While touring the world with The Allman Brothers Band, The Dead and, of course, leading his own outfit, Gov't Mule, it's a wonder that Warren Haynes has any time at all to listen to music that he isn't making himself.

And yet, the guitarist who has traded licks with everyone from Eric Clapton to Billy Gibbons, and who was not only ranked 23rd on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarist Of All Time but was also voted by MusicRadar readers as one of the 17 Unsung Les Paul Legends, has a record collection (not to mention an iPod) that goes deep.

Deep blues, that is. On the following pages, Haynes runs down his favorite blues albums of all time, those records that got under his skin, made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and, more importantly, forced him to strike a deal with the Devil...at the crossroads, naturally. He kicks things off withFreddie King:

"A great example of a blues artist taking the genre into the future by combining other idioms. Eric Clapton realized this: he was greatly influenced by Freddie King and started talking about him to the press. Because of this, a lot of ‘rock’ fans purchased this record.

"Beyond the guitar playing, it also reveals King to be a most gifted blues singer."

Listen: Freddie King - She's A Burglar (1974)