry and Stevie Ray Vaughan in the music combined with Colin’s voice and guitar mastery, I invite you to listen to Leave This House as just one sampling of this incredible recording and my choice as Roadhouse Blues album of the year.

Roadhouse Blues Best Ten Recordings of 2021

This year’s Roadhouse Blues Best Ten recordings include artists from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. One is 22 and has such a bright future, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. Another is 82 and still kicking out vibrant and thoughtful jams, Dion. There is a great group out of the UK, J Lee and Hoodoo Skulls, that won my award for Blues Rock album of 2021. There are two artists, the JP Williams Blues Band and the Atomic 44’s that I tried to see during the year but Covid raised its ugly head. Polly O’Keary makes the list based on the power of her voice and all the dues she has paid to the blues over the years. Perennial favorite Tommy Castro also shows up as well as John Popper with Blues Traveler. And one of the defining voices of the contemporary blues, Jeff Taylor, makes the list with the Altered Five Blues Band.

Artist	2021 Album	Country
Colin James	Open Road	Canada
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram	662	USA
Dion	Stomping Ground	USA
Altered Five Blues Band	Holler If You Hear Me	USA
J Lee and the Hoodoo Skulls	Beggars Soul	UK
JP Williams Blues Band	JP & Ekat	USA
Polly O’Keary & the Rhythm Method	50	USA
Tommy Castro	A Bluesman Came to Town	USA
Atomic 44’s	Volume One	USA
Blues Traveler	Traveler’s Blues	USA

Roadhouse Blues Top Twenty Recordings of 2021

My Top Twenty albums for 2021 included artists from Canada (Sue Foley), Australia (8 Ball Aiken), and the street busker from the UK (Markus K.). Carolyn Wonderland, based in Austin, makes the list with an incredible recording. Established stars Mike Zito, Billy Gibbons, and the Black Keys all contributed significant works to the roadhouse blues this year. An emerging artist that I believe still has his best work in front of him, Eddie 9V, makes the list and is well worth a listen as hint of the future of the blues. And Ricci and Krown put out a recording that should warm the heart of anyone that enjoys harmonica based blues. I also highly recommend the Sean Chambers album which is a tribute to his mentor and famed blues man, Hubert Sumlin.

8 Ball Aiken	Ice Cream Man	Australia
Carolyn Wonderland	Tempting Fate	USA
Eddie 9V	Little Black Flies	USA
Sean Chambers	That’s What I’m Talkin’ About	USA
Mike Zito	Resurrection	USA
Ricci and Krown	City Country City	USA
Billy F. Gibbons	Hardware	USA
Sue Foley	Pinky’s Blues	Canada
The Black Keys	Delta Kream	USA
Markus K.	Live With Looper No. 1	UK

Roadhouse Blues Thrillin’ Thirty Recordings of 2021

Band of Friends	Spotlight on the G-Man Vol. 2	UK/Ireland
Uncle Watson’s Widow	Hindsight	USA
Simon Kinney Lewis	King Biscuit	Australia
Chickenbone Slim	Serve It to Me Hot	USA
The Dirty Mojo Blues Band	It is What It is	USA
The Doobie Brothers	Liberte	USA
Melissa Etheridge	One Way Out	USA
Dirty Dave Osti	Retro-Sonic Blues Train	Australia
Eldon Backhouse and the Electric Blues Band	Portrait Gallery	UK
Steve Marriner	Hope Dies Last	Canada

The Roadhouse Blues Thrillin’ Thirty recordings list has an international flavor with two artists from Australia (Simon Kinney Lewis & Dirty Dave Osti) as well as two from the UK (Band of Friends & Eldon Backhouse and the Electric Blues Band) and one from Canada (Steve Marriner). If you love Rory Gallagher, then I highly recommend the Band of Friends recording which features bassist Gerry McAvoy and the stellar guitar playing of Davy Knowles. If you enjoy what I term “roots blues”, then Steve Marriner’s latest recording is well worth a listen. Additionally two major music artists, Melissa Etheridge and the Doobie Brothers, both released albums that a perfect representations of what I term the “roadhouse blues”…a mix of contemporary blues, blues rock, and roots blues. And I highly recommend a blues rock group out of North Carolina, Uncle Watson’s Widow, that plays a high energy mix of ZZ Top and Joe Bonamassa related music.

Roadhouse Blues Top 61 Recordings of 2021

The rest of the list of the 61 Best Roadhouse Albums of 2021 includes notable names like Steve Cropper, Jimmy Barnes, Gov’t Mule, Joanne Shaw Taylor, and Bernie Marsden as well as established roadhouse blues artists like The Record Company, Davy Knowles, Cactus, Colin Linden, and “up and comers” like Veronica Lewis, The Kokomo Kings, Hendrikse, and Quinn Sullivan. All of them put out quality recordings that I enjoyed listening to!

Steve Cropper	Fire It Up	USA
Jimmy Barnes	Flesh And Blood	Australia
Joe Metzka	Another Disaster	USA
Tom Feldman and Noah Levy	Brothers in Mud	USA
The Record Company	Play Loud	USA
Quinn Sullivan	Wide Awake	USA
The Kokomo Kings	A Drive-By Love Affair	Denmark
Vintage Trouble	Juke Joint Gems	USA
Delta Fuse	A Matter of Love and War	UK
Gov’t Mule	Heavy Load Blues	USA
AJ Fullerton	The Forgiver	USA
Davy Knowles	What Happens Next	UK
Captain Morgan Express	No Weirdos Please	Germany
Superdownhome	No Balls, No Blues Chips	Italy
Dave Kalz	Relish	USA
Joanne Shaw Taylor	The Blues Album	UK
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band	Dance Songs for Hard Times	USA
Tommy Z	Plug in and Play	USA
Hendrikse	A Good Day for the Blues	Netherlands
Big Chief Monk Boudreaux	Bloodstains and Teardrops	USA
Dionne Bennett	Sugar Hip Ya Ya	UK
Cactus	Tightrope	USA
Bernie Marsden	Kings	UK
Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps	Rose Colored Glasses	USA
The Liberators	Waitin’	Netherlands
Trainman Blues	Shadows & Shapes	Denmark
Mike Goudreau Band	The Isolation Blues	Canada
Colin Linden	Blow	Canada
Veronica Lewis	You Ain’t Lucky	USA
Dennis Siggery	Higher Ground	UK
Early Times & the High Rollers	The Corner	USA

---

The Roadhouse Blues 61 Best Blues albums of 2021 is not THE list of lists for 2021. It is based on the types of blues that I enjoy spinning for my audiences and that is a bias that I readily admit to. Other blues writers and organizations (including the BluesMusicFan Radio Top 20) have produced charts that differ, sometimes widely, from mine. However I do believe this list is a representative overview of the state of the blues in 2021 and the forecast is pretty dang good. The blues is not dying…it is not just surviving….it is thriving in terms of the number of great artists that are attracted to the genre. The challenge is to get the mainstream music media to give the blues its proper due and consequentially pump up the sales so that the artists can derive a meaningful income. I am so thankful to the major blues labels like Delmark Records, Ruff Records, Alligator Records, Stony Plain Records, Mascot/Provogue, Gulf Coast Records, KTBA Records, and a whole host of other “indie” labels for encouraging and promoting groups that fit my roadhouse blues format.

And YOU have a part to play also. My part is to listen, select, and spin contemporary blues, blues rock, and roots blues tunes to help get the word out. I do this for no financial renumeration (though I would not begrudge it!). YOUR part, if you love the roadhouse blues, is to pass the word when given the opportunity to friends and family. Particularly to younger audiences that probably have no clue about most, if not all, the artists on this list. AND, once in awhile, when finances permit, you can support your favorite artist(s) on this list by downloading their album. I estimate that I reach about 10,000 people each week through my shows and other social media. That is a pittance compared to the several million people reached by terrestrial radio and media on any given day in a major city in Europe or North America. But if the people I do reach each spent 50 dollars downloading albums (not just listening to streams) this year, that would be an infusion of $500,000 into the blues music market. It is a “drop in the bucket” compared to what artists on the Billboard 200 weekly list of albums generate but it is something. Almost to a person, the blues artists that I have met and conversed with are down to earth people and they definitely haven’t committed their musical lives to the blues seeking fame and fortune. But they do deserve the chance to make a decent living during a period when they can’t perform before live audiences. It starts with you and me…..pass on a link for this list to someone you know….you never know who will be the next convert to the blues. After all, you and I were converted at some point….and I think we are doin’ just fine!

---

#blues #roadhouse blues

Ben Vee started out spinning songs on terrestrial radio and at nightclubs back in the 1970’s in his home state of Louisiana. After a career in the construction business, he returned to DJing in 2011. He now hosts two shows each week on http://www.bluesmusicfan.com and writes about the blues at http://www.benveeblues.com from his home in Connecticut. He also has a personal 24 hour stream devoted to the Roadhouse Blues… WRHB