NASTY BLUES?: With the blues reissue business...

NASTY BLUES?: With the blues reissue business booming, we’ve seen a lot of surprises in recent months, but how about this: MCA Records is about to put the first blues album with an “explicit lyrics” warning sticker. The offending package is a new version of Sonny Boy Williamson’s long-unavailable “Bummer Road” album, originally released by Chess Records in 1969, four years after Williamson’s death. Why the warning sticker? The record documents Williamson’s efforts to record a new song, “Little Village,” complete with an ample assortment of foul-mouthed in-studio repartee between Williamson and producer Leonard Chess. The album is due April 9, when MCA will also release Lowell Fulson’s “Hang Down Head” and Muddy Waters’ “Rare and Unissued,” which includes such obscure fare as his 1947 recording of “Little Anna Mae” (with Sunnyland Slim on piano) and a 1950 version of “Last Time I Fool Around With You.” Coming this fall: MCA’s long-awaited Howlin’ Wolf box set, which will offer his classic blues hits as well as rare alternate takes and excerpts from a Wolf interview conducted in the Chess recording studio.