I bought this set having heard some of the tracks from the first few CDs in the set. Some of the tracks here are simply amazing, You can almost hear Blind Willie Johnson behind the mournful Boss Man Cut My Chains, you feel the pain and anguish in KKK Blues, and then there's the jazzy darkly threatening Viper Room. These tracks are amazing; they can't be beaten. Things started going wrong for me in the later discs. Blues Ballads was reminiscent of the background music you might have found playing in a smoky hotel bar back in the fifties; Gospel Blues was slightly better, but not exactly gospel, and then back to the lounge music in Celtic & Irish Blues. Latin Blues carried on bumping along the bottom and then fortunately the set lifted again with the last CD, 60s and 70s.

As well as the CDs you get a DVD, which is worth watching, but when you've seen it once, that's it. You also get a large hard back book, which holds the CDs, has the lyrics of the music and a lot of... Read more