Lonnie Johnson - Careless Love (1965)

I cannot believe this hasn't been posted before, by me or anyone else. Been a favorite of mine for years. Not the original 1928 recording on 12-string guitar, but a "living room" recording from 1965 when Johnson was 66 years old. I think it's one of the few revival era recordings that's better than the original. Gorgeous stuff, great vocal phrasing.

When he was younger, you could make the case that Lonnie Johnson was a bona-fide musical genius. "Swing Out Rhythm," "Got the Blues for the West End," "Tomorrow Night," "Keep it to Yourself," with Louis Armstrong and Johnny St. Cyr on "Savoy Blues", the Eddie Lang recordings. All of them brilliant. And then as he got older, almost every single song he played had the same licks and same phrasing, he curled up in the same musical corner like a cat near a radiator. But when he was young...