Anthology
"Bar Room Blues"
Telarc CD-83594
www.telarc.com

Telarc's come up with another anthology concept, drawing from previous and current releases to create a themed collection. This one's supposed to be particularly suitable for bars. It is. You've been to bars. Odds are pretty good that you picked this publication up in a bar. You know what kind of blues sounds best in blues.

So does Telarc. This is a good multi-artist teaser that might interest listeners in buying the individual act releases from which these cuts are culled. Many of the label's best players are here -- Tommy Castro, Tab Benoit, Charlie Musselwhite, Kenny Neal, Bob Margolin, Tinsley Ellis and Luther Johnson. Others, living and dead, are also represented here. Buy it for your neighborhood tavern. It will be popular. It won't be as good for personal enjoyment as the complete releases from which the tunes are borrowed, but it will be good. We might as well learn to live with Telarc's anthology addiction. They're a heavy- hitting blues label with a somewhat annoying marketing strategy. The good generally outweighs the bad on these things.