While this is a fascinating and rare documentation of vintage Chicago blues, listeners shouldn’t for a minute buy into the claim that these recordings date from 1958. Instrumentation and song selection indicate these recordings could date from as late as 1968. Whatever the fact, this is an entertaining and valuable set of small ensemble blues, most certainly from Allison’s first recording session. This CD is an eight-song demo Bobby Rush produced for Onederful Records, and the songs here are the fan favorites played in the taverns on the Southside and Westside for decades. Allison adeptly handles the likes of “Hide Away,’ “Driving Wheel,” “Rock Me Baby,” and “Cut You Loose” adeptly. The best songs here might just be “You’re Gonna Miss Me” and “Easy Baby,” a song first recorded by his mentor, Magic Sam.

Allison would later become popular via fine albums on Delmark and Motown, and in the early 1970s, many thought he was the heir to B. B. King’s blues throne. That never transpired, but he had a successful and prolific career that unexpectedly ended in 1997. Today his son carries on the blues tradition.