A double-disc box set containing everything Robert Johnson ever recorded, The Complete Recordings is essential listening, but it is also slightly problematic. The problems aren't in the music itself, of course, which is stunning and the fidelity of the recordings is the best it ever has been or ever will be. Instead, it's in the track sequencing. ...
Originally released in 1952 as a quasi-legal set of three double LPs and reissued several times since (with varying cover art), Anthology of American Folk Music could well be the most influential document of the '50s folk revival. Many of the recordings that appeared on it had languished in obscurity for 20 years, and it proved a revelation to a ...
A double-disc box set containing everything Robert Johnson ever recorded, The Complete Recordings is essential listening, but it is also slightly problematic. The problems aren't in the music itself, of course, which is stunning and the fidelity of the recordings is the best it ever has been or ever will be. Instead, it's in the track sequencing. ...
This three-disc, 70-track (30 of them new to the CD era) collection of murder ballads and disaster songs originally released on commercial 78s between 1913 and 1938 is, in spite of the archaic song structures and often crude sonic qualities on display, strangely contemporary in tone and feel, maybe because we've always been drawn to the scene of ...
This 16-track single-disc compilation gathers up the best-known tracks from the two original volumes of King of the Delta Blues Singers for a nice entry-level collection of Robert's best. Utilizing the latest in remastering technology, these recordings have never sounded quite this clear and full-bodied before, and the difference between this and ...
Lonnie Johnson was best known for his tonally beautiful guitar playing, but he was also a fine singer and songwriter, and pretty adept on violin, piano, banjo, mandolin, harmonium, and bass as well. Equally at home in the blues or the jazz world (he worked with artists as raw as Texas Alexander and as polished as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington ...
An essential Tommy Johnson collection, Document's Complete Recorded Works (1928-1929) features 17 songs from the Delta blues pioneer, including two alternative takes and a pair of previously unissued songs known respectively as "Morning Prayer Blues" and "Boogaloosa Blues." Culled from the great Delta musician's recording sessions in Memphis and ...
For anyone who's collected 78-rpm records, enjoyed Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, or expressed interest in the great missing old-time and blues records of yesteryear, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of will be the Holy Grail. Whereas it isn't unusual for Yazoo to place a rarity on a new collection by Blind Blake or Blind Lemon ...
As the most popular blues craftsman of the Mississippi Delta, Charley Patton had a resounding influence on many of the musicians that passed through the region during the '20s and '30s. Following his initial session for Paramount in 1929, he recommended both Son House and Willie Brown, as well as his mistress Louise Johnson and common-law wife ...
Skip James' soft eerie falsetto and odd guitar tunings place him apart from other Delta blues players, and when he took a turn at the piano, that, too, was unique. His reputation rests on a dozen or so sides recorded in the late '20s and early '30s, but when he was rediscovered in the 1960s, his skills were still intact and he recorded for several ...
Complete Recorded Works of Son House & The Great Delta Blues Singers isn't entirely devoted to Son House -- there are cuts by several other musicians, including Willie Brown, Garfield Akers, Rube Lacey and Joe Calicott -- but this disc, which contains a complete 1930 session, is the best place to get his earliest songs ("My Black Mama," "Preachin' ...
The 12 sides that comprise Today! are among the best James would record after his rediscovery in the '60s. His playing may be a bit less intricate than that captured on his legendary 78s from the '30s, but his unique falsetto sounds no less troubled or haunting than before on this album's definitive performances of "Hard Times Killing Floor Blues, ...
No one less than Bob Dylan penned the lyric that stated, "nobody can sing the blues, like Blind Willie McTell." McTell's '20s and '30s work reminds one slightly of Robert Johnson's work in the '30s, with notable differences. While McTell has the same dexterity as a guitarist, combining single-note runs with rhythmic aplomb, his singing is never as ...
King of the Delta Blues Singers,is a wonderful follow-up to the first compilation of Robert Johnson's small library of recorded work. This album boasts the first album appearance of "Love in Vain," as well as a number of other blues classics penned by the artist. "Sweet Home Chicago," "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom," "They're Red Hot," and "Malted ...
Since leaving the Rolling Stones in 1993, Bill Wyman has gone on a one-man crusade to promote the music he obviously loves. Wyman fronts his own blues band, the Rhythm Kings, and has been instrumental in keeping the names of both classic and obscure blues artists in the public eye through compilations like Rude Dudes. The title is somewhat ...
In 1949, a brief flurry of interest in old-timey country blues resulted in this 15-song session by Blind Willie McTell for the newly formed Atlantic Records. Only two songs, "Kill It Kid" and "Broke Down Engine Blues," were ever issued on a failed single, and the session was forgotten until almost 20 years later. McTell is mostly solo here, ...
These two discs reflect, in their way, the incredibly rich, varied lineage of women in the blues. And of course, given the title, we're not talking about singers -- though many of these women do sing. With liner notes by Sue Foley, who compiled the set, this collection reaches backward and forward to mirror back to the culture the wild, wooly ...
Starting in the 1940s, Folkways made significant blues recordings, particularly of important artists who might not have had the easiest time getting or keeping contracts with more commercial labels, but still had something to say artistically. This 26-track compilation assembles material recorded between the 1940s and 1990s that showed up on ...
The Complete Early Recordings CD showcases a true guitar virtuoso who was no slouch on the piano either. His break on "Illinois Blues" is almost off-putting in the nonchalance with which he twists the notes around, and "How Long 'Buck'" features him giving forth some funky piano in an almost playful manner. This is a remastered edition of an ...
Thirty Library of Congress field recordings from 1933 to 1946, compiled and thoroughly annotated by Stephen Wade. There are many Library of Congress collections, but the diversity of performances on this disc might make one of the better selections for someone who's interested enough in folkloric recordings to have just a few, as opposed to an ...
Were Charley Patton alive today, he'd most likely be pleasantly surprised by the durability of his records. Who could've imagined that the musings of a Delta guitarist, recorded for Paramount in the late 1920s and early 1930s, would be treated as relics of art 60 and 70 years later? The Best of Charley Patton includes 23 cuts, 70 minutes of music, ...
The first volume in Shanachie's two-volume series on traditional jug-band music of the 1920s and '30s contains many classic performances, as well as several previously unreleased cuts. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
These 25 songs were recorded by Chris Strachwitz in April 1965, December 1967, and the fall of 1969, when Jackson was in his early to mid-forties. It's a pleasant set including interpretations of well-known classics like "Diddy Wah Diddy," "Matchbox Blues," "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," and "He's in the Jailhouse Now." He goes for more ...
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues was the first session Skip James recorded following his rediscovery by John Fahey and Henry Vestine in the mid-'60s. Though he had not played the blues for more than 20 years, his skills were largely undiminished, and he turns in a fantastic set here. James was the pinnacle of the Bentonia (Mississippi) sound, which ...
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