Arbee Stidham - Blues of Arbee Stidham

All Music Guide

Stidham presented decent, straight-ahead post-war Chicago blues with some jazz flavors on this 1960 session, which included low-key saxophone by King Curtis. Stidham sings rather like a slightly more urbane Muddy Waters, holding his own on guitar with cleanly decorative licks that again have a touch of jazz. He wrote or co-wrote most of the tunes on the album, dotted with covers of the likes of Joe Turner and Brownie McGhee. For the most part he plays it mid-tempo or slow, only getting into brisk up-tempo beats occasionally, as on "You Keep Me Yearning" and "Teenage Kiss." It's nothing godsent, but it's solid material that proves that good Chicago electric blues from the era existed that had more of a blues-jazz crossover feel than the more well-known earthy performers from the time and place. And unlike much blues-jazz, it really is more blues than jazz, avoiding the politeness that takes hold of much such music.

- Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide