King B.b. & Eric Clapton – Riding With the King (2xLP, MoFi)

B.B. King and Eric Clapton's Riding With The King brought two generations of electric blues together when it arrived in June 2000, more than 30 years after the pair first played together in a New York club in 1967. The album went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album, and it earns that stature by letting King remain firmly at the center while Clapton shapes the sessions around him with obvious respect.

Rather than treating this as a star-cameo exercise, the record leans into King’s own repertoire and blues tradition: songs closely associated with him sit alongside standards, plus the John Hiatt title track and contemporary co-writes from Doyle Bramhall II. The supporting cast is unusually deep, with Nathan East, Steve Gadd, Joe Sample, Andy Fairweather-Low, Doyle Bramhall II, Tim Carmon, Susannah and Wendy Melvoin, while Arif Mardin contributed string arrangements for selected tracks. Highlights such as the title track, “Three O’Clock Blues,” and “Worried Life Blues” show how naturally King’s lyrical sting and Clapton’s more rounded phrasing fit together.

For vinyl, this Mobile Fidelity edition matters because it expands the original 2000 album with two bonus tracks, adding “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and “Let Me Love You Baby.” It is sourced from the original masters, mastered by Krieg Wunderlich, and presented as a numbered audiophile pressing, making it a particularly strong way to hear the easy chemistry and seasoned restraint that give the album its lasting appeal.

Features

• 2xLP, 180g, MoFi
• Numbered edition with two bonus tracks: “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and “Let Me Love You Baby”
• Mastered from the original masters by Krieg Wunderlich
• Pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing
• Stoughton gatefold jacket