Vinyl Me, Please Unboxed – Junior Wells ‘It’s My Life Baby!’

Good things comes in 12 inch packages. Delivering limited edition vinyl pressings of new and classic albums directly to your doorstep, VMP operates under a simple philosophy: The Album Lives! With a carefully curated catalog of new and hard to find releases, the subscription service is more than just a record club, it’s a lifestyle choice for folks who wish Record Store Day could happen every month… in their living room.

Here’s how it works. You send Vinyl Me, Please some of your hard-earned money and they send you one carefully selected album they feel is Essential to any record collection. Yes, it truly is as easy as it sounds. You even get FREE SHIPPING. Each custom pressing (often on colored vinyl!) also comes with killer extras like original artwork and informative listening companion booklet.

You’ll have membership privileges in the VMP store too, which means you can grab a copy of previous VMP selections from the archives – including thier loud, fast, and certifiably crunchy reissue of Ramones' overlooked classic Too Tough to Die – or choose from a slate of super-limited releases pressed exclusively for Vinyl Me, Please. The store is open, and Team VMP are dropping fresh new selections to their stock every single week. Do not miss out.

Word to the wise, while the store is open to the public, subscribers are privy to reduced “Members Pricing” as well, so joining the club definitely has its rewards. If you’re peckish about relinquishing control of your record collection to complete strangers, know that VMP’s Swaps Program is in full effect. That means you can flip any VMP pick you’re not interested in for a past featured album from any track (including Essentials, Country, Classics, and Rap/Hip Hop). My advice? Don’t overthink it. Do your turntable a favor and sign up today.

As for this month, I activated my swap to pick up a stone-cold blues breaker from the one and only Junior Wells. Here's a look.

For The Love Of Vinyl, Please DO NOT BEND

Alright, so the Vinly Me, Please Essentials pick this month is not, in fact, Junior Wells' 1967 album It's My Life, Baby!. Rather, VMP went all in on their Lost Sounds Found mantra to give a little-known album from Stax Records the Essentials treatment in Gus Cannon's Walk Right In. Of that album, I'll say just a couple of things. First and foremost, it's an extraordinary historical document, and I sincerely think that VMP releasing it is one of the coolest things the company has ever done. Despite the fact, I also just don't think the album would ever get much play in my home, so it was Swaps for me.

As I often do when I find myself in Swap-land with Vinly Me, Please, I used the occasion as a chance to discover an artist I didn't know much about. And when it came to blues singer and harmonica man Junior Wells, I must admit that I knew pretty much nothing at all. After spinning It's My Life, Baby! a couple of times, I am officially primed to change that fact with all due haste, because this album absolutely rips from all the way from track one to track twelve. So much so that, as soon as my first spin ended, I immediately flipped the record over, dropped the needle, and listened to it all the way through a second time.

For the record, that's a rarity, even for me. But there's something about Wells' voice and style – which exist somewhere between John Lee Hooker's hog-callin' honk and James Brown's soul-shaking howl – that you cannot help but be taken in by, and the man's infectious swerve propels It's My Life, Baby! from the eponymous album opener through it's closing stunner, “Everything's Going to Be Alright.”

As for the songs in between, they're a mix of studio tracks and numbers recorded during a mid-1960s gig at Pepper's Lounge on Chicago's South Side, with Wells singin' and blowin' alongside major Windy City players like Buddy Guy (guitar), Walter Beasley (guitar), Leroy Stewart (bass), and Little Al (Drums – studio) Freddy Below (drums – live). Buddy Guy is, obviously, the biggest name in that wrecking crew, as he's one of the most legit legends to come out of the Chicago blues scene. He's also a VMP Classics alum by the way, with his marvelous I Left My Blues In San Fransisco getting the Vinyl Me, Please nod a couple years back.

While Guy's guitar is prominently featured in both the live and studio cuts, Wells's voice is the main attraction here. And in case I havent' been crystal clear, it's more than enough to carry the weight of the 12 tracks that comprise It's My Life, Baby!. If you're already familiar with the ways of Junior Wells, then I'd wager I'm preaching to the choir when I say this album is about as must-own as it gets. If not, I can tell you that if you're at all intrigued by what you've read here, this AAA Vinyl Me, Please reissue is undoubtedly the best way to discover Wells for yourself.

Cover Matters

Sometimes it's best not to get too complicated with an album cover. Take, for instance, this no-nonsense shot of Mr. Junior Wells mid performance with harmonic in and and just a pair of stage lights in the back ground. It could not be any simpler, or a more direct reflection of what you're gonna hear when you spin this record. For my money, that makes this cover an outright masterpiece.

Flip it over, and you'll find a few well-chosen words about how It's My Life, Baby came into being, as well as a track list and a few other nuggets about this classic Vanguard release.

There's also that foil-stamped VMP Classics tag forever cementing this as a bona-fide must-own for record collectors.

Just out of the box, you'll find an Obi-strip cradling the sleeve of your Vinyl Me, Please release. On that strip, you'll find important info like It's My Life, Baby!'s AAA production cred. There's also an exerpt from the album's listening companion.

About that companion booklet, it's penned by music scribe and Chicago native Dr. Francesca T. Royster. And yes, it's as compelling a read as any VMP listening companion to date.

For the time being, there are two booklets arriving in every Vinyl Me, Please box, with the second teasing all the cool records on the copmany has on horizon, and some other fun tidbits to boot. Check it out.

As you might've guessed from that cover, Vinly Me, Please is soon to unleash a new reissue of Creedance Clearwater Revival's classic Willy and the Poor Boys. Some savvier readers likely deduced from the back cover image that VMP also has an album from dreamy electronic psych purveyors Broadcast in the works … which is beyond exciting. Anyway, here's a gander at the glossy black wax you've surely been clamoring to get a look at. Yeah, I'm a little bit in love that classic Vanguard label too.

While some might argue black vinyl is a little too basic these days, I can assure you this slab of wax will still bring some serious bluesy fire to any deck on which it spins.

How's it sound? Like sitting in a dark corner of a dive bar and drinking warm scotch while a couple of guys on stage pour their heart and soul into every song that pours out of them. And yes, you can practically feel the heat of the room when you listen to It's My Life, Baby! via the vinyl format.

I know I've said it a million times before, but it bears saying again – discovery is the number 1 reason for music and vinyl lovers to join a record club. As someone who'd never heard of Junior Wells prior to my box showing up this month, I gotta admit this artist is a top 5 discovery in my time with with VMP. And I cannot thank the team enough for exposing me to the work of this electrifying blues man.

A big THANK YOU to our friends at Vinyl Me, Please for sponsoring this subscription. Don’t forget to check out the Vinyl Me, Please website and sign up to get some choice wax delivered right to your door each and every month! Be sure to check back next month to see what vinyl treasure Team VMP sends our way!