I love the blues. A while back, my uncle turned me on to AC/DC and George Thorogood. One of the songs that sent me spinning into the blues was Thorogood's classic cover of John Lee Hooker's "One Bourbon, One Scotch And One Beer. From there it was downhill. Occasionally, I get on a blues-rock kick and go out seeking new stuff. About a year ago, I was on this type of kick and started downloading from Mp3.com's electric blues catagory. I found some great stuff there like Robin Trower, Rob Tognami Power Blues Rock, B.B. Chung King and The Buddaheads and best of all, Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards. I was so enthralled by Mean Gene that I downloaded every track there, and constantly checked back to find new stuff.I started by putting the tracks on mix discs, with the intention of buying the CD soon, though it's still near the top of the list of CD's to buy.Recently, I was taking a fairly long drive and got in a Mean Gene type of mood, so I started swapping CD's in & out of the CD player. This got old REALLY fast, so when I got home, I put together a 2 CD set of all of the Mean Gene Kelton & The Die Hards tracks I have. This set includes thier entire Most Requested disc as well as assorted bonus tracks and earlier versions that have been available over the last year or so.No type of music can hit emotions like the blues. If you're in a lousy mood and slap in a slow, sad blues song it feels like they are speaking right to your heart. If you are in a great mood and slap in a faster, boogie-woogie blues song, it just makes the feeling that much more intense. No other type of music can do that for me, which is why I'm such a blues-junkie.This set includes fast, heavy rockabily songs such as "Goin' Back To Memphis" and "Texas Honey" and goes all the way through to the other side of the spectrum, the slow, wailing blues with "Tears On My Guitar" and "Leaving Paradise." There are some rather tongue-in-cheek tunes like the "best party song ever written" rocker "My Baby Don't Wear No Panties" and "Let Me Pump Your Gas." The mid-tempo blues cuts such as "The Last Teardrop" and "Sinkin' Deeper Into The Blues" round out the collection nicely.Kelton's voice has just the right pitch and tone, with a touch of gravel and a Texas accent to do the blues-rock thing correctly. He has an incredible range to his voice as well, which makes it that much easier to enjoy his slow wailing on the slower tunes and the groovy, uptempo singing on the faster songs. The bonus is that he plays a MEAN guitar. From his slow scaling to slidework, it is flawless blues riffs over a thumping beat.I can't emphasize how much I love this band. I am still waiting for them to come a little closer to home than Texas to be able to enjoy these songs live, but in the meantime, they will spend some serious time in the CD player. If you like blues and "southern-fried rock and roll" you should not wait to check these guys out.