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 ...
To say that Carolina Chocolate Drops are an anomaly in the 21st century would be a huge understatement. Here are three twenty-something African-Americans playing a brand of acoustic, banjo- and fiddle-driven string band music that is nearly extinct today, and in fact peaked in the pre-WWII era. Although a number of Southern-bred black string bands ...
Songs of whiskey, women, and money -- nothing was more important to the repertoire of this classic acoustic blues duo. Good relations on stage were not, but during this 18-tune club date at Sugar Hill in San Francisco, Terry and McGhee are in good spirits. The former's fingerpicking, good-time guitar strummin', and even-keeled singing, joined by ...
Absolutely the Best: Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee collects 14 of the acclaimed country-blues duo's most memorable performances, including "I'm a Stranger Here," "Down by the Riverside," "Drinkin' in the Blues," and "Blowin' the Fuses." Terry and McGhee are joined by Lightnin' Hopkins and Big Joe Williams on "Blues for Gamblers," "Early Mornin' ...
Recorded during a three hour session on August 24, 1960, Gary Davis laid down 12 of his most impassioned spirituals for Harlem Street Singer. Starting off the session with a version of Blind Willie Johnson's "If I Had My Way I'd Tear That Building Down," here renamed "Samson and Delilah," Davis is in fine form. His vocals are as expressive as Ray ...
This recording has a less-than-stellar reputation, principally because it was done so late in McTell's career, and it is true that he lacks some of the edge, especially in his singing, that he showed on his other postwar recordings. On the other hand, his 12-string playing is about as nimble as ever and a real treat. McTell cut these sides for ...
An expert ragtime and blues guitarist, Rev. Gary Davis recorded gospel, marches, ragtime, jazz, and minstrel pieces throughout his long career (which included recordings issued in every decade from the 1930s until his death in 1972), but turned increasingly to spiritual material, and it is for his own brand of gospel-blues that he is best known. ...
This 20-song single CD reissues Furry Lewis' first modern commercial recordings, done for two Prestige/Bluesville albums (Back on My Feet Again, Done Changed My Mind) in April and May of 1961 at Sun Studios in Memphis. Lewis is in brilliant form throughout, his fingers nearly as fast and his voice as rich as they were 30-odd years earlier. The ...
Because this is an all-instrumental recording, it's an offbeat entry into the catalog of a performer known both as an important guitarist and as a singer. Some might miss Davis' vocals on this 1964 recording, but on the other hand there are plenty of records with him singing around. This gives listeners a chance to hone in on his dexterous guitar ...
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 ...
In a day and time (post-2000) when tribute albums spring up before a singer has a chance to die, much less become an immortal, it's a relief to get an album that switches the formula. Back to the Crossroads traces the roots -- not the influence -- of Robert Johnson, perhaps the most eulogized singer in blues history. These roots are especially ...
Yank Rachell has long been a legend in the blues world. One of the few blues mandolin players, Rachell recorded several notable sessions during 1929-1941 and then was off record for 22 years. After spending time outside of music, he was rediscovered and in 1963 he performed the music on this CD reissue. Rachell (who was in his fifties at the time) ...
One of three simultaneously released budget-priced Alligator blues compilations (the other two are Crucial Guitar Blues and Crucial Chicago Blues), Crucial Harmonica Blues is a 12-track anthology of the Chicago-based label's most popular and legendary harp artists. The track list reads like a who's who of harmonica with James Cotton, Big Walter ...
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 ...
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 ...
Cool Down is the first album the acoustic blues duo Cephas & Wiggins recorded for Alligator Records, and it ranks among their best. The spirit of the session is laid-back and eclectic, as the pair draws on everyone from Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Boy Fuller to Fats Domino and Merle Travis. There are also a half-dozen originals that might not ...
This CD serves as a perfect introduction to pre-war blues for the novice since it contains fine examples of the music of 20 blues artists: Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie Johnson, Bo Carter, Blind Willie McTell, Lonnie Johnson, Charley Patton, Leroy Carr, Josh White, Leadbelly, Peetie Wheatstraw, Robert ...
This double-CD set is a little misleading. It is definitive, but only in terms of McTell's Columbia and Okeh sides -- you won't find "Statesboro Blues" or his other earliest sides here, because they were done for Victor. But the material that is here is all worthwhile, and this is the best single source for McTell's work for those labels (done ...
Blackwell, it's not always remembered, was rediscovered in the late 1950s, though he didn't have much chance to make a new career out of the blues revival before his death a few years later. He performs well, but not wonderfully, on this July 1961 session in Indianapolis, accompanied only by his guitar (although he uses piano on one song, "Little ...
While these 24 performances might be most strongly linked to early blues styles, in fact what most strongly links them together is that all of them prominently feature fiddles. It's a reflection of a time when musical borders were not as solidified as they would soon become, and when blues mixed with ragtime, jazz, vaudeville, pop, string bands, ...
I Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More compiles 23 songs Sleepy John Estes recorded between 1929 and 1941, capturing the bluesman at the height of his creative powers. Unlike many Delta bluesmen of his era, Estes worked with a full jug band, which gave his music a greater variety of textures. His music swings, with a loose, relaxed feel that isn't heard ...
This set from Sony reissues the Blind Willie McTell Regal recordings, cut in 1950 and previously issued on Biograph with a different cover but the same track sequence. Highlights among the 20 remastered tracks are the Delta blues classics "Brown Skin Woman," "A to Z Blues," and two takes each of "Pal of Mine" and "Sending Up My Timber." This disc ...
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, ...
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