So Many Roads is
Hammond's most notable mid-'60s Vanguard album, due not so much to
Hammond's own singing and playing (though he's up to the task) as the yet-to-be-famous backing musicians. Three future members of
the Band --
Robbie Robertson,
Garth Hudson, and
Levon Helm -- are among the supporting cast, along with
Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica, and Mike Bloomfield also contributes. It's one of the first fully realized blues-rock albums, although it's not in the same league as the best efforts of the era by the likes of
the Paul Butterfield Blues Band or John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. In part that's because the repertoire is so heavy on familiar Chicago blues classics by the likes of
Willie Dixon,
Bo Diddley, and
Muddy Waters; in part that's because the interpretations are so reverent and close to the originals in arrangement; and in part it's also because
Hammond's blues vocals were only okay. Revisionist critics thus tend to downgrade the record a notch. But in the context of its time -- when songs like "Down in the Bottom," "Long Distance Call," "Big Boss Man," and "You Can't Judge a Book By the Cover" were not as well known as they would become -- it was a punchy, well-done set of electric blues with a rock touch. ~ Richie Unterberger