As part of the U.K. release of Martin Scorsese"s miniseries The Blues, the British reissue label Snapper released a number of single-disc compilations of noted blues artists. Most of them are redundant, but the 25-track Lowell Fulson anthology Trying to Find My Baby is far better than many. Largely forgotten to most casual blues fans, except perhaps for those who remembered that Elvis Presley"s brilliant "Reconsider Baby" was a cover of a 1954 Fulson single, Lowell Fulson is hard for neophytes to get a handle on at first. Born in Oklahoma, heavily influenced by acoustic Texas blues singers like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Texas Alexander (although Fulson himself played electric almost exclusively), based in Los Angeles, and spending most of his career recording for Chicago"s Chess Records, he doesn"t fit into the neat geographic box so beloved by blues purists. Furthermore, he recorded in so many different styles for so many different labels that most of the many compilations available focus only on one period of his career at a time. At 25 tracks covering a career that lasted nearly half a century, Trying to Find My Baby is necessarily skimpy, but it"s one of the few genuinely comprehensive overviews of Fulson"s many musical changes. Shockingly, however, it doesn"t include Fulson"s best-known song and biggest hit, the aforementioned and, admittedly, endlessly anthologized "Reconsider Baby," so it"s not really acceptable for the true neophyte. However, it"s an excellent second step for those wanting a better grasp of Fulson"s career. ~ Stewart Mason, Rovi