In a performance just shy of three and a half-minutes, Junior Wells fully demonstrates why he’s held in such high regard as a progenitor of blues music at its most stylish and deeply felt. “Hoodoo Man Blues” is also the title of his debut album–which contains his most famous tune, “Messin’ With The Kid”–and that may explain why he delivers the title song of the aforementioned LP with such poise and panache. The impromptu vocal phrasing is something else altogether, as is the harmonica he plays: the sweetness of the tones he blows belie their cutting edge. It’s little wonder The Rolling Stones took Wells on tour with them or why, long before that, Junior also worked with such stalwarts of this elemental genre as Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy.
