Koko Taylor Crown Jewels LP

TAS Rated 4.5/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the October 2025 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

GRAMMY® award-winning blues icon Koko Taylor was a force of nature. The legendary Queen of the Blues was one of the genre's best-selling and most recognizable artists. With her huge, gritty voice and the backing of her powerhouse band, The Blues Machine, she delivered tough Chicago blues over a 45-year career, ending with her death in 2009. For people all over the world, her music IS the blues as much as BB King's or Buddy Guy's.

Crown Jewels is the first new Koko Taylor LP to be released in 35 years, and as the title makes clear, it's packed with over 50 minutes of the finest performances from her celebrated Alligator years. These are songs blues fans know and love by heart, from "Wang Dang Doodle" to "Hey Bartender" to "Let the Good Times Roll." It's gritty, unvarnished, old-school blues and proud of it, every track infused with Koko's ageless energy and passion. Fellow Chicago blues greats Buddy Guy and Carey Ball guest.

Everything listeners want in a blues singer...visceral and passionate...an aural portrait of an artist at the height of her power and charisma.

When it comes to this jaw-dropping overview of a powerhouse artist's most productive years, it may well be best to simply say 'Wow!' and let the music speak for itself...performances rich in all the gusto, fervor, grievance, empathy, and unrelenting heat Koko always brought to the stage and studio.