No comments about Best of the Blues, Vol. 1.

2 comments about House of Blues: Essential Chicago Blues.

1. What more to say - see the cuts included.



2. This is a great CD for someone who is getting to know the blues for the first time. All types of blues are represented. It includes some of the great masters of the art like Muddy Waters and Koko Taylor.

3 comments about Blues Masters, Vol. 8: Mississippi Delta Blues.

1. Not five straight stars, though...partly because the authentic Mississippi Delta stuff is interspersed with much more urban sounds from B.B. King and Albert King. And (very) electric Chicago-sides by Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, and Robert Nighthawk do much to blur the distinctiveness of this package.
   
   But there's nothing wrong with the music itself. Delta legends Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and Son House are here, doing "Rattlesnake Blues", the eerie "Crossroads Blues" and the harsh "Preachin' The Blues" respectively. Muddy Waters' late-40s single "I Feel Like Going Home" is one of his finest early songs. And the awesome (and sadly underrated) Tommy Johnson is represented by two of his best and most impressive songs, "Big Road Blues" and "Cool Drink Of Water Blues" (the basis for Howlin' Wolf's "I Asked For Water").
   
   The fidelity on the oldest recordings, particularly by House and Patton, is below par, obviously, but that's the case with every reissue of this material, not just this one.
   The annotation is very good, as always with this series, and there are a few relatively obscure songs here which should please blues lovers (although seasoned blues listeners probably have most of this material already): "On The Wall", an energetic piano blues by Charley Patton-associate Louise Johnson, the acoustic "Catfish Blues" by Robert Petway, Rube Lacey's moody "Mississippi Jail House Groan", and Willie Brown's sandpapery rendition of the raw, Son House-like "Future Blues".
   
   The newer material includes slide guitar master Robert Nighthawk's gritty "I'm Gonna Murder My Baby", and great songs by Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, and Sonny Boy Williamson II. And the inclusion of the underrated and underrecorded Floyd Jones' "Dark Road" (another reworking of Johnson's "Big Road Blues") is an additional treat.
   
   A great collection of music. Not the definitive word on Delta blues, obviously, and some of these songs, excellent as they are, have no business being on a compilation of "Mississippi Delta Blues". But still...great music.



2. Still one of the best intro CDs to the blues. I'm knocked out by Tommy Johnson; he's the first two selections here. Charley Patton, but hey - what about that pivotal Willie Brown doing "Future Blues"? The liner notes are not circumspect in describing Louise Johnson's "performance" on "On the Wall". Another treat is two by Elmore James - 'specially "Something Inside Me" which floats along like Jimi Hendrix.
   I never tire of this compilation.



3. Any Mississippi Delta Blues fan would have an awful time picking just 15 representative entries. This album does a great job, falling just short by including too much new material - by new, I mean after 1940. Still, you can't argue with Robert Johnson's "Crossroad Blues" or even Robert Nighthawk's superlative "Going Down to Eli's." This captures the individuality, roughness, and anti-spritiuality of Delta Blues really well and a couple of non-obvious inclusions like Robert Petway's Catfish Blues make it a good catch. Of the Blues Master Series, this is one of my favorites.

2 comments about New Millennium Blues Party.

1. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a new blues lover, this CD brings your listening pleasure to new peaks. This collection of nearly 80 minutes of blues tunes effectively brings together some of today's stars (Clapton, Cray) with past blues legends (Waters, Hooker).

   If you're looking for some mood background music or some tunes to be a hit of the party...you need not look any further because Millennium Blues Party is your answer. Fact is...I'm not sure you can find a better mix of blues artists elsewhere!




2. A GOOD VARIETY OF SOME OF THE BEST BLUES ON 1 CD DON'T PASS THIS ONE UP IT'S JUST AWSOME!! HI MOM.

No comments about Devil in a Blue Dress.

1 comments about Louisiana Party Coll: Cajun & Zydeco Cassics.

1. This collection of music is so cool. It gives you a quick glimpse of alot of different artists. It has nice catchy tunes all through the cd.

3 comments about Before The Blues: The Early American Black Music Scene, Vol. 1.

1. Love the music - had duplicates of some tracks from the Harry Smith set & elsewhere, but much was new to me, especially the non-blues string band tunes. Highlight might be 'Deep Blue Sea Blues,' which I'd of course always associated with Muddy's 'Catfish Blues' from later; terrific version included here.
   Only negative comment on the liner notes is the clear aim to present an argument that white music had a bigger influence on early black music than frequently allotted. Not that I disagree with the point, but the way it's brought home made me feel a bit like they were pointing out _every time_ a black performer sounded 'white,' but in the case of the white performers, their race is almost never mentioned.
   All in all though made me rethink my ideas on the origins of blues music, on how blues went from being a song form to a genre, on the influence of 'country' on blues, and the co-existence of blues along with various other less celebrated black traditions in the 1920s.



2. In their usual meticulous way, the good people at Yazoo have brought to light a (mostly) forgotten collection of old tunes that shine a light on where we've been.

   What we get is a generous, thought-provoking mosaic of our musical heritage. As has been stated before, in the early days, there wasn't much discernible difference between how blacks and whites presented their music. This three-volume set of CD's stuffed near to overflowing with carefully restored songs, takes us back to that time and in doing so reminds us that no matter how richly varied the branches may be our roots are the same. Musical variety is truly a spice of life, which can best be appreciated when the universal foundation of our brother- and sisterhood is kept squarely in sight. A very grateful thank you to Yazoo for tending the flame.




3. This collection is almost more folk than blues, or perhaps it is a collection of blues songs when the genre was defined differently; in either case, it's something that anyone really interested in the history and progression of blues music should check out. Maybe listen to old-school John Lee Hooker (The Complete 50's Chess Recordings, for example) or a Lead Belly album to get more of an idea what this is like, much more Delta-blues-sounding than Chicago. If for no other reason, pick this up for the great track buy Mississippi John Hurt, one of my personal favorites.

3 comments about Black Appalachia: String Bands, Songsters and Hoedowns (Deep River of Song).

1. Too much of the general view of socalled old time music comes from the suburban, middle class people, who retreat to it thinking they are getting to something so white, so "celtic" that culturally they are making the same flight from Black people musically that they have made residentially.
   
   However, we pervade. This is real old time music, the Black music that is at the core and foundation of Southeastern American traditional music. You see it, you feel it, in all its glory right here.
   
   This is the Black old time string band and dance music that was ignored by record companies that only wanted blues out of Black artists and by most folklorists who by an large were only interested in blues, work songs, or songs they in their narrow point of view could directly pin as African Survivals. This is a great broad survey to open you up to the music. After you see this, you will be impelled to search for more. A good help is my own listmania list on Old Time music from a Black point of view.
   
   Last week, I kept just the first selection, Jimmy Strother's "Cripple Creek" repeating on my CD for a couple hours. It was not just the great banjo playing, but the lyrics with real meaning: "Read and Run, Read and Run, don't let the sundown catch you here," Strothers sings from inside a Virginia prison.
   
   Syd Hemphil's recordings here are very important. Hemphil is not just a fiddler, a blues artist, a font of Mississippi folk tradition, but he was a leader in the African quills and drums, Mississippi Hill Country, fife and drum band tradition. Here Hemphil PlayS in a band of fiddle, banjo, guitar AND DRUM! Despite the attempts of the slave masters to surpress the drums for fear they would call us to rebellion, the drum remains integral to this music.
   
   More well known because of the Altamont recordings is the John Lusk band one of the wildest, great string bands, Black and white of all time. I could go on and and on about every one of these selections. However, rather than reading more of my words, you need to listen to more of this music!
   
   Many, including myself, have written about the limitations of John and Alan Lomax in their collection and writing and shaping of American traditional music through lenses they want it to be seen with. However,the more important point is they went out and found this music, recorded this music, made it breathe out to the public by their connection with the initial 1930s folk song movement, and Alan continued that association to his death a few years back!



2. I like the Lomax disks, I like real folk, country, and bluegrass music, and I usually like less polished music by early, uncommercial artists. Nevertheless, I don't listen to this disk much. The problem isn't the quality of the music, which is high. But it's not just less polished, it's totally unpolished. I think you really have to be searching for the roots of just this type of music to appreciate this disk.



3. This Cd represents a treasure of american music and lets one know that what this music really is is a mixture of european and african influences.

No comments about Essential Blues Guitar.

1 comments about Diabolical Hoodoo: Devilry, Doom & Hellfire 1920-1952.

1. This is a FUN disk! It's very accessible. I lose interest in most popular music after Fats Waller, but this really does cover the full 1920-1952 range (emphasis on the 20s, 30s and 40s, though) and each one is interesting and listenable. They actually bothered to restore these, and the sound is fantastic! They have completely eliminated the pops and cracks even from 1920s shellac, which I can attest is hard to do! OTOH, the organization isn't great - "random" about covers it - and the written materials are a bit light. I'd welcome more on the major and supporting artists, the year of each song, how popular it was...you know, context. And of course it's inevitable in a compilation, but I really think they missed some obvious and great ones, like "The Devil to Pay" and "Voodoo Drag." But it's definitely worth the $15 and I am under the evil spell already: I covet their ripping software and have plans to corrupt the local preschoolers by playing this at Halloween ;->