Indeed, there have been some wonderfully memorable and eye-catching blues album covers, and here are a dozen of them… But that doesn’t mean to say that blues singers never cared about, or were indifferent to, the way they presented themselves on their album covers. Unlike pop artists, the majority of blues musicians have traditionally never been actively preoccupied with image, preferring to make music their priority. In the early years of the LP, album covers were often put together with little thought, but as time went by and the album concept evolved, artwork became increasingly sophisticated as marketing became an important selling tool for record companies. Indeed, a good cover picture, whether as a literal visual statement, expressing a concept, or functioning as a symbolic cipher, can convey in an instant what mere words will often struggle to communicate. They have the power to invoke, inspire, intrigue and fascinate. Whether good, bad, beautiful or ugly, they tell a story. Let’s face it, you can’t beat a good album cover. But with the miraculous revival of vinyl – whose sales have increased exponentially over the last couple of years – it’s feasible that album art will come into prominence again, whether that be for hip-hop, rock or the often overlooked world of blues album covers. We live in an age where the consumption of music is increasingly defined and dominated by digital music, and because of that the importance of album covers seems to be diminishing – at least for a generation where streaming individual tracks rather than a complete set of songs seems a more desirable way to listen.
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