PJ Harvey & Björk cover the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfacti...

Maybe the 1990s weren't so bad after all. There was the Shibuya-Kei pouring out of Japan, and Nirvana were very good, and there was this.  

I was pretty scattered then, and for a few years in the middle I did drink a bit too much, and I was in the process of finally figuring out Jazz, so perhaps I could be graciously forgiven to have missed occasional gems like this. But hey, nobody's perfect. 

Magic Sam ~ All Your Love and Lookin' Good

Well? What do you think? Sam was pretty good, 'eh? Yeah, I think so too. I think he was great. 

The way that I heard it, Sam was less than reliable when it came to money. He drank a bit. His guitar was usually in the pawn shop, so he had to borrow one. From the photographic evidence, he often borrowed the guitar of his buddy, Earl Hooker. He could be hard to find when it was time for the gig too. He generally had no place or phone of his own, preferring to share the lodgings of his girlfriends. I don't think he ever had his own amp. The clubs always had a few around. 

I think that there are two albums, or were. I couldn't say what was available at this point. One studio; one live. Don't quote me. 

I think that Magic Sam made a guitar work harder than anyone else. He kept them ringing like bells. No dead spots for Sam, no dramatic pauses. Racing the devil, I guess, and he lost in the end. He was thirty-two.