Canned Heat - Vintage [Orange & Black Splatter]

Before the boogie took over Woodstock, Canned Heat were Los Angeles blues obsessives chasing the Delta sound, and Vintage catches them at the very start, here on red and black splatter vinyl.

These ten tracks were cut in 1966 at El Dorado Studios with rhythm and blues pioneer Johnny Otis producing, the band's first time in a proper studio. Nobody released them then. By the time Janus put them out in 1970, Canned Heat were festival favorites with hits on the radio, and these early sessions suddenly had an audience waiting.

The playing is lean and devoted. Bob Hite hollers his way through Willie Dixon's Spoonful and Muddy Waters' Got My Mojo Working with real relish, while Henry Vestine's lead guitar stings and Alan Wilson's slide work already sounds unmistakable. Rollin' and Tumblin' appears twice, once bare and once with Wilson's harmonica wailing over the top, a neat glimpse of a band figuring out its own voice. John Lee Hooker's Dimples gets a loose, rolling groove that points straight at the boogie to come.

There's no studio gloss here, just young blues fans playing the songs they loved as hard as they could.

For anyone who knows the hits, Vintage is the origin story told in the band's own scrappy, joyful words.