3 comments about Hard Times Come Again No More, Vol. 2.

1. This is an 'acquired taste.' You'll need to have some prior experience with depression era lamentation style and actually enjoy that before you consider taking this trip. Uneven compilation of rare tracks from the 1930's with all the attendant technolgical glitches that implies. If you enjoy this sort of thing... then this is the sort of thing you'll enjoy!

   Yeah I know... well how about this then: Do you prefer "authentic" ? This is the authentic stuff. This is Sour Mash cooked up in a copper kettle with a copper coil over a wood fire on a wooded mountainside... don't use no green wood - it makes too much smoke an' the G-men will see your hidey place. Still... Pass that jug.




2. The combination of black blues musicians and white songsters on the same CD is very interesting, but it does not make for coherent listening. As a blues fan I was surprised to find how there was a lot of mutual influence among white and black musicians in the South.
   Most blues musicians in this CD are also great songsters - such as Blind Blake and Peg Leg Howell, but the blues of Barbecue Bob, Charly Jordan and Big Joe Williams have very little in common with any of the white songsters. I Would include songs by Furry Lewis, Blind Boy Fuller or Blind Willie Mctell instead - to add some coherence.
   Nevertheless, there is plenty of good music on this compilation - from both songsters and bluesmen. I would recommend this CD to anyone interested in the Southern Songster tradition.



3. This CD along with volume 1 is a must have for fans of old time music. This music kind of gets your bones down in the dirt and puts shivers in your soul.

1 comments about Somebody Loan Me a Dime.

1. Various Artists / Somebody Loan Me A Dime
   Track Title
   1. Tell Me How You Like It - Byther Smith
   2. Rode Myself Crazy -- The Paul Delay Band
   3. Ooh Wee - Billy Boy Arnold
   4. My Babe -- Mississippi Fred McDowell
   5. Hold On Baby -- U. P. Wilson
   6. Helpless Blues -- John Lee Hooker
   7. Your Gonna Need Me Baby -- Louisiana Red
   8. Ho Ho -- Ike Turner
   9. Somebody Loan Me A Dime -- Fenton Robinson
   10. I Got My Mojo Working -- Muddy Waters
   11. How Blue Can You Get -- Albert Collins
   12. Hey Woman -- Roosevelt Sykes
   13. Got Me A Louisiana Woman -- Lightnin' Hopkins
   14. I Don't Know Why - Eddie Clearwater
   15. She Used To Be Beautiful -- Charlie Musselwhite
   16. Ship Made Of Paper -- Magic Slim & The Teardrops

No comments about Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974, Vol. 2: 1952-1954.

No comments about Bullet Records Blues.

No comments about The Bluesville Years, Vol. 6 : Blues Sweet Carolina Blues.

No comments about Bill Withers Smooth Jazz Tribute.

No comments about Louisiana Swamp Blues.

1 comments about Angola Prison Worksongs.

1. Where better to find real blues music than inside a prison? Although myriad earlier folklorists had already mined a various prisonyards for their blues material, these recordings made at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola have a richness and sadness to them that isn't quite conveyed in earlier efforts. Accompanied by work sounds such as shoveling and raking, these people have the same undeniable "authenticity" as the back porch Appalachians so beloved by the Lomaxes, Seegers and other scholars, but with an added layer of misery and hopelessness that makes the music even more compelling. Included in these recordings is the great Robert Pete Williams, who went on to record several excellent albums for the Arhoolie label. Recommended.

2 comments about Blues Harp Meltdown Volume 3: Legends.

1. What we have here is a melding of old and new and that's not all bad contrary to the previous review. Mark Hummel is the guiding force and is one of the best in the biz for West Coast harping. Also helping out is Muddy Waters' former drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith who started out on harp.
   Disc 2 is special, being split between Carey Bell and Lazy Lester. I enjoy guitar more that harp and Steve Freund is simply okay in his roll as backup. Just as well, it's the harp that takes this stage.



2. i bought this disc only because of lazy lester.
   he sounds great and the players,althogh white,sound not bad
   either.the rest of the disc is modern blues crap.

No comments about Blues with a Feeling.