I am the blues. So said Willie Dixon, with the title of his 1970 album and later, his 1990 autobiography, and he was right each time. Songwriter, producer, bassist, and occasional singer, Willie Dixon was to electric Chicago blues what Harlan Howard was to honky tonk country music: he was a man whose behind-the-scenes contributions to his idiom were every bit as substantial as the more visible offerings of the stars who turned his songs into anthems. There are countless blues primers, but for Chicago-style from the 50s and early 60s, few come close to Willie Dixon’s The Chess Box. The two disc-set is packed with blues standards written, produced, or played on by Dixon and performed by the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter.
Disc two is a personal favorite that hits the ground running with a one-two punch: Wolf’s rendition of “Spoonful” followed by Otis Rush’s “You Know My Love.” ‘Spoonful’ is a remarkably evocative word to associate with love and each of its connotations–nourishing, petty, enriching, small–comes out, as Wolf howls intensely and stunningly lyrical guitar lines swirl about his every word. But just when you think the best is behind you, Otis Rush’s severe voice follows the sneaky baseline introduction of “You Know My Love.” When he wails “You know my love, You know my love, you know my love has never died,” it’s impossible not to know the truth of every word. Recordings like these are the blues at its best–moments infused with such raw emotional power that they transform resignation into affirmation.
