James Cotton’s hard-driving, powerful harmonica performances have earned him a reputation as a foot-stomping, infectious good-time entertainer. In the course of his career, James Cotton has racked up an impressive series of ten critically-acclaimed albums. In 1984, Alligator Records released the successful HIGH COMPRESSION. His next album, LIVE FROM CHICAGO ... MR. SUPERHARP HIMSELF!, came out in 1986 and was his second lp on Alligator Records.

Recorded at the Chicago showcase club, Biddy Mulligan’s, before a sold-out and sweaty crowd, James and his blistering eight-piece band rocked the house for three consecutive nights while the tapes rolled. The sessions celebrated Cotton’s 20 years on his own as a bandleader, after l2 years as Muddy Water’s harp player.  Cotton’s musical career began in 1944, at the age of nine, when he left home in Tunica, Mississippi with his 15¢ harmonica in search of his harp-playing idol Sonny Boy Williamson. Cotton found Sonny Boy at the West Helena, Arkansas radio station KFFA where Sonny Boy hosted the popular King Biscuit radio show. Cotton passed himself off as an orphan, and the legendary blues harpist took him home to raise as a son. Cotton stayed with Sonny Boy, learning the harp and the rigors of the bluesman’s life, until the age of 15, when he resolved to travel his own road. Cotton’s first stop was West Memphis, Arkansas, where he played harp for four years with another blues great, Howlin’ Wolf. While with Wolf, he hung out with the fledgling Sun Record Company’s crowd, jamming with the likes of Bobby “Blue” Bland, B.B. King and the only white face in the crowd - Elvis Presley.

Before hooking up with the famed Muddy Waters, Cotton wrote and recorded such classic blues as “Feelin’ Good”, “Cotton Crop Blues”, “Hold Me In Your Arms” and the Ike Turner collaboration “Rocket 88”. The blues rocker classic “Rocket 88” (both the Blues Brothers and Sha Na Na performed this tune as their opener) remains a Cotton concert favorite.  However, it was the gig with Waters - a job a budding blues harpist could only dream of – that brought Cotton the big career break. Cotton reigned supreme in Muddy’s band for nearly 12 years. His powerful stage presence and aggressive harp playing contributed to Waters’ reputation as well as his own. Cotton recorded with Muddy such classic tunes as “I Got My Mojo Working”, “Nineteen Years Old”, “Walking Through the Park”, and “You Can’t Lose What You Never Had”.

The featured post cd "south side boogie" is a digitally remastered edition of a couple of well known themes performed by Mr Cotton during is career and edited in 2009. Hope you will enjoy.

1   So Glad You're Mine
2   Jelly Jelly
3   South Side Boogie
4   Diggin' My Potatoes
5   Good Time Charlie
6   V-8 Ford Blues
7   Turn On Your Love Light
8   There's Something On Your Mind
9   Dolly Put The Kettle On

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him and his album/s.  those who wish to obtain his music, please buy his CDs.
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