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As well as promoting British blues, the Vernon brothers continued to lease US recordings by
American artistes that were otherwise very difficult to obtain this side of the Atlantic. Three
very important releases to those of us struggling to hear the originals, and in many cases striving
to learn some of the music on our dodgy first guitars, were LPs by B. B. King, Otis Rush, and Magic
Sam. These were names we had learned from buying records by such as John Mayall and
Fleetwood Mac, and gave us the opportunity to get back closer to the roots of this great
music.“The B. B. King Story - Chapters 1 and 2” introduced us to the historic Kent and Modern
sides recorded by B. B. in the 1950s and early 60s. A taster for these 2 albums was a single “The
Woman I Love” b/w “Blues For Me” - the B-side a beautiful instrumental. I can remember to this
day the teenage
excitement of buying the
single and albums -
funded by my part-time
jobs as a petrol pump
attendant and car
cleaner.

The BB album was
followed by “This One’s
A Good ‘Un” (Otis Rush)
and “1937 - 1969”
(Magic Sam), which
represented the total
output of the Cobra
sessions, plus some
unissued alternative
takes and unlisted items,
by these two great
artistes. These LPs were
the first in the “Post War
Masters” series, which
later included the work of Slim Harpo, Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup, Lightnin’ Slim, Lonesome
Sundown and Earl Hooker.

Those of us who had been buying John Mayall albums were well aware of Otis Rush, and to hear
the original recordings of ‘All Your Love’ and ‘Double Trouble’, amongst the many other gems
on the LP was a delight. Indeed, those two great tracks were also issued on Blue Horizon as a
single. Additionally, the sleeve notes helped educate us in the history of the performers, and the
US blues scene in general.

Magic Sam was not quite so well known to me, but the taster of his Blue Horizon album was
enough for him to become one of my favourite players. Such tracks as ‘All Your Love’ (not the
Otis Rush song) and ‘Easy Baby’ emphasised his distinctive style, which is still evident in many
of today’s blues guitarists. It was ironic that Sam was already dead, from a heart attack at the
age of 32, by the time the album was released. He had been in the UK in 1969 (the year of his