"Michael Fairchild, who wrote…the 28-page booklet for :Blues, tells ICE [magazine], 'I'm really excited about the live track, Hear My Train A Comin from Berkeley, because it's one of Jimi's finest blues…it's never been put out on CD…We found the original reel just a few months ago, so it's the best sound we've ever heard on that.'"

"This tour of [Jimi's] blues roots…is a must…Excellent liner notes."

"Sumptuously packaged, with unreleased versions…the playing is always inspired…the booklet notes are superb."

"Speechless in Seattle...The most essential Hendrix record released since his death…as Michael J. Fairchild's exceedingly erudite sleeve-notes explain."

A new Jimi Hendrix CD was released yesterday across the US and it has quite a few local connections. Jimi Hendrix :Blues is MCA's latest addition to their growing Hendrix catalog. As with their box set, released last November, Rochesterian Michael Fairchild wrote the accompanying booklet…the Hendrix scholar feels Jimi's biggest local connection was legendary bluesman Son House. Son House lived on Greig Street in Rochester for more than 30 years. He was celebrating his 66th birthday on March 21, 1968, the day Hendrix came here to play and Jimi met House's manager, Dick Waterman. Fairchild goes on to trace the roots of blues from Son House to Robert Johnson to John Hammond to Jimi Hendrix. Fairchild also consulted on this Jimi Hendrix at the Atlanta Pop Festival video.

"The latest Hendrix compilation, :Blues, is such a revealation…as Michael Fairchild's 28-page booklet accompanying the CD amply points out…Fairchild…known internationally for his devotion to the minutiae of Hendrix…picked several of the 11 tunes, and placed all 11 into an order that represents the span of a bluesman's life."

"Michael Fairchild's 28-page liner notes are a sheer joy to read. Fairchild pinpoints the exact original blues classics…If this release does not receive a Grammy award next year I think we should all write a complaint letter."

"Making the Hendrix Connection - Something really big must be going on, and this week you can hear it for yourself. Jimi Hendrix :Blues is in the stores. Michael Fairchild's involvement is significant. As with the case with the re-packaging and re-release of Hendrix's first three albums earlier this year, the Rochester native wrote the booklet that accompanies the CD. And in true Fairchild fashion it includes an exhaustive history and track-by-track analysis of Hendrix blues-roots efforts. Jimi Hendrix :Blues is off to a huge start. Its March 18 European release saw it debut on the album charts in most countries - among the Top 20 in some, it drew an enthusiastic response from Rolling Stone magazine. Jimi Hendrix :Blues is quite a work. There's no getting around the observation that Fairchild is quite a work himself. Fairchild has positioned himself as one of the world's preeminent Hendrix scholars...Fairchild works for the Hendrix estate...Hendrix came to Rochester only once, performing at the Community War Memorial in 1968. But that one visit - and the fact that the late bluesman Son House once lived here - have become central to Fairchild's Hendrix philosophy. 'Son House was celebrating his 66th birthday in Rochester on the day Hendrix came to play in '68' is how Fairchild begins his huge essay with the new CD...the George Eastman House was built around the same time as the Son House house on Grieg Street, Fairchild insists that his Hendrix-Rochester connection will 'eclipse the Eastman House, it is the deepest story ever to come out of Rochester.'"