Editor's info:
Before there was the bluesman there was the songster and it was these travelling troubadours who helped lay the foundations for the development of the blues. In the decades preceding the phonograph and radio and before the American national entertainment industry had reached into the deepest parts of the South, it was these wandering musicians who provided the musical entertainment for all manner of social events. In order to be able to scrape a living together the songster had to be incredibly versatile and come up with something for everyone. Armed with a banjo or guitar they performed every form of popular music of the day from folk songs and ballads to rags and spirituals. Priding themselves on their huge repertoires, they could be described as the human jukeboxes of their time. Along with the many musicians shrouded in mystery, this collection boasts tracks by legendary bluesmen such as Leadbelly, Charley Patton and Mississippi John Hurt. Aside from the blues these great performers would have been able to play everything asked of them at local bars and rural dances, and it is said that Leadbelly could draw on a repertoire of over 500 songs from many different genres. Likewise, the ‘Father of the Delta Blues’, Charley Patton left glimpses into his songster roots and true musical versatility with songs such as the featured ‘Mississippi Boweavil Blues’. Henry Thomas’s projected birthdate of 1874 predates that of Charley Patton by a good 17 years and gives us an idea of what rural black music sounded like before the turn of the twentieth century. He was 53 years old during his first recording session in 1927 by which point much of his music was already a representation of a bygone era. The same could be said of Richard ‘Rabbit’ Brown from New Orleans who worked as a ferryman on lake Pontchartrain and whose recorded legacy of just five songs includes ‘James Alley Blues’ which has been covere.......
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Tracklista wersji winylowej:
1. Luke Jordan: Pick Poor Robin Clean (3:11)
2. Henry Thomas: Don't Leave Me Here (3:23)
3. Daddy Stovepipe & Mississippi Sarah: The Spasm (2:49)
4. Papa Charlie Jackson: Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine (2:51)
5. Furry Lewis: John Henry (The Steel Driving Man) n Part 1
6. Charley Patton: Mississippi Boweavil Blues (3:04)
7. Dick Justice: Cocaine (3:09)
8. Leadbelly: Midnight Special (2:02)
9. Blind Blake: Come On Boys Let's Do That Messin' Around (2:44)
10. Frank Hutchison: Stackalee (3:02)
11. Richard 'Rabbit' Brown: James Alley Blues (3:05)
12. Cannon's Jug Stompers: Going To Germany (2:29)
13. Peg Leg Howell: Coal Man Blues (3:03)


Before there was the bluesman there was the songster and it was these travelling troubadours who helped lay the foundations for the development of the blues. In the decades preceding the phonograph and radio and before the American national entertainment industry had reached into the deepest parts of the South, it was these wandering musicians who provided the musical entertainment for all manner of social events. In order to be able to scrape a living together the songster had to be incredibly versatile and come up with something for everyone. Armed with a banjo or guitar they performed every form of popular music of the day from folk songs and ballads to rags and spirituals. Priding themselves on their huge repertoires, they could be described as the human jukeboxes of their time. Along with the many musicians shrouded in mystery, this collection boasts tracks by legendary bluesmen such as Leadbelly, Charley Patton and Mississippi John Hurt. Aside from the blues these great performers would have been able to play everything asked of them at local bars and rural dances, and it is said that Leadbelly could draw on a repertoire of over 500 songs from many different genres. Likewise, the ‘Fat.......
more