Piedmont Blues

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...

For most listeners, Blind Boy Fuller's Truckin' My Blues Away (on Yazoo) may be a better bet than Columbia/Legacy's East Coast Piedmont Style, since it actually has a higher concentration of strong material, capturing the influential bluesman at his peak. All of the 14 tracks were...

This release supplants both the Yazoo In His Prime and the Wolf Records 1990 Complete Works collections released earlier. This time everything that Lewis recorded for Victor and Vocalion during those extraordinary two years of work during the 1920's has been gathered together, including...

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...

One of the high points of Helen Humes' career, this Contemporary set (reissued on CD) features superior songs, superb backup, and very suitable and swinging arrangements by Marty Paich. Humes' versions of "If I Could Be With You,"

Bull City Red, who played with the Reverend Gary Davis at various times, turns up on vocals for "I Saw the Light," but the rest of 1935-1949 is all Davis' show. Given the quality of what is here; the quality and inventiveness of the playing alone is astonishing, a youthful version...

Although Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hicks recorded over 65 extant sides (three are not known to have survived) in a three-year stretch starting in 1927 up to his death in 1931, the 20 collected here make a perfect introduction to the work of this Atlanta-based artist. He may have played a...

Three different overlapping vocal ensembles from the Georgia Sea Islands are featured on this album, one of the many feathers in the headdress of ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. The collection is the result of two different recording trips to the Georgia Sea Islands during the '50s and...

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...

For those with enough interest, Document's Complete Works, Vol. 1 (1929-1937) is invaluable, offering an exhaustive overview of Sleepy John Estes' early recordings. The early to mid-'30s were the most fruitful years of Estes' long career, during which he recorded most of the...

Lonnie Johnson straddled the boundaries between lues and jazz during the 1927-1930 period before deciding to stick to the former. This 22-song collection features five guitar duets with Eddie Lang (including "Bull Frog Moan" and "Hot Fingers"), vocal duets with Spencer...

This CD completes Lonnie Johnson's prewar recordings with 23 titles (including four previously unreleased numbers from a club date) from the 1940-1942 period. Johnson is mostly heard in trios with such sidemen as pianists Lil Armstrong and Blind John Davis, and bassist Andrew Harris. There...

The period of time covered in the fourth of seven Lonnie Johnson Document CDs found the guitarist/singer being well-featured as a leader in many settings. He is heard on three two-part double-entendre performances with singer Victoria Spivey ("New Black Snake Blues," "Toothache...

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 "Goin' to Sit Down on the Banks of the River." Overall, the...

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee were the ultimate lues duo; McGhee's stylized singing and light, flickering guitar was wonderfully contrasted by Terry's sweeping, whirling harmonica solos and intense, country-tinged singing. They were in great form during the ten tunes featured on...

Helen Humes had not recorded as a leader in seven years when she made the first of three albums for Contemporary, all of which have been reissued on CD via the OJC imprint. Humes, 45 at the time, was at the peak of her powers, although she never really made a bad record. Accompanied by Benny...

It sometimes seems like there are about 90 live albums by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, all from the 1960s. This one, taped at a show in Montreal in 1967, stands out from the rest because the duo are in unusually lively form, and its having been recorded in a more raw than usual manner. As...

Absolutely the Best: Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee collects 14 of the acclaimed country-blues duo's most memorable performances, including "Blowin' the Fuses." Terry and McGhee are joined by Lightnin' Hopkins and Big Joe Williams on "Blues for Gamblers,"...