This Is The Blues Volume 4, like the 3rd installment of the series, is a great way to collect a great set of songs all under one roof, but again the album borrows heavily from a Peter Green Tribute album. This time the collection contains 8 tracks from said tribute album. That’s more then half the album. Disappointing really that it seems the album is simply a gathering of older interpretations already committed to disc.

Unlike the last installment of the series the diversity of the tracks here is far broader. While volume 3 contained a lot of roots blues styling this album seems to lean more towards a mix of progressive, rock, jazz, and traditional blues. To much diversity might be a bad thing though as, for me, I enjoy more the traditional blues sound rather then the progressive stuff, though the final track on the album, Oh Well, is simply marvelous, reminiscent of the Rollins Band’s Blues Jam.

This Is The Blues Volume 4 really is a solid collection. While I could have done without the progressive or the even some of the jazz tracks (Man of The World) your getting a good diverse collection of tracks from some great performers really putting their all into the songs they cover. My one real complaint is the whole 8 song swipe going on here. Between this collection and the last the series borrows a total of 15 tracks from the Peter Green tribute album and that album is only 29 tracks long. That’s borrowing half of the album to pad the last two installments of this series. It just seems a bit lazy to me. Still, as far as collections go your getting your money’s worth if you don’t already own the Peter Green Tribute album.