A Little Yearender...

First and foremost, from all of us, thank you for coming around for the past year (March to December to be exact) to join us in our collective effort to promote the blues. Your comments, encouragement, criticism, suggestions, etc is not lost on us. They gave us valuable info on what you folks think about our posts. As this year closes, we ask you to spare some time to tell us what you feel are your best downloads from us.
In comments, list those albums (artist - album). If there's several, list each one of them and please don't say "All". And if you can, tell us why in a few words you like them, such as "Good guitar work", "Great voice", "Excellent songs", or "I liked it so much I bought the CD", "I discovered this great band here", and so on.
This is important feedback for us.

We're looking forward to another great year of blues with you.
Friendly
The Riverbank Divin' Ducks

LZ Love & Lightning Red - Gut Bucket Blues: Stumpdown Acoustic

File: mp3@192K/s
Size: 49.6 MB
Time: 36:06
Released: 2007
Label: (Self-released)
Styles: Acoustic country blues
Art: Front

(5:39) 1. Been Lonely
(5:05) 2. Wang Dang Doodle
(3:45) 3. Lie No More
(4:51) 4. Something Good
(2:55) 5. Backyard Boogie
(4:01) 6. Baby, What You Want Me To Do
(3:16) 7. Can't Help Myself
(2:58) 8. Cotton Pickin
(3:33) 9. Gates Of Heaven

Born in Chicago, back to Louisiana at age 3, raised in Berkeley California.

As so many great American singers have, LZ began singing gospel in a southern church…at age five. Having sung and toured with a long list of icons including Mary Wells, Joan Armatrading, Billy Preston (the 5th Beatle), Parliament Funkadelic, Luther Vandross and Stephen Marley, her credentials are impressive.

A favorite of Tommy Castro and Michael Fronti, her voice appears on their releases, as does theirs on hers. LZ Love’s s solo career began in 1995 when her song Lift Me Up reached number two on the European dance charts. When residing in London, LZ’s dance-music career was interrupted by the severe illness of her mother. After caring for her dying mother in California, her career took yet another path.

In 2001 she co-wrote ‘ONE’, her first album, and the song Been Lonely became a favorite on the San Francisco scene and was released on ‘San Francisco Bay’s Best Blues’ by Epitaph Records. In addition to singing in the Broadway production of ‘The Lion King’ in San Francisco, 2003 saw the release of the acclaimed CD ‘Standing Wide-legged & Proud’.

Relocating to Austin, Texas with her song-writing partner and their lead guitarist, LZ continues to release dance-singles in Europe, albums in the US, and lend her amazing vocal abilities to other projects. 2006 saw her doing supporting vocals on Lightning Red’s first acoustic release, and their duo recordings have led to label interest and tours.

Gut Bucket Blues: Stumpdown Acoustic

Lightnin' Hopkins - All The Classics 1946-1951

Album: All The Classics 1946-1951
Style: Texas Blues
Released: 2003
Label: JSP
File: MP3 320 Kbps
Size: 468 MB
Art: Front

Tracklist:
1 Katie Mae Blues Hopkins 3:01
2 Feel So Bad [alternate take] Broonzy, Hopkins, Hopkins 2:10
3 That Mean Old Twister 3:10
4 Rocky Mountain Blues Hopkins 2:48
5 Short Haired Woman Hopkins 2:25
6 Big Mama Jump Hopkins, Hopkins 2:29
7 Down Baby Hopkins, Hopkins 2:17
8 Let Me Play With Your Poodle Hawkins, Tampa Red 2:33
9 Fast Mail Rambler Hopkins, Hopkins 2:49
10 Thinkin' and Worryin' Hopkins, Hopkins 2:54
11 Short Haired Woman Hopkins, Hopkins 2:47
12 Big Mama Jump Hopkins, Hopkins 2:33
13 Can't Get That Woman Off My Mind Hopkins, Hopkins 2:40
14 Woman Woman Hopkins, Hopkins 2:45
15 Picture on the Wall Hopkins, Hopkins 2:50
16 Worried Life Blues Hopkins 2:51
17 Miss Me Blues 2:19
18 Sugar Mama Hopkins 2:44
19 Nightmare Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:40
20 Someday Baby Estes, Hopkins, Nixon 2:40
21 Come Back Baby Hopkins 2:41
22 Lightnin's Boogie Hopkins 2:20
23 Baby, You're Not Going to Make a Fool Out of Me 2:32
24 Daddy Will Be Home One Day Hopkins 2:28
25 Moonrise Blues 2:58
26 Howling Wolf Blues Hopkins 2:44
27 Morning Blues Hopkins, Lewis 2:48
28 Have to Let You Go Hopkins 2:40
29 Baby Child Bizor, Rubenstein 2:45
30 Mistreater Blues [Mistreated] 2:41
31 My California Hopkins 2:34
32 Honey Honey Blues 2:35
33 So Long Hopkins 2:47
34 See See Rider Rainey 2:36
35 Changing Weather Blues 3:00
36 I Just Don't Care Hopkins 2:48
37 Whiskey Headed Woman Hopkins 2:54
38 Abilene Hopkins 2:27
39 Shotgun DeWalt, Hopkins 2:41
40 Rollin' Blues Fulson 2:44
41 Tell It Like It Is Hopkins 2:40
42 Miss Loretta Hopkins 2:43
43 Shining Moon Hopkins 2:47
44 Ida Mae Hopkins, Hopkins, Terry 2:45
45 Mercy Hopkins 2:34
46 What Can It Be Hopkins 2:38
47 Lonesome Home Hopkins 2:44
48 Appetite Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:32
49 Walking Blues Hopkins, Johnson 2:49
50 Lightning Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:35
51 No Mail Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:46
52 Ain't It a Shame Hopkins, Hopkins 2:53
53 Tim Moore's Farm Hopkins, Hopkins 2:40
54 You Don't Know Hopkins, Hopkins 2:42
55 Treat Me Kind Hopkins, Hopkins 2:38
56 Somebody's Got to Go Hopkins, Moore 2:43
57 Baby Please Don't Go Hopkins, Williams 2:52
58 Death Bells Hopkins, Hopkins 2:40
59 Mad With You Hopkins, Hopkins 2:29
60 Airplane Blues Estes, Hopkins, Hopkins 2:39
61 Unsuccessful Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:21
62 Rollin' Woman Blues Hopkins 2:47
63 Jail House Blues Smith, Williams 2:41
64 T-Model Blues Hopkins 2:36
65 Traveler's Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 3:03
66 Lightnin's Boogie Hopkins 2:50
67 Unkind Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:59
68 Trying to Find a Friend Hopkins 3:07
69 Fast Life 2:46
70 European Blues Hopkins 2:39
71 Automobile Hopkins 2:48
72 Zologo 2:47
73 Organ Boogie Hopkins 2:58
74 Automobile Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 3:03
75 Old Woman Blues Hopkins 3:03
76 Untrue Blues Hopkins 3:06
77 Henny Penny Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:09
78 Loretta Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:44
79 Jackstropper Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:48
80 Grievance Blues Hopkins 2:59
81 Grosebeck Blues [Take 2] Hopkins, Hopkins 2:25
82 Whiskey Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:42
83 Racetrack Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:34
84 Good-Bye Blues Hopkins 2:45
85 Bluebird Blues Hopkins 3:14
86 Seems Funny Baby Hopkins, Hopkins 3:03
87 Coolin' Board Blues Hopkins 2:43
88 Goin' Back and Talk to Mama Hopkins 2:56
89 All I Got Is Gone Hopkins 3:02
90 Beggin' You to Stay (Someday Baby) 2:38
91 Bad Luck and Trouble Hopkins 2:38
92 Black Cat Bone Hopkins 2:57
93 Disagreeable Hopkins 3:22
94 Dark and Cloudy Hopkins 2:55
95 Coffee Blues Hopkins, Hopkins 2:44
96 Praying Ground Blues Hopkins 2:59
97 Gotta Move Ellen 2:41
98 Give Me Central 209 (Hello Central) 3:00
99 Long Way from Texas Ellen 3:04
100 Tell Me Boogie 3:12
101 New Short Haired Woman Ellen 3:00
102 New York Boogie Ellen, Hopkins, Hopkins 2:49
103 You Caused My Heart to Weep 2:34
104 I Wonder Why Ellen 2:32
105 Papa Bones Boogie Hopkins 2:35
106 No Good Woman Hopkins 2:51
107 Lightnin's Gone Again Hopkins 2:47
108 Dirty House 3:02
109 Bald Headed Woman Ellen, Hopkins 2:56
110 Everything Happens to Me 2:42
111 Freight Train Blues 2:50
112 I've Been a Bad Man (Mad Blues) 3:10
113 New Worried Life Blues 2:43
114 One Kind of Favor 3:01
115 Broken Hearted Blues Ellen 3:48
116 Worried Blues Ellen, Traditional 1:53
117 Don't Think I'm Crazy 2:50
118 Down to the River Ellen 2:57
119 Contrary Mary Ellen 2:42
120 I'm Begging You Hopkins 2:38
121 Why Did You Get Mad at Me Hopkins 2:52
122 Everybody's Down on Me Ellen 3:01
123 Sad News from Korea Ellen 3:10
124 Let Me Fly Your Kite Ellen 3:45
125 Gone With the Wind Ellen 2:38
126 She's Almost Dead Ellen 3:38

Notes:
This five-disc collection from London's JSP Records brings together 126 sides that Lightnin' Hopkins tracked for the Aladdin, Modern/RPM, and Gold Star labels at the very start of his recording career. Included are the Texas bluesman's first hit, "Katie May" from 1946, "T-Model Blues" from 1949, and arguably the most startling Hopkins composition, the powerful "Tim Moore's Farm," also from 1949. Most of the tracks are Hopkins solo, playing either acoustic or electric guitar, but he takes a turn at the organ for "Organ Boogie," a track that shows the same adventuresome liberties with tempo and time that mark all of his work, whatever the instrument. Since his approach and style to the blues never altered throughout his life, a case could be made that these first recordings are the ones to get, but at an astounding 126 tracks, this set is mind-numbing overkill for all but the most devoted fan. Rhino's two-disc Mojo Hand anthology is the place to start for novice listeners drawn to this Texas legend.

PW: Klipkop
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

John Lee Williamson - The Original Sonny Boy Williamson: The Later Years 1939-1947 (4 Cd's Box set)

Genre: Blues
Styles: Chicago Blues, Acoustic Chicago Blues, Harmonica Blues, Acoustic Harmonica Blues
Recorded:
Released: 2008
Label: JSP

This four-CD set is the perfect companion and complement to JSP's The Original Sonny Boy Williamson, Vol. 1, covering the blues harp legend's final eight years. John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson (aka Sonny Boy Williamson I) has, until fairly recently, been the odd man out in the story of Chicago blues stars, at least in terms of how history and posterity treated him. Having died in 1948, long before the significance of the blues or his work was recognized, he receded within the shadow cast by the older yet longer-lived name appropriator Sonny Boy Williamson II (aka Aleck Ford Miller), who got to record for Chess Records into the 1960s, and made it all the way to sessions with the likes of Eric Clapton and even a sadly never fulfilled intersection with the Band. The situation got even more frustrating for scholars when The New York Times, no less (known in the journalism trade as the newspaper of record), in a 1990s article about blues musicians being acknowledged with proper grave markers, obliterated any mention of the existence of John Lee Williamson in the course of telling of Miller/Williamson II's neglect. RCA's efforts at assembling John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's music ended after two volumes and never got near the 1940s end of his output, and the only other effort to collect his work, by Document Records, was only available piecemeal, as hard to find imports. This set makes up for all of that, covering the man's output from beyond the point of his most well-known record and song, "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl."

Williamson had a decade of life beyond that point, and the 104 sides here -- assembling his own credited singles as well as his recordings backing such legends as Yank Rachell and Big Joe Williams -- are well worth hearing. The man's music grew in sophistication and complexity across the 1940s as his lyrical and musical facility advanced. Thus, what starts out as fairly rudimentary Chicago blues, as an outgrowth of Delta blues, soon begins to anticipate and intersect with what became the early Aristocrat and Chess Records sounds of Muddy Waters and Little Walter. You get to hear Williamson turn from typical blues subjects (i.e., women) to topical material about the Second World War, and also start to play off of harder guitar sounds as the '40s go on, and the recordings themselves evolve past the antique feel of those better-known early sides. The tendency, because he died so long ago -- 60-plus years at the time of this release -- is to hear his music as something out of another age, but by the fourth disc in this set you hear Williamson catching some of the same energy and vibe that Leonard Chess latched onto at just about the same time when he heard Walter and Muddy. And in terms of the names associated here, also along for the ride (and, at times, driving) are Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red, the ubiquitous Willie Dixon, and Big Maceo, Eddie Boyd, and Washboard Sam. (Indeed, on the basis of the sidemen alone, this set should be considered essential listening.) The sound quality ranges from very good to excellent, and the annotation by Neil Slaven is detailed and thorough, as is the accompanying discography. ~ Bruce Eder

---

Disc A
1. Honey Bee Blues - 3:10
2. I Been Dealing with the Devil - 2:50
3. War Time Blues - 2:58
4. Train Fare Blues - 2:50
5. Decoration Day Blues No.2 - 2:53
6. New Early in the Morning - 2:43
7. Welfare Store Blues - 2:52
8. My Little Machine - 3:01
9. Jivin' the Blues - 2:54
10. Hobo Blues - 3:32
11. It Seem Like a Dream - 2:52
12. Army Man Blues - 2:56
13. 38 Pistol Blues - 2:48
14. Worried Blues - 2:50
15. Biscuit Baking Woman - 3:07
16. Insurance Man Blues - 3:07
17. Up North Blues (There's a Reason) - 2:48
18. Western Union Man - 3:03
19. Big Apple Blues - 3:08
20. Springtime Blues - 3:03
21. My Baby Made a Change - 3:12
22. Shotgun Blues - 2:59
23. Coal & Iceman Blues - 3:05
24. Drink on, Little Girl - 3:07
25. Mattie Mae Blues - 3:07
26. I'm Gonna Catch You Soon - 2:47

Personnel:
John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson - Vocals (1-9, 18-26), Harmonica (1-26)
Walter Davis - Piano (1)
Big Bill Broonzy - Guitar (1, 18-25)
Joshua Altheimer - Piano (2-9)
Fred Williams - Drums (2-9)
Yank Rachell - Guitar (10-17), Vocals (10-17)
William Mitchell - Bass (10-25)
Washboard Sam - Washboard (10-17)
Blind John Davis - Piano (18-26)
Ransom Knowling - Bass (26)

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 124.8 MB
Time: 77:53
Art: full

The Original Sonny Boy Williamson: The Later Years (Disc 1)

---

Disc B
1. Million Years Blues - 3:06
2. Shady Grove Blues - 2:52
3. Sloppy Drunk Blues - 3:16
4. She Was a Dreamer - 2:39
5. You Got to Step Back - 2:58
6. Ground Hog Blues - 2:44
7. Black Panther Blues - 2:33
8. Broken Heart Blues - 2:51
9. She Don't Love Me That Way - 2:42
10. My Black Name Blues - 2:46
11. I Have Got to Go - 2:48
12. Yellow Yam Blues - 2:39
13. Tappin' That Thing - 2:47
14. Rainy Day Blues - 2:51
15. Peach Tree Blues - 2:47
16. She Loves Who She Please - 2:55
17. Bye Bye Blues - 2:41
18. Loudella Blues - 2:51
19. Katy Lee Blues - 2:57
20. Throw a Boogie Woogie - 2:42
21. North Wind Blues - 2:54
22. Please, Don't Go - 2:47
23. Highway 49 - 3:13
24. Someday, Baby - 3:10
25. Break 'em on Down - 3:13
26. Love Me, Baby - 3:23

Personnel:
John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson - Vocals (1-11, 26), Harmonica (1-26)
Blind John Davis - Piano (1-11, 26)
Ransom Knowling - Bass (1-5)
Charlie McCoy - Guitar (6-11)
Alfred Elkins - Bass (6-26)
Washboard Sam - Washboard (6-19)
Big Bill Broonzy - Guitar (26)

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 120.7 MB
Time: 75:19
Art: full

The Original Sonny Boy Williamson: The Later Years (Disc 2)

---

Disc C
1. What's Gettin' Wrong with You - 2:51
2. Blues That Made Me Drunk - 3:01
3. Come on, Baby, and Take a Walk - 2:49
4. Miss Stella Brown Blues - 2:51
5. Desperado Woman Blues - 2:39
6. Win the War Blues - 2:48
7. Check Up on My Baby Blues - 2:46
8. G.M. & O. Blues - 2:43
9. We Got to Win - 2:43
10. Sonny Boy's Jump - 2:50
11. Elevator Woman - 2:42
12. Drop Down Blues - 2:56
13. Somebody's Been Worryin' - 3:12
14. Wanita - 3:23
15. Vitamin A - 2:48
16. Early in the Morning - 3:02
17. The Big Boat - 2:59
18. Stop Breaking Down - 2:57
19. You're an Old Lady - 3:12
20. Sonny Boy's Cold Chills - 3:06
21. Mean Old Highway - 3:24
22. Hoodoo Hoodoo - 2:56
23. Shake the Boogie - 2:47
24. Mellow Chick Swing - 2:35
25. Polly, Put Your Kettle On - 2:30
26. Lacey Belle - 2:51

Personnel:
John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson - Vocals (1-11, 16-26), Harmonica (1-26)
Blind John Davis - Piano (1-7, 20-26)
Big Bill Broonzy - Guitar (1-3, 24-26)
Alfred Elkins - Bass (1-3)
Ted Summitt - Guitar (4-7)
Armand 'Jump' Jackson - Drums (4-7, 12-15)
Eddie Boyd - Piano (8-11)
Big Sid Cox - Guitar (8-11)
Ransom Knowling - Bass (8-11, 20-23)
Big Joe Williams - Guitar (12-15), Vocals (12-15)
Big Macao - Piano (16-19)
Tampa Red - Guitar (16-19)
Charles Sanders - Drums (16-19, 24-26)
Willie James Lacey - Guitar (20-23)
Willie Dixon - Bass (24-26)

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 121.1 MB
Time: 75:35
Art: full

The Original Sonny Boy Williamson: The Later Years (Disc 3)

---

Disc D
1. Apple Tree Swing - 2:26
2. Baby, Please, Don't Go - 2:47
3. Stack of Dollars - 2:48
4. Mellow Apples - 2:48
5. Wild Cow Moan - 2:54
6. Baby, Please, Don't Go (alt.) - 2:49
7. Wonderful Time - 3:04
8. Sugar Gal - 3:02
9. Willow Tree Gal - 3:13
10. Alcohol Blues - 2:50
11. Little Girl - 2:53
12. Blues About My Baby - 2:59
13. No Friend Blues - 2:52
14. I Love You for Myself - 3:01
15. Bring Another Half a Pint - 3:05
16. Southern Dream - 2:47
17. Rub a Dub - 2:40
18. Better Cut That Out - 3:00
19. P Vine Blues - 3:11
20. Bad & Weak Hearted Blues - 2:43
21. King Biscuit Stomp - 2:34
22. I'm a Highway Man - 2:53
23. Banta Rooster Blues - 2:59
24. Mean Step Father Blues - 2:47
25. House Lady Blues - 2:57
26. Don't You Leave Me Here - 2:52

Personnel:
John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson - Vocals (1, 7-18), Harmonica (1-26)
Blind John Davis - Piano (1, 11-18)
Big Bill Broonzy - Guitar (1, 11-18)
Willie Dixon - Bass (1)
Charles Sanders - Drums (1)
Big Joe Williams - Guitar (2-6, 19-26), Vocals (2-6, 19-26)
Ransom Knowling - Bass (2-6, 11-26)
Judge Lawrence Riley - Drums (2-26)
Eddie Boyd - Piano (7-10)
Willie James Lacey - Guitar (7-10)

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 120.4 MB
Time: 75:07
Art: full

The Original Sonny Boy Williamson: The Later Years (Disc 4)

Dave Ray & Tony Glover - Ashes In My Whiskey

Re-post
Genre: Blues
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Folk-Blues, Blues Revival
Released: 1990
Label: Threehouse Records
File: mp3@192K/s
Size: 67.6 MB
Time: 49:12
Art: full

1. Uncertain Blues (Gillum) - 2:55
2. Stuff You Sell (Davis) - 2:39
3. If You Haven't Any Hay (James) - 2:55
4. Staring at the Ceiling (Ray) - 4:07
5. In the Jailhouse Now (Rodgers) - 3:21
6. Devil Got My Woman (James) - 3:55
7. Hiv Blues (Glover) - 4:16
8. Mean Old Lonesome Train (Hicks, West) - 3:36
9. I'm Through With Love (McCoy) - 2:28
10. Gravel Road (Rachell) - 2:41
11. Elegy #2 (Glover) - 3:10
12. Ashes in My Whiskey (Davis) - 2:18
13. Catfish Blues (Petway) - 3:04
14. I Been Watching You (Glover) - 3:25
15. Mattie Mae (Ray, Warren) - 3:29

Personnel:
Dave 'Snaker' Ray: Vocals, 6 & 12 String Guitar, Slide (7, 14), Feet (8)
Tony 'Little Sun' Glover: Harmonica, Vocals (7, 9, 14), Guitar (7, 14)

Notes: Ashes in My Whiskey recorded at Benevox Studios, Minneapolis, May, 1990 engineered by Stefan Kren. Dave and Tony play a set of 15 acoustic, traditional blues numbers that include a couple of startlingly successful originals, particularly the haunting "HIV Blues." But the key to the record's success is the sympathetic, natural interplay the guitarist and harpist have. Their performances offer definitive proof that many bluesmen get better with age.

Ashes In My Whiskey
Rar pass:muddy

Marty Christian - Bluesicana

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!!!
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 72.2 MB
Time: 45:04
Released: 2006
Label: Street Man
Styles: Acoustic country blues
Art: Front

(4:43) 1. They Tell Me
(4:22) 2. Old Times Sake
(3:54) 3. Willow Tree Girl
(5:08) 4. My Mistakes
(3:18) 5. Lonely Man
(3:41) 6. Somehow
(6:13) 7. Sally Mae Blues
(4:42) 8. I Lost My Love
(5:11) 9. Walk Around With Me
(3:46) 10. Pictures on Her Dresser

This CD is dedicated to all those in the Gulf Coast who endured and survived the hurricanes of 2005 - and to the memory of those who were lost. And this one's also for Pico - they called off the dogs, bro…

Marty Christian - guitar, vocals
Joseph Edward - rubboard
Special Guest:
Don Carpenter - accordion #9

Bluesicana

John Lee Williamson - The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol. 1 (4Cd's Box set)

Genre: Blues
Styles: Chicago Blues, Acoustic Chicago Blues, Harmonica Blues, Acoustic Harmonica Blues
Released: 2007
Label: JSP

Four discs. 76,78,77,75 min. each approximately. Remastered sound. This set is by the original Sonny Boy Williamson,born in 1914,whose first release was in 1937. This was the well-known Good Morning,Little School Girl,an immediate hit. His unique vocals(he had a speech impediment)and his mastery of the harmonica became well-known throughout the South and other areas where blues were popular. His sidemen on this first disc were Big Joe Williams-guitar,Robert Lee McCoy-guitar,and on some tracks Henry Townsend-guitar with Walter Davis-piano. The tracks vary a bit in the vocal department,with McCoy,Williams and Williamson trading off on lead vocals. A look at the tracks on this disc will reveal several songs familiar to any listener of blues-but the overall feel is the same no matter who is out front. A very relaxed,"real" feel oozes out of this music,which continues through the entire set. The first sixteen tracks on disc two follow the previous formula,with vocals traded off between Williamson,McCoy and Townsend. As with a lot of music recorded during this time,there is some confusion as to who exactly played on which tracks,but that doesn't stand in the way of enjoying this music. The last eight sides feature either Elijah Jones or Yank Rachell on vocals. Jones' vocals are suitably rough sounding and fit quite well in this set. The addition of Rachell's mandolin gives these tracks even more of a down-home feel and is quite a nice addition. Disc three continues in the same vein. The only important addition is piano player Speckled Red,who takes a vocal on You Got to Fix It,otherwise he plays accompaniment to Williamson. Red's piano is out of the barrelhouse style and is a standout. There's someone named Willie Hatcher,who plays mandolin on the last few tracks and really contributes nothing of any comment. Disc four is a bit different than the others in that Sonny Boy is starting to leave behind the country sound and influences so important to his sound. The arrangements and the overall feel is starting to lean toward a more urban sound. The players on this disc are essentially the same as the above discs,the only real addition is Big Bill Broonzy on guitar. His addition gives the tracks an urban feel,that while different, is still in the style of the original Sonny Boy Williamson. Taken as a whole,this set is very fine indeed. Anyone looking for the beginnings of popular blues harmonica,played by a master,should certainly investigate this set. The down-home relaxed vocals, the easy-fitting accompaniment,and harmonica played by a master,are one of the cornerstones of blues music. ~ Stuart Jefferson

---

Disc A
1. Good Morning, Little School Girl - 3:01
2. Blue Bird Blues - 3:07
3. Jackson Blues - 2:58
4. Got the Bottle Up & Gone - 2:34
5. Sugar Mama Blues - 2:59
6. Skinny Woman - 3:00
7. Tough Luck - 3:06
8. Prowling Night-Hawk - 3:04
9. Sweet Pepper Mama - 2:43
10. I Know You Gonna Miss Me - 3:02
11. Rootin' Ground Hog - 2:57
12. Brother James - 2:53
13. I Won't Be in Hard Luck, No More - 2:39
14. Up the Country Blues - 3:19
15. Worried Me Blues - 2:31
16. Black Gal Blues - 2:49
17. Collector Man Blues - 3:19
18. Frigidaire Blues - 3:01
19. Suzanna Blues - 2:59
20. Early in the Morning - 2:48
21. Project Highway - 2:55
22. My Friend Has Forsaken Me - 3:07
23. Mean Black Cat - 2:43
24. Brickyard - 3:17
25. Mamie Lee - 3:06
26. Take It Easy, Baby - 2:29

Personnel:
John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson - Vocals (1-6, 14-21), Harmonica (1-26)
Robert Lee McCoy - Guitar (1-13, 22-26), Vocals (4, 7-9)
Big Joe Williams - Guitar (1-13), Vocals (10-13)
Henry Townsend - Guitar (14-26)
Walter Davis - Piano (22-26)?

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 124.5 MB
Time: 76:40
Art: full

The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol 1 (Disc 1)

---

Disc B
1. I Have Spent My Bonus - 2:55
2. CNA - 3:21
3. Lose Your Man - 3:28
4. All I've Got's Gone - 3:26
5. Ramblin' Mind - 2:56
6. Now I Stay Away - 2:49
7. My Little Cornelius - 3:10
8. Decoration Blues - 3:30
9. You Can Lead Me - 3:09
10. Moonshine - 3:01
11. Miss Louisa Blues - 2:56
12. Sunny Land - 3:18
13. I'm Tired Trucking My Blues Away - 2:57
14. Down South - 3:06
15. Beauty Parlor - 3:27
16. Until My Love Come Down - 3:12
17. Katy Fly - 3:19
18. Big Boat - 3:04
19. Only Boy Child - 3:04
20. Lonesome Man - 2:56
21. Mean Actin' Mama - 2:58
22. Stuff Stomp - 2:45
23. J.L. Dairy Blues - 3:24
24. Rachel Blues - 3:08
25. Lake Michigan Blues - 2:58

Personnel:
John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson - Vocals (7-16), Harmonica (1-2, 7-25)
Robert Lee McCoy - Guitar (1-6), Vocals (1-2)
Big Joe Williams - Guitar (7-16)
Henry Townsend - Guitar (1-6)
Walter Davis - Piano (3-6)
Elijah Jones - Vocals (17-20), Guitar (17-25)
Yank Rachell - Mandolin (7-25), Vocals (21-25)

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 127.4 MB
Time: 78:30
Art: full

The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol 1 (Disc 2)

---

Disc C
1. I'm Wild & Crazy As Can Be - 3:12
2. Honey Bee Blues - 3:04
3. My Baby, I've Been Your Slave - 3:05
4. Whiskey Headed Blues - 2:56
5. Lord! Oh, Lord! Blues - 3:02
6. You Give an Account - 3:13
7. Shannon Street Blues - 3:23
8. You've Been Foolin' 'round Town - 2:48
9. Deep Down in the Ground - 3:17
10. When You Feel Down & Out - 3:17
11. Texas Tommy - 3:10
12. It's All Over - 3:00
13. My Mind Got Bad - 3:04
14. Get Your Head Trimmed Down - 3:13
15. Peach Orchard Mama - 3:21
16. Haven't Seen No Whiskey - 3:23
17. Goin' Up the Mountain - 3:16
18. You Got to Fix It - 3:13
19. Number Five Blues - 3:30
20. Christmas Morning Blues - 3:25
21. Susie-Q - 3:14
22. Blue Bird Blues (part 2) - 3:26
23. Little Girl Blues - 3:20
24. Low Down Ways - 3:13

Personnel:
John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson - Vocals (2-9, 19-24), Harmonica (1-24)
Robert Lee McCoy - Guitar (18-24)
Walter Davis - Piano (3)
Elijah Jones - Guitar (1)
Yank Rachell - Mandolin (2-17), Vocals (10-13)
Joe 'Jackson Joe' Williams - Guitar (2-17), Vocals (14-17)
Will Hatcher - Mandolin (18-24)
Speckled Red - Piano (18-24), Vocals (18)

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 125.4 MB
Time: 77:18
Art: full

The Original Sonny Boy Williamson Vol 1 (Disc 3)

---

Disc D
1. Goodbye Red - 3:11
2. The Right Kind of Life - 3:23
3. Insurance Man Blues - 3:20
4. Rainy Day Blues - 3:21
5. Next Door Neighbor - 2:44
6. Big Apple Blues - 3:07
7. Freight Train Blues - 3:04
8. Good Gamblin' - 3:08
9. Bad Luck Blues - 2:42
10. My Little Baby - 2:59
11. Doggin' My Love Around - 3:15
12. Little Low Woman Blues - 2:48
13. Good for Nothing Blues - 3:04
14. Sugar Mama Blues No. 2 - 3:10
15. Good Gravy - 2:48
16. T.B. Blues - 3:00
17. Something Goin' on Wrong - 3:09
18. Good Gal Blues - 2:47
19. Joe Louis and John Henry Blues - 2:57
20. Thinking My Blues Away - 2:56
21. I'm Not Pleasing You - 2:47
22. New Jail House Blues - 2:51
23. Life Time Blues - 2:45
24. Miss Ida Lee - 2:58
25. Tell Me, Baby - 2:51

Personnel:
John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson - Vocals (1-4, 9-25), Harmonica (1-25)
Robert Lee McCoy - Guitar (1-8), Vocals (5-8)
Will Hatcher - Mandolin (1-4)
Speckled Red - Piano (1-8)
Walter Davis - Piano (9-25)
Big Bill Broonzy - Guitar (9-25)

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 120.7 MB
Time: 75:18
Art: full

The Original Sonny Boy Williamson, Vol. 1 Disc 4

Speckled Red - The Barrel-House Blues of Speckled Red

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 72.5 MB
Time: 45:14
Released: 1961, CD in 2009
Label: Folkways
Styles: Traditional blues
Art: Front

(3:25) 1. Ain't Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do
(4:29) 2. Uncle Sam's Blues
(3:44) 3. Cow Cow Blues
(2:51) 4. If I Could Be with You
(3:54) 5. It Feels So Good
(3:42) 6. Why Don't You Practice What You Preach?
(3:29) 7. Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
(4:06) 8. I've Got a Feeling That I'm Falling
(3:22) 9. How Long Blues
(3:38) 10. Baby Won't You Please Come Home?
(4:53) 11. If I Had a Million Dollars
(3:35) 12. You Ain't No Good

The Barrel-House Blues of Speckled Red

Willie Mabon - The Chronological 1949-1954

Genre: Blues
Styles: Piano Blues,
R&B, Chicago Blues
Released: 2005
Label: Classics
File: mp3; 320 Kbps
Size: 137.0 MB
Time: 58.44 min.
Art: Full covers
More info:
www.wirz.de/music/mabon.htm

01. Bogey Man (3:12)
02. It Keeps Raining (2:50)
03. Worry Blues (3:15)
04. I Don't Know (3:10)
05. I'm Mad (2:37)
06. Got to Have It (3:07)
07. Beggar or Bandit (2:46)
08. Night Latch (3:26)
09. You're a Fool (2:27)
10. Monday Woman (2:54)
11. I Got to Go (2:49)
12. Cruisin' (3:11)
13. I'm Tired (2:45)
14. Would You Baby? (2:59)
15. Late Again (2:36)
16. Come on Baby (2:59)
17. Lonely Blues (2:53)
18. Willie's Blues (3:06)
19. Poison Ivy (2:55)
20. Say Man (2:32)

Willie Mabon (vocals, piano & harmonica) with
Sam Casimir (guitar), Andrew Harris (bass), Billy Evans (bass), Ted Sturgis (bass), Joseph Bell (bass), Bill Anderson (bass), Billy Stepney (drums), Steve Boswell (drums), Oliver Coleman (drums), Ernest Cotton (tenor sax), Harold Ashby (tenor sax), Fred Clark (tenor sax), Charles Ferguson (tenor sax), Herbert Robertson (tenor sax), Andrew Gardner (alto sax), Paul King (trumpet), Milt Larkin (trombone) ... and other unknown players.

Recorded in Chicago, 1949 - 1954 for
Apollo, Parrot & Chess Records.
© 2005 Classics Records, France

Willie Mabon's harp-blowing, talk-singing stripe of piano blues, with honking horns, stop-start rhythms, and loads of cocky, cranky humor, came together in one of the biggest R&B hits of 1952: "I Don't Know." Topping the charts for eight weeks, Mabon's song even crossed over to the pop field via a Top 20 rendition by Buddy Morrow. Mabon followed up "I Don't Know" with the very similar "I'm Mad" and reached the number one spot once again. When copycat singles such as "Would You Baby?" failed to move, Mabon broke out with "Poison Ivy," his final hit, which features a stomping rhythm and straightforward singing. 1949-1954 collects Mabon's three hits and 17 other cuts originally recorded for Apollo, Parrot, and Chess Records that reveal Mabon to be more versatile than "I Don't Know" and "I'm Mad" might suggest. He serves up a variety of loping boogies ("Bogey Man"), urban blues jams ("Night Latch" and "Cruisin'"), raucous shouters with call-and-response vocals ("Say Man"), and the occasional slow blues. Anyone compiling the biggest R&B hits of the early '50s would be certain to encounter Mabon, and 1949-1954 rounds up his hard-to-find hits and misses in a chronological package with good sound quality and session information but not much in the way of liner notes. Greg Adams, AMG

Part1 Part2

Dave 'Snaker' Ray - Fine Soft Land

Re-post
Genre: Blues
Styles: Folk Revival, Blues Revival, Acoustic Blues
Released: 1967
Label: Elektra Records
File: mp3@192K/s (from vinyl)
Size: 61.6 MB
Time: 44:51
Art: front

1. Alabama Women - 3:04
2. Young Man - 0:53
3. Crying Shame - 2:27
4. Got To Live - 4:26
5. West Egg Rag - 1:28
6. How You Want Your Rolling Don - 3:06
7. Highway 51 - 3:25
8. Tribute - 3:09
9. Baby Please Don't Go - 5:45
10. Kid Man Blues - 1:59
11. Death Valley Blues - 3:48
12. If I Get Lucky - 1:32
13. Married Woman Blues - 1:55
14. Look Over Yonder's Wall - 2:11
15. You Can't Go - 3:10
16. Born To Surrender - 2:24

Personnel:
Dave Ray - Vocals, Guitar, Piano (16) & Harmonica (8)

Notes: Dave 'Snaker' Ray split his second album about evenly between his own compositions and covers of songs from the likes of Sleepy John Estes, Arthur Crudup, and Leroy Carr. It's a tribute to Ray's feel for traditional blues styles that it's not easy to tell the originals from the covers, though overall it's just an average, if respectable, album. He accompanies himself on 12-string guitar on this set of acoustic blues, playing harmonica on his 'Tribute' to Sonny Boy Williamson II, piano on the closing "Born to Surrender," and singing a one-minute snatch of Mose Allison's 'Young Man'" a cappella. The LP usually has a slow, relaxed ambience that sometimes gets a little too low-energy after a few songs at a time. Some of the highlights include his bottleneck guitar on 'West Egg Rag' and his unusual, almost raga-tinged guitar work on 'Baby Please Don't Go,' which in spots is rather reminiscent of the approach Davy Graham used in England on 'Blue Raga.' Future Rolling Stone editor Paul Nelson produced. ~ Richie Unterberger, AMG

Recorded in New York City, 1967;
Produced by Paul Nelson
© 1967 Elektra Records

I have this album thanks to my friend Zivoin

Fine Soft Land
rar pass:muddy

Eric Trauner - Up Slide Down

Styles: Contemporary Acoustic Blues
Recorded: 1994/1995
Released: 1995
Label: Wolf
File: mp3 @ 320kbps
Size: 152.01 MB
Time: 63:38
Art: Front Cover

1. Liquor Store Blues - 3:37
2. Give Me Some Of Your Sugar - 3:08
3. My Baby Turned Sour On Me - 4:40
4. I'm A Fool And I'am Beggar - 3:23
5. The Fisherman - 4:55
6. Preachin' Blues - 3:08
7. Love Me, Love Me - 2:48
8. It Makes No Difference - 4:08
9. Ooee, Baby It's Alright - 3:11
10. Special Kind Of Angel - 4:42
11. Amazing Grace - 3:38
12. Get Right Church - 3:40
13. Gotta Get The Gettin'- 2:47
14. When I First Met You - 4:11
15. Movin Train - 3:08
16. Churchyard Waltz - 3:03
17. Last Night Dreams - 4:35

Personnel:
Eric Trauner - Slide Guitar, Vocals
Petra Toyfl-Oehl - Vocals tr.7,12,14,

Notes: No matter where the roots or influences of music originate, it is legitimate to take out of the music what you like and interpret it. These conditions are presented in a most impressive manner by Eric Trauner. Born in Vienna, Austria. He played with legendary blues artists visited in Vienna on tour. He is co-founder blues band named 'Mojo Blues Band'. on this album, Eric proves that he is an excellent songwriter. Eric is gifted with a natural singing voice and has the wherewital to improvise in any given situation. He has developed his own handwriting out of a blend of a Mississippi Delta Blues art, something similar to style of bukka White or Fred McDowell. This is his first solo recording.

Up Slide Down

David Jacobs-Strain - Ocean Or A Teardrop

Genre: Blues
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Contemporary Blues
Released: 2004
Label: NorthernBlues Music
File: mp3@192K/s
Size: 64.2 MB
Time: 46:43
Art: front

1. Kokomo Blues - 4:52
2. Ocean Or A Teardrop - 4:36
3. Girl I Love - 4:28
4. Sleepless Dream - 4:15
5. Take My Chances - 5:05
6. Soul Of A Man - 3:34
7. Yelapa Breakdown - 4:02
8. Shoot The Devil - 4:17
9. Earthquake - 5:52
10. Illinois - 5:11
11. Untitled Track - 0:26

Personnel:
David Jacobs-Strain - vocals, acoustic guitar, slide guitar
Kenny Passarelli - vocals, Fender Rhodes piano, bass guitar
Joe Filisko - harmonica
Tim Stroh - loops
Peter Joseph Burtt - vocals, kora, drums, shaker
Anne Weiss - vocals
Danny Click - electric guitar
Joe Craven - mandolin, oud, fiddle
Kendrick Freeman - drums, congas, djembe
ark Clark - drums

Notes: Already established as a major young figure in the blues, David Jacobs-Strain widens his horizons a bit with this album. Blues remains at the roots, but in some cases, such as the adventurous "Earthquake" or the lyrical "Illinois," it's a little obscured by the branches overhead. That's not to say he's entirely turning his back on what begat him: there are splendid versions of songs by Blind Willie Johnson and Mississippi Fred McDowell here, while his version of Sleepy John Estes' "Girl I Love" is a delight of slide guitar played with a maturity far beyond his young ears. But Jacobs-Strain has rapidly developed as a writer, as something like "Take My Chances" shows. Featuring oud and kora along with more standard Western instruments, it's a tour de force for his gravelly voice, while "Yelapa Breakdown" transports him somewhat into early country territory, with some superb fiddle work from Joe Craven (who's also outstanding on the title track). But perhaps the hardest-hitting cuts here feature a very small band -- both "Shoot the Devil" and "Sleepless Dream" benefit from a glorious tension in the arrangements that propels the music along. Getting better on guitar every day, never flashy or arrogant about his talent, Jacobs-Strain is set to become a major figure in music, not just blues. ~ Chris Nickson

Ocean Or A Teardrop

Whistlin' Alex Moore - Alex Moore

Album: Alex Moore
Style: Piano Blues
Released: 196?
Label: Arhoolie
File: MP3 320 Kbps
Size: 81 MB

Tracklist:
- Whistling Alex Moore's Blues
- Pretty Woman With A Sack Dress On
- Rubber Tired Hack
- From North Dallas To The East Side
- Black Eyed Peas And Hog Jowls
- Going Back To Froggy Bottom
- West Texas Woman
- Frisky Gal
- You Say I'm A Bad Feller
- Miss No-Good Weed
- Boogie In The Barrel
- July Boogie

Notes:
One of the last of the old-time Texas barrelhouse pianists, Alex Moore was an institution in Dallas, his lifelong home. A colorful entertainer with a poetic gift for rambling improvisations, Moore had one of the longest recording careers in blues history (his first sides for Columbia were made in 1929; his final session was in 1988). Yet it was hardly one of the most prolific, as there were usually lengthy gaps between sessions. The spontaneous, autobiographical nature of his latter-day recordings imbue his albums with a special charm.

Moore began performing in the early '20s, playing clubs and parties around his hometown of Dallas; he usually performed under the name Whistlin' Alex. In 1929, he recorded his first sessions, which were for Columbia Records. The sides didn't gain much attention and Moore didn't record again until 1937, when he made a few records for Decca. Between his first and second sessions, he continued to play clubs in Dallas. The time span between his second session in 1937 and his third was even longer than the time between his first and second — Moore didn't record again until 1951, when RPM/Kent had him cut several songs. Throughout the '40s and '50s, Moore performed in clubs throughout Dallas, occasionally venturing to other parts of Texas.

Alex Moore's national break coincided with the blues revival of the early '60s. Arhoolie Records signed the pianist in 1960, and those records helped make him a national name. For the rest of the '60s, he played clubs and festivals in America, as well as a handful of festival dates in Europe. Although he didn't make many records in the '70s and '80s, Moore continued to perform until his death in 1989. The year before his death, he recorded a final session for Rounder Records, which was released as the Wiggle Tail album.

PW: Klipkop
Alex Moore

Christy & Jeff Howard - Deep In Blues Country

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 77.2 MB
Time: 48:11
Released: 2007
Label: No Cover
Styles: Country blues
Art: Front

(4:48) 1. Living On The Edge Of Sin
(4:28) 2. Deep In Blues Country
(3:49) 3. Blues To The Bone
(3:09) 4. I'm Evil
(3:42) 5. Small Town, Big trouble
(2:52) 6. You've Got It Goin' On
(5:58) 7. He's Gone
(3:28) 8. It's A Shame
(3:41) 9. Bad Side Of Town
(3:36) 10. Same Place, Same thing
(4:40) 11. Bad Dream Boogie
(2:06) 12. Gamblin' Father Blues
(1:49) 13. I've Got a Weakness

Christy Howard was singing professionally by age 13. She spent most of her early musical career singing Gospel, Country and Bluegrass. Christy burst onto the Detroit Blues scene in 2005, a few years after marrying Butler Twins guitarist Jeff Howard, who encouraged her to shift her singing and composing from Country to Blues. Howard became Christy's co-writer and introduced her to the Detroit Blues scene, where she is known as the “country” Blues singer. Performing as an acoustic duo, Christy and Jeff won the 2006 Detroit Blues Challenge, and competed in the 2007 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN. Their discography includes BLUES FOR KATRINA (No Cover Records, 2005, "I've Got A Weakness," Blues-Rock), PARTY GIRL (self-released, 2006, Southern-Rock and Country-Blues), and DEEP IN BLUES COUNTRY.

Deep In Blues Country

David Jacobs-Strain - Skin & Bones

Genre: Blues
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Country Blues
Released: 1999
Label: Hang-Dog Music
File: mp3@192K/s
Size: 62.7 MB
Time: 45:38
Art: front

1. Cottenwood Grove - 2:24
2. Poor Boy - 3:23
3. Stagolee - 2:34
4. Big Hands - 4:16
5. Mama, Don't You Know? - 5:31
6. Skin and Bones - 4:16
7. Rain So Hard - 5:16
8. Way Down - 2:45
9. Swing Low - 3:12
10. Back Water Blues - 5:09
11. Brownsville - 3:52
12. Nobody's Fault - 2:54

Notes: In an age when most teenagers are into everything alternative, along comes David Jacobs-Strain breaking the mould and turning his musical talent towards the Delta. At 16 years of age David plays delta country blues like no other kid his age. David was awarded a 'Blues In The Schools' scholarship in 1998 to attend the Port Townsend workshop and the next year was invited back to teach blues slide guitar. He has since gone on to share the stage with Steve James, Ann Rabson, Robert Lowery, Del Rey and many others.
Skin and Bones was recorded when he was 15, and features twelve tracks including three original songs, Cottonwood Grove the opening track that reminded me of Skip James' Cypress Grove will give you goosebumps as will Big Hands and Way Down. David's choice of covers are excellent and include Sleepy John Estes' Brownsville, Roosevelt Sykes' Skin and Bones, Taj Mahal's Mama, Don't You Know, and Bessie Smith's Back Water Blues a song he first played when he was 9 or 10 years old. A couple of the more interesting songs included are the instrumental of Nobody's Fault played on a fretless hawaiian guitar, and Stagolee with David playing a diddley bow a piece of wire strung between two nails on a post and played with a bottleneck slide. The fashion in which many blues greats learnt to play.
Davids execution of all the songs presented is superb, as he pours his heart and soul into each and every one bringing new life and meaning to them. The future of delta blues is in safe hands. ~ Conrad

Skin and Bones

Peg Leg Sam - Early In The Morning

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 66.4 MB
Time: 41:26
Released: 1996
Label: Blues Alliance
Styles: Pre-war country blues, Vaudeville blues
Art: Front

(3:23) 1. Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho
(4:43) 2. Navaho Trail
(6:00) 3. John Henry
(3:17) 4. Going Train Blues
(4:24) 5. Mr. Ditty Wa Ditty
(4:56) 6. Strollin'
(4:44) 7. I Got A Home
(3:04) 8. Dog Chase
(3:04) 9. Early In The Morning
(3:46) 10. Poor Boy

Peg Leg Sam was a performer to be treasured, a member of what may have been the last authentic traveling medicine show, a harmonica virtuoso, and an extraordinary entertainer. Born Arthur Jackson, he acquired his nickname after a hoboing accident in 1930. His medicine show career began in 1938, and his repertoire -- finally recorded only in the early '70s -- reflected the rustic nature of the traveling show. "Peg" delivered comedy routines, bawdy toasts, and monologs; performed tricks with his harps (often playing two at once); and served up some juicy Piedmont blues (sometimes with a guitar accompanist, but most often by himself). Peg Leg Sam gave his last medicine-show performance in 1972 in North Carolina and was still in fine fettle when he started making the rounds of folk and blues festivals in his last years. ~Jim O'Neal

Early In The Morning

Hard Times - Self Title

Styles: Modern Acoustic Blues, Harmonica Blues
Recorded: 2009
Released: 2009
Label: Indie
File: mp3 @320kbps
Size: 101.44 MB
Time: 43:15
Art: Front Cover

1. How Many More Years - 3:33
2. Nine Below Zero - 3:58
3. Evil - 3:24
4. Work Song - 3:42
5. Crawlin' King Snake - 4:47
6. Hard Times Killing Floor - 5:40
7. Ramblin' On My Mind - 4:11
8. 32-20 Blues - 3:24
9. St. James Infirmary - 3:47
10. Szaro-Niebiesko-Zielone - 7:15

Personnel:
Łukasz Wiśniewski - Harmonica, Vocals
Piotr Grząślewicz - Acoustic Guitar
Marcin Hilarowicz - Acoustic Guitar tr.3,4

Notes: Łukasz Wiśniewski - regarded as one of the best harmonica players in Poland, numerously awarded for his playing skills on festivals and contests. He is also a charismatic singer with a strong, deep voice. Leader of a blues-rock band Blue Machine and soloist in subtle, quiet Limbo. Playing in Hard Times he shows himself as a musician perfectly fitting the acoustic, laid back style. As a renowned harmonica teacher he collaborates with the greatest players in Poland and organizes regular harmonica workshops.
Piotr Grząślewicz - very talented and versatile young guitarist, at the age of only 20 he joined Cracow-based top jazz outfit - Funk de Nite. Currently he is also a member of Blue Machine and collaborates with plenty of other bands. As a demanded session musician he has played and recorded with artists such as: Bryan Corbett(UK), Liam MacMhurri(IRL), Christoph Titz(DE), Saskia Laroo(NL), Warren Byrd(USA), Simeon Lenoir(FR). He has performed on blues and jazz festivals all over Europe.
This duo formed in Krakow, on late 2008. But from mid spring 2009, have been on trio with second guitarist - Marcin Hilarowicz; This is very young and talented acoustic trio and this is his first recordings. ....on last track is surprise!!! :-)

Hard Times

Doug Quattlebaum - If You've Ever Been Mistreated (Re-up)

Genre: Blues
Styles: Country Blues,
Gospel, Piedmont Blues
Released: 1997
Label: Testament
File: mp3; 320 Kbps
Size: 130.0 MB
Time: 52:13
Art: Booklet
More info:
http://www.wirz.de/
music/quattleb.htm

01. Hard Luck Blues 3:16
02. Good Woman Blues 5:06
03. Baby, Please Don't Go 1:33
04. Come Back, Baby 2:58
05. Baby, What You Want Me to Do 2:14
06. If You've Ever Been Mistreated 4:50
07. Lizzie Lou 1:49
08. Driftin' Blues 3:23
09. What'd I Say 2:17
10. Kiddio 2:38
11. It's Nobody's Fault But Mine 2:57
12. The Story of Adam and Eve 3:53
13. Come Over Here 4:09
14. The Honeydripper 1:13
15. I've Been Working on My Baby 1:31
16. Touch the Hem of His Garment 2:11
17. He May Not Come When You Want Him 2:04
18. How Great Thou Art 2:47
19. Quattlebaum's Boogie 1:46

Doug Quattlebaum - Guitar & Vocals

Recorded in Philadelphia, July 6, 1961.
Produced by Pete Welding
© 1997 Testament Records
http://www.shoutfactory.com
http://www.wirz.de/music/testamen.htm

Doug Quattlebaum has spent most of his life outside the music business, and those times that he was in were spent mainly singing gospel. Born in South Carolina in 1927, he came to Philadelphia in the early 1940s. In 1953 he cut three sides for Gotham records; two of them appeared on a Gotham 78, but the third was only rediscovered years later by Bruce Bastin and released on LP: it's the best of the three (Foolin' Me). In 1961 Pete Welding recorded Quattlebaum again, after hearing that he was still around - singing and playing for potential Mr. Softee ice cream customers on the streets of Philly, Doug's employment at the time. Scheduled for issue on a Testament album, the sides remained unissued until the release of this CD. A few months later Quattlebaum recorded for Bluesville, but to my knowledge that LP was never reissued on CD as were most Bluesvilles and is difficult to come by.

Quattlebaum's years singing gospel are reflected in this CD in that about half the tracks are gospel pieces. Among the best are He May Not Come When You Want Him, Sam Cooke's Touch the Hem of His Garment, and the gorgeous Come Over Here. It's Nobody's Fault But Mine is an 8-bar gospel tune, while Come Back, Baby sounds like a gospel song but is actually a blues. Doug inflects just about everything he sings with gospel mannerism, and his voice is melodic and strong. He often invaded the repertory of other blues-r&b-pop artists, and here sings stuff made famous by Brook Benton (Kidido), Charles Brown (Drifting Blues), and Ray Charles (Come Back Baby). A couple of tracks are short guitar instrumentals, though they are not that impressive. Quattlebaum played in the country blues format, accompanying himself on guitar, a style that urban Philadelphia probably didn't appreciate. But his singing and guitar playing are excellent, and his material quite varied despite the gospel influence. Country blues and gospel fans should enjoy this CD. (from amazon.com)

Part1 Part2

Doug Quattlebaum - Softee Man Blues (Re-up)

Genre: Blues
Styles: Country Blues,
Gospel, Piedmont Blues
Released: 1994
Label: Fantasy
File: mp3; 320 Kbps
Size: 97.7 MB
Time: 41:50
Art: Full covers
More info:
http://www.wirz.de/
music/quattleb.htm

01. Sweet Little Woman
02. Whiskey Headed Woman
03. Trouble in Mind
04. You Is One Black Rat
05. On My Way to School
06. You Ain't No Good
07. Come Home Blues
08. Mama Don't Allow Me to Stay Out All Night Long
09. Big Leg Woman
10. Baby Take a Chance With Me
11. Love My Baby
12. Back Night Is Falling
13. So Sweet
14. Worried Life Blues

Doug Quattlebaum - Guitar & Vocals

Recorded in Philadelphia, November 27, 1961.
Produced by Kenneth Godstein & Pete Welding
© 1962 Prestige-Bluesville Records
http://www.wirz.de/music/blville.htm

During the 1940s, Douglas Elijah Quattlebaum (1927) toured with a number of gospel groups, such as the Bells of Joy. In 1952, he recorded solo as a blues singer for the Gotham label. He was a forceful singer and guitarist, having been influenced by Blind Boy Fuller. In 1961, he was rediscovered in Philadelphia, singing and playing blues over the public address system of his ice-cream van, hence the title of his last recording, Softee Man Blues.
The forteen gripping, impassioned blues in this album will serve admirably to introduce the impressive talents of this singer and guitarist whose vital, fervently emotional performances restore to currency the art of the urban blues shouter in all its rousing, urgent intensity.

Softee Man Blues

Rattlesnakin' Daddies - S/T

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 60.8 MB
Time: 37:56
Released: 2006
Label: Sandbar
Styles: Roots, Country blues
Art: Front

(3:47) 1. Summerside Blues
(4:13) 2. Let's Be Friends
(2:12) 3. Poor Howard
(5:17) 4. Don't Wake Up
(2:12) 5. Jilly Bean Rag
(3:47) 6. Down And Out
(2:49) 7. Too Long A Day
(3:26) 8. New Jinx Blues
(2:29) 9. Muddy Crick Blues
(3:05) 10. Gunning Shore Rag
(4:36) 11. People Hate To Work

The Rattlesnakin' Daddies is a Connecticut based group of musicians of varying membership. The band's unique sound comes from its original arrangements of roots, folk, and country and early blues music as well as songs written by band members.
Over the years the Daddies band has featured:
Brian Kupiec on six string and resonator guitars
Max Samson on bass guitar
Jon Gottleib on six string guitar
Mark Kurber on six string guitar
Seth Hagymasi on mandolin and guitar.
Roy Lechich on guitar and fiddle

Rattlesnakin' Daddies

Various - Plantation Blues: Cotton Patch & Tobacco Belt Blues

Genre: Blues
Styles: Acoustic Country Blues, Acoustic Delta Blues
Released: 2004
Label: SagaBlues
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 109.3 MB
Time: 68:12
Art: front

1. Garfield Akers - Cottonfield Blues [3:20]
2. Son House - Government Fleet Blues [6:51]
3. Joe Calicot - Fare Thee Well Blues [3:11]
4. John D. Fox - The Moaning Blues [3:02]
5. Blind Joe Reynolds - Third Street Woman Blues [2:42]
6. Robert Hill - I'm Going to Write and Tell My Mother [2:56]
7. Robert Petway - Rocking Chair Blues [3:03]
8. Mississippi Matilda - Hard Working Woman [2:54]
9. Pinetop Slim - Applejack Boogie [2:27]
10. Dan Pickett - Baby How Long [2:43]
11. David Wylie - Shackles Around My Body [3:00]
12. Blind Boy Fuller - I'm a Stranger Here [2:56]
13. Richard Trice - Lazy Bug Blues [2:16]
14. John Tinsley - Keep Your Hands Off Her [2:26]
15. Willie Trice - Come On in Her Mama [3:15]
16. Bull City Red - Black Woman and Poison Blues [3:02]
17. Dipper Floyd Council - Looking for My Baby [2:52]
18. Bob Campbell - Worried All the Time [2:56]
19. Cedar Creek Sheik - V-8 Ford [2:49]
20. Roosevelt Antrim - Complaint to Make [3:25]
21. Sonny Jones - I'm Pretty Good At It [2:49]
22. Alec Seward - Little Annie Blues [3:07]

Note: Saga Blues Vol. 12
Part I. Cotton Patch Blues
Part II. Tobacco Road
The plantations of the South were a crucible for "Southern culture", and the blues was one of its best-known musical forms. But if the blues of the vast cotton-fields in the Deep South was the raw, bitter, tormented and piercing cry of a Black tenant-farmer, the blues of the Tobacco Belt in the Old South, deeply influenced by ragtime, was light, dancing, cheerful and highly virtuosic. These two great styles demonstrate the great diversity of the origins of the blues. ~ Saga Blues

Plantation Blues: Cotton Patch & Tobacco Belt Blues

Michael Hakanson-Stacy - News From The Corner Store

Re-up
Genre: Blues
Styles: Country Blues, Acoustic Blues, Modern Acoustic Blues
Released: 1994
Label: Time & Strike
File: mp3@320K/s
Size: 115,0 MB
Time: 50:15
Art: Full covers

1. Georgia 12 String - 3:43
2. Long Winter Blues - 3:11
3. Step by Step - 3:02
4. Lily on Horseback - 1:20
5. News from the Corner Store - 2:50
6. SMall Talk - 3:18
7. Hard Times - 3:42
8. Dawn - 2:06
9. Shake It On Down - 4:19
10. The Rooster - 3:54
11. Education - 4:23
12. Whitingham Revisited - 2:34
13. God Don't Like It - 3:04
14. Gonna Go With Jesus - 3:11
15. Bullrush Blues - 3:11
16. G.K.'s Teetotaler's Blooze - 2:20

Notes: Guy is absolutely great

News From The Corner Store

Kokomo Arnold - Kokomo Arnold Vol. 4 (1937-1938)

Album: Kokomo Arnold Vol. 4 (1937-1938)
Styles: Country Blues
Released: 1994
Label: Document
File: mp3@VBR ~166K/s
Size: 77.5 MB
Time: 63:19
Art: Full

1. Something's Hot [2:34]
2. Mean Old Twister [2:59]
3. Red Beans and Rice [3:05]
4. Set Down Gal [2:43]
5. Big Ship Blues [3:09]
6. Crying Blues [2:59]
7. Grandpa Got Drunk [3:05]
8. Black Mattie [3:12]
9. Neck Bone Blues [2:52]
10. Buddy Brown Blues (Rolling Time) [2:55]
11. Rocky Road Blues [2:46]
12. Head Cutting Blues [2:57]
13. Broke Man Blues [2:54]
14. Back On The Job [3:01]
15. Shine On,Moon(Shine On,Shine On) [2:54]
16. Your Ways And Actions [2:47]
17. Tired of Running From Door To Door [2:38]
18. My Well Is Dry [2:41]
19. Midnight Blues [2:50]
20. Goin' Down in Galilee (Swing Along With Me) [2:29]
21. Bad Luck Blues [2:50]
22. Kid Man Blues [2:48]

PW: Klipkop
Notes:
Like its predecessors, the final volume in Document's Complete Recorded Works series alternates a few excellent performances with many more additions intended for collectors only. Drawn from Kokomo Arnold's last few sessions, from the 14-month period between March 1937 and May 1938, the collection does include a few classics, like "Mean Old Twister" and "Red Beans and Rice." Still, many of the rest are period material with poor fidelity, of only marginal interest to most blues fans.

Kokomo Arnold Vol. 4 (1937-1938)

Album: The Roots Of Rap: Classic Recordings From The 1920s & 30s

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 112.3 MB
Time: 70:03
Released: 1996
Label: Yazoo
Styles: Delta blues, Regional blues, Blues gospel, Pre-war country blues
Art: Front

(3:12) 1. Blind Willie Johnson - If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down
(3:18) 2. Luke Jordan - Cocaine Blues
(3:21) 3. Allen Brothers - Bow Wow Blues
(2:54) 4. Frankie 'Half-Pint' Jaxon - Jive Man Blues
(2:57) 5. Henry Thomas - Jonah In The Wilderness
(3:14) 6. Willie Walker - South Carolina Rag
(2:45) 7. Memphis Jug Band - Whitewash Station
(3:17) 8. Red Henderson - Automobile Ride Through
(2:59) 9. Speckled Red - The Dirty Dozen No.2
(3:21) 10. Butterbeans & Susie - Tain't None O' Your Business
(2:59) 11. Beale Street Sheiks - It's A Good Thing
(2:48) 12. Jimmie Davis - She's A Hum Dum Dinger
(2:57) 13. Leroy Carr - Papa's On The House Top
(2:37) 14. Rev. Edward W. Clayborn - Let That Liar Alone
(3:04) 15. Frank Hutchinson - Back In My Home
(2:48) 16. T.C.I. Section Crew - Track Linin'
(3:12) 17. Blind Willie McTell - Atlanta Strut
(2:43) 18. Lonnie Johnson - Arkansas Hard Luck Blues
(2:53) 19. Kansas City Kitty - How Can You Have The Blues?
(3:29) 20. Seven Foot Dilly & His Dill Pickles - Pickin' Off Peanuts
(2:47) 21. Pine Top Smith - Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out
(3:25) 22. Dixieland Jug Blowers - When I Stopped Running I Was At Home
(2:52) 23. Memphis Minnie - Frankie Jean

This ambitious and thought-provoking project turns to early black-and-white, religious, and secular traditions for antecedents to modern rap styles.

Drawing from the commercial recordings of the 1920s and '30s, The Roots of Rap provides a broad sampling of rural voices straddling the lines of speech and song against the rhythms of piano, banjo, and guitar. The roots of rap, this collection argues, existed in early black work songs and in the Southern pulpit; in the performances of singing street evangelists; and in black vocal traditions such as the "dozens." Early forms of rap emerged in the vaudeville routines of minstrel and medicine shows, arising also in the country humor and talking blues of many rural white performers. To illustrate its thesis, the album draws from some of the greatest performers of the period, including Blind Willie Johnson, Seven Foot Dilly, Butterbeans and Susie, and Memphis Minnie, whose extraordinarily funky "Frankie Jean" closes the set. Like the best of Yazoo's projects, this effort is carefully and intelligently constructed, as well as consistently entertaining. ~Burgin Mathews

The Roots Of Rap: Classic Recordings From The 1920s & 30s

Various - The Songsters Tradition - Before the Blues

Genre: Blues
Styles: Songster, String Bands, Prewar Blues
Released: 2004
Label: Saga Blues
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 119.5 MB
Time: 74:34
Art: front

1. Mississippi John Hurt - Spike Driver's Blues [3:17]
2. Dick Justice - Cocaine [3:12]
3. Frank Hutchisson - Cannon Ball [3:23]
4. Gus Cannon - Poor Boy, a Long Way from Home [2:53]
5. Furry Lewis - Casey Jones [3:06]
6. Luke Jordan - Pick Poor Robin Clean [3:13]
7. Henry Thomas - John Henry [2:46]
8. Lead Belly - Pick a Bale of Cotton [3:12]
9. Hobart Smith - Ailroad Bill [3:06]
10. Papa Harvey Hull - The France Blues [3:02]
11. Long Cleve Reed - Original Stackolee [2:37]
12. Richard 'Rabbit' Brown - Sinking of the Titanic [3:57]
13. Jack Kelly - Doctor Medicine [2:59]
14. Andrew & Jim Baxter - The Moore Girl [3:01]
15. Peg Leg Howell - Beaver Slide Rag [3:20]
16. Alabama Sheiks - Travellin' Railroad Man [3:01]
17. Joe Evans & Arthur McClain - Two White Horses in a Line [2:55]
18. Frank Stokes - Chicken You Can Roost Behind the Moon [3:00]
19. De Ford Bailey - Dixie Flyer Blues [3:06]
20. Taylor's Kentucky Boys - Sourwood Mountain [2:34]
21. Bo Carter - Beans [2:51]
22. Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley - Gonna Trip Out Tonight [3:13]
23. Freeman Stowers - Railroad Blues [3:22]
24. Tom Darby & Jimmie Tarlton - Frankie and Johnnie [3:17]

Note: Saga Blues Vol. 11
Part I. Traveling Troubadours
Part II. Vaudeville and Medicine Show Influences

In the 20th century, along with gospels, the songster tradition (and those who hawked the songs around) probably represented the source of most of the music that came from the South. These itinerant singers and musicians refined existing folk songs, invented new ones, and gave comment on topical events of the day, from the gory news in brief to catastrophes like the sinking of the Titanic. It was these Black songsters who, in answer to the demands of their audience crushed by segregation, would gradually relate their stories in the first person singular, thereby creating a new form of folk song: the blues. ~Saga Blues

The Songsters Tradition: Before the Blues

Kokomo Arnold - Kokomo Arnold Vol. 3 (1936-1937)

Album: Kokomo Arnold Vol. 3 (1936-1937)
Styles: Country Blues
Released: 1994
Label: Document
File: mp3@VBR ~182K/s
Size: 86.1 MB
Time: 66:19
Art: Full

1. Laugh and Grin Blues [3:09]
2. Grass Cutter Blues (Alice Moore, vcl.) [2:56]
3. Telephone Blues (Alice Moore, vcl.) [2:57]
4. Dark Angel (Alice Moore, vcl.) [3:09]
5. Money Tree Man (Alice Moore, vcl.) [3:05]
6. Delmar Avenue ('signifying' Mary Johnson, vcl.) [3:05]
7. I'm Going Fishing, Too (Alice Moore, vcl.) [3:07]
8. Three Men (Alice Moore, vcl.) [3:11]
9. Shake That Thing [2:40]
10. Try Some of That (Oscar's Chicago Swingers) [2:59]
11. My Gal's Been Foolin' Me (Oscar's Chicago Swingers) [2:42]
12. Running Drunk Again [3:09]
13. Coffin Blues [3:18]
14. Lonesome Road Blues [2:59]
15. Mister Charlie [2:44]
16. Backfence Picket Blues [3:07]
17. Fool Man Blues [3:07]
18. Long and Tall [2:47]
19. Salty Dog [2:50]
20. Cold Winter Blues [3:12]
21. Sister Jane Cross the Hall [2:40]
22. Wild Water Blues [3:14]
PW: Klipkop

Notes:
Another invaluable offering from the blues archivists at Document, Kokomo Arnold's Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 3 (1936-1937) compiles 22 performances, recorded between May 1936 and March 1937. Despite the inclusions of a few Arnold classics, including "Dark Angel" and "Wild Water Blues," the disc is a mixed blessing. The combination of a long running time, chronological sequencing, and poor fidelity make for a difficult listen. While serious blues listeners won't have a problem with any of these factors, beginners are advised to look elsewhere first.

Kokomo Arnold Vol. 3 (1936-1937)

Murali Coryell - Don't Blame It On Me

File: mp3@VBR ~189K/s
Size: 58.9 MB
Time: 42:51
Released: 2007
Label: (Self-released)
Styles: Acoustic blues
Art: Front

(4:42) 1. Don't Blame it on Me
(2:12) 2. Way Too Expensive
(3:25) 3. Standing the Test of Time
(2:11) 4. For Mom
(3:04) 5. Stop
(1:51) 6. Sea Legs
(4:35) 7. Eyes Wide Open
(3:54) 8. That Makes Me Happy
(3:05) 9. Somebody's Got to Win
(4:21) 10. HI Charlie
(3:21) 11. Strong as I Need to Be
(3:48) 12. Bad Affair
(2:15) 13. Star Spangled Banner

Hear this soulful blues artist intimate & direct in the solo acoustic setting where the songs and the voice shine throughout with incredible clarity. "Don't Blame it On Me" released in 2007 represents the first original solo acoustic recording from Murali Coryell. The collection of original songs span both newly written songs as well as favorites that have been recorded previously with a band.

Don't Blame it on Me

Hootin' The Blues - Don't Let That Music Die

Genre: Blues
Styles: Acoustic Blues,
Harmonica Blues
Released: 1997
Label: Autogram, Germany
File: mp3; 320 Kbps
Size: 157.0MB
Time: 66:46 min.
Art: Full covers
More info:
http://www.hootingtheblues.de
http://www.myspace.com/hootin39theblues

01. Do Not Let That Music Die
02. Goin' Down Slow
03. Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style
04. Wrong Woman
05. Six Cold Feet of Ground
06. Rolling Home
07. Rollin' and Tumblin'
08. I Wanna Be Loved
09. Born To Lose
10. So Much To Say, So Few Words
11. Leavin' Children
12. Hear Me Blow
13. Nosey Joe
14. How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live
15. Love Crazy
16. How Long Blues
17. My Heart Beat Like a Hammer

Gerd Gorke - Harmonica & Vocals
Günther Leifeld-Strikkeling - Guitar, Banjo & Vocals
Rupert Pfeiffer - Guitar & Vocals
and
Massimo Lupotti - Tuba (1,3,4,9,13)

Recorded at Wilken Studio, Bremen, Germany
Produced by Hootin' The Blues
© 1997 Autogram Records, Germany
http://www.autogramrecords.de

As the first notes were played, it was clear to everyone that this is real blues. (Ruppin Gazette, TxSt.)

Part1 Part2

Various - Harmonica Blues: Blowing from Memphis to Chicago

Genre: Blues
Styles: Harmonica Blues
Released: 2005
Label: SagaBlues
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 115.6 MB
Time: 72:09
Art: front

1. Will Shade - Sun Brimmers Blues (3:26)
2. Noah Lewis - Bad Lucky's My Buddy (2:57)
3. Noah Lewis - Chickasaw Special (3:20)
4. Hammie Nixon - Down South Blues (3:09)
5. John Lee Williamson - Good Morning, School Girl (3:02)
6. Joe Hill Louis - I Feel Like a Million (2:30)
7. Howlin' Wolf - Riding in the Moonlight (3:11)
8. Big Walter Horton - Easy (3:02)
9. Sonny Boy Williamson - Nine Below Zero (2:51)
10. Sonny Boy Williamson - Mighty Long Time (2:58)
11. Doctor Ross - Chicago Breakdown (2:57)
12. James Cotton - Baker Shop Boogie (3:04)
13. Jazz Gillum - I Want You by My Side (3:30)
14. John Lee Williamson - Sloppy Drunk Blues (3:20)
15. John Lee Williamson - Sonny Boy's Jump (2:54)
16. Forest City Joe - Lonesome Day Blues (2:51)
17. Snooky Pryor - I'm Getting Tired (2:38)
18. Big Walter Horton - Evening Sun (2:32)
19. Little Willie Foster - Falling Rain Blues (2:39)
20. Little Walter - Off the Wall (2:52)
21. Little Walter - Quarter to Twelve (3:16)
22. Little Walter - Blues with a Feeling (3:08)
23. Junior Wells - Junior's Wail (2:57)
24. Jimmy Reed - I Found My Baby (2:52)

Notes: Saga Blues Vol. 20
Part I. From Memphis...
Part II. ...to Chicago

Long considered as either a quirky toy or joke instrument, the little harmonica became great and acquired a musical dimension no-one could have foreseen. To do so it had to fall into the hands of bluesmen, who would extract from it sounds that were unheard-of, heart-rending, colourful and expressive. A royal road was traced from Memphis to Chicago, and our guides are the virtuosos and creators who feature some of the blues’ most illustrious exponents. We can follow their fingers covering every little hole every which way as they bring out some of the most beautiful popular music ever. Without the harmonica the blues wouldn’t be what it is; and despite the guitar, nor would it ring the way it does in our ears and hearts. ~ Saga Blues

Harmonica Blues: Blowing from Memphis to Chicago

Various - Chicago Slide Guitar Masters: From Tampa Red To Elmore James

Genre: Blues
Styles: Slide Guitar Blues
Released: 2005
Label: SagaBlues
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 111.9 MB
Time: 69:49
Art: front

1. Tampa Red - Though Train Blues (2:42)
2. Charlie Mac Coy - Motherless And Fartherless Blues (3:13)
3. Kokomo Arnold - Old Original Kokomo Blues (2:54)
4. Joe Mac Coy - Please Baby (3:06)
5. Bob Dunn - Talking Off (2:52)
6. Casey Bill Weldon - Long Eared Blues (3:24)
7. Kokomo Arnold & Alice Moore - Dark Angel (3:06)
8. Tampa Kid - Keep On Trying (2:48)
9. Kokomo Arnold - Crying Blues (2:59)
10. Casey Bill Weldon - Spider Blues (2:52)
11. Eddie Duncan - Peach Tree Blues (2:31)
12. Robert Lockwood Jr - Little Boy Blue (3:19)
13. Muddy Waters & Saint Louis Jimmy - Florida Hurricane (2:56)
14. Muddy Waters & Saint Louis Jimmy - So Nice And Kind (3:04)
15. Muddy Waters - Long Distance Call (2:41)
16. Tampa Red - Love Her With A Feeling (3:22)
17. Earl Hooker - Sweet Angel (3:07)
18. Tampa Red - Green And Lucky Blues (2:48)
19. Johnny Shines - Ramblin (2:33)
20. Robert Nighthawk - The Moon Is Rising (2:45)
21. Homesick James & Johnny Shines - Homesick (3:09)
22. Elmore James - I Can T Stop Lovin You (2:17)
23. Elmore James & Big Joe Turner - TV Mama (2:50)
24. Elmore James - Hawaiian Boogie (2:19)

Notes: Saga Blues Vol. 19
Part I. Prewar Chicago Slide Guitar
Part II. Postwar Chicago Slide Guitar

Playing a guitar with the aid of a bottleneck (or slide) is one of the blues’ essential traits. In Chicago, this style inspired by the great Hawaiian guitarists was dominated head and shoulders by Tampa Red (nicknamed “The Guitar Wizard”). His popular success was considerable for over three decades, and his velvet touch, evocative and languid, influenced slide guitarists (who all more or less emulated him), from Robert Nighthawk to Muddy Waters. One of them, Elmore James, would develop this style even further and, in turn, become a model for many musicians in both blues and rock. ~ Saga Blues

Chicago Slide Guitar Masters: From Tampa Red To Elmore James

Lonnie Johnson - Blues By Lonnie Johnson

Style: Piedmont Blues, Jazzy Blues
Recorded: 1960
Released: 1991
Label: Prestige/Bluesville
File: mp3 @ 320kbps
Size: 88.56 MB
Time: 38:39
Art: Front Cover

1. Don't Ever Love -3:33
2. No Love For Sale - 3:02
3. There's No Love - 2:25
4. I Don't Hurt Anymore - 3:53
5. She-Devil - 2:53
6. One-Sided Love Affair - 3:12
7. Big Leg Woman - 3:11
8. There Must Be A Way - 3:23
9. She's Drunk Again - 3:21
10. Blues 'Round My Door - 3:33
11. You Don't Move Me - 2:12
12. You Will Need Me - 3:27

Personnel:
Lonnie Johnson - Guitar, Vocals
Hal Singer - Tenor Saxophone
Claude Hopkins - Piano
Wendell Marshall - Bass
Bobby Donaldson - Drums

Notes: Johnson singing was as strong as ever in the '60s, but his songwriting was less various, focusing more on the toils of lost love, and his blues accompaniments were less adventurous and more predictable. After four years off records and in obscurity, Lonnie Johnson launched his final comeback with this release, which has been reissued on CD. Teamed with tenor saxophonist Hal Singer, pianist Claude Hopkins, bassist Wendell Marshall and drummer Bobby Donaldson, Johnson sings and plays guitar on a variety of blues, showing that the layoff (he was working at the time as a janitor) had not hurt his abilities in the slightest.

Blues By Lonnie Johnson

Kokomo Arnold - Kokomo Arnold Vol. 2 (1935-1936)

Album: Kokomo Arnold Vol. 2 (1935-1936)
Styles: Country Blues
Released: 1994
Label: Document
File: mp3@VBR ~182K/s
Size: 89.0 MB
Time: 67:28
Art: Front and back

1. The Honey Dripper [2:49]
2. Southern Railroad Blues [3:02]
3. Bo Weavil Blues [3:06]
4. Busy Bootin' [2:29]
5. Let Your Money Talk [2:50]
6. 'Cause You're Dirty [3:03]
7. Tonic Head Blues [2:51]
8. Policy Wheel Blues [2:57]
9. Traveling Rambler Blues [2:57]
10. Stop, Look and Listen [3:07]
11. Doin' the Doopididy [2:59]
12. The Mule Laid Down and Died [2:55]
13. Big Leg Mama (John Russell Blues) [2:43]
14. Milk Cow Blues, No. 3 [2:52]
15. Milk Cow Blues, No. 4 [2:56]
16. Down and Out Blues [3:05]
17. Model "T" Woman Blues [2:57]
18. Jet Black Snake [3:22]
19. I'll Be up Someday [3:07]
20. I Can't Get Enough of That Stuff [2:39]
21. Desert Blues [2:55]
22. Bull Headed Woman Blues [2:56]
23. Sundown Blues [2:42]

PW: Klipkop

Kokomo Arnold Vol. 2 (1935-1936)

Kokomo Arnold - Kokomo Arnold Vol. 1 (1930-1935)

Album: Kokomo Arnold Vol. 1 (1930-1935)
Styles: Country Blues
Released: 1994
Label: Document
File: mp3@192K/s
Size: 104.2 MB
Time: 75:52
Art: Front

1. Front Door Blues [3:24]
2. Sagefied Woman Blues [3:04]
3. Old Black Cat Blues (Jinx Blues) [3:25]
4. Sissy Man Blues [3:10]
5. Back Door Blues [3:25]
6. The Twelves (Dirty Dozens) [3:13]
7. Feels So Good [3:16]
8. Milk Cow Blues #2 [3:09]
9. Biscuit Roller Blues [3:14]
10. Slop Jar Blues [3:00]
11. Black Annie [3:01]
12. Chain Gang Blues [3:05]
13. Monday Morning Blues [3:04]
14. How Long How Long Blues [3:15]
15. Things 'Bout Coming My Way [2:48]
16. You Should Not A 'Done It (Gettin' It Fixed) [3:16]
17. Lonesome Southern Blues [3:05]
18. Black Money Blues [3:07]
19. Hobo Blues [3:11]
20. Rainy Night Blues [2:58]
21. Paddlin' Madeline Blues [3:19]
22. Milk Cow Blues [3:11]
23. Old Original Kokomo Blues [2:54]
24. Back To The Woods [3:06]

Notes:
All of Kokomo Arnold's 1930s recordings have been made available on four Document CDs. Vol. 1 features the singer/guitarist on two songs from 1930 (recorded in Memphis, TN, as Gitfiddle Jim") and then the first 22 selections that he cut in Chicago during 1934-1935, two of which were previously unreleased. Best known is "Milk Cow Blues," but the memorable and sometimes haunting blues singer also performs such numbers as "Old Original Kokomo Blues," "Front Door Blues," "Back Door Blues," "Chain Gang Blues," and "Hobo Blues." Blues collectors will definitely want all four CDs in this perfectly done series.
"Kokomo" was a popular brand of coffee early in the 20th century, and was the subject of Francis "Scrapper" Blackwell's first recorded blues in 1928. When slide guitar specialist James Arnold revamped this number as "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for Decca in 1934, little did he know that this would soon become his permanent handle — Kokomo Arnold.

Kokomo Arnold was born in Georgia, and began his musical career in Buffalo, New York in the early '20s. During prohibition, Kokomo Arnold worked primarily as a bootlegger, and performing music was a only sideline to him. Nonetheless he worked out a distinctive style of bottleneck slide guitar and blues singing that set him apart from his contemporaries. In the late '20s, Arnold settled for a short time in Mississippi, making his first recordings in May 1930 for Victor in Memphis under the name of "Gitfiddle Jim." Arnold moved to Chicago in order to be near to where the action was as a bootlegger, but the repeal of the Volstead Act put him out of business, so he turned instead to music as a full-time vocation.

From his first Decca session of September 10, 1934 until he finally called it quits after his session of May 12, 1938, Kokomo Arnold made 88 sides under his own name for Decca, which rejected only nine of them — two of the rejected titles have since been recovered. On some sides he was joined on piano by Peetie Wheatstraw, although most of Kokomo Arnold's records were made solo. Arnold also played guitar on two tunes cut in July 1936 by Oscar's Chicago Swingers, a dance band led by singer Sam Theard. Judging from the overall size of his recorded output, you might suspect that he was a success as a recording artist, and this was true; along with Peetie Wheatstraw and Amos Easton (Bumble Bee Slim), Kokomo Arnold was a predominant figure among blues singers in the Decca Race catalogues of the 1930s. He was also well-known as a live performer as well, appearing mainly in Chicago, but also on at least a couple of occasions in New York.

Some of Kokomo Arnold's songs proved highly influential on other musicians. His first issued coupling on Decca 7026 paired "Old Original Kokomo Blues" with "Milk Cow Blues." Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson must've known this record, as he re-invented both sides of it into songs for his own use — "Old Original Kokomo Blues" became "Sweet Home Chicago," and "Milk Cow Blues" became "Milkcow's Calf Blues." "Milk Cow Blues" ultimately proved of use, more or less, in its original form with some "real gone" modifications, to another artist a little further down the line: Elvis Presley.

As for Kokomo Arnold himself, he quit the music business in disgust in 1938 and went into factory work in Chicago. He was rediscovered there by blues researchers in 1962, but didn't show much enthusiasm for reviving his musical career, and certainly did not resume recording. Kokomo Arnold died of a heart attack at the age of 67.

Some blues pundits have drawn a direct qualitative value between Peetie Wheatstraw and Kokomo Arnold, with Arnold coming out on top. There was a popular re-issue album in the 1960s featuring eight songs by each artist which seemed to support this conclusion. This has no real relevance however; although they were personally acquainted and recorded together, Kokomo Arnold and Peetie Wheatstraw were really working different ends of the 1930s blues spectrum. Their main connection to one another is their combined influence on Robert Johnson, and in this respect Wheatstraw seems to have had the upper hand.

PW: Klipkop

Kokomo Arnold Vol. 1 (1930-1935)

Curtis Jones - Vols 3 & 4

Album: Vol. 3 [1939-1940]
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 96.7 MB
Time: 60:21
Released: 1995
Label: Document
Styles: Piano blues
Art: Front

(2:40) 1. What Evil Have I Done?
(2:48) 2. It's A Hard Way To Travel
(2:58) 3. I'm In The Mood For You
(2:51) 4. Who You Lovin'?
(2:34) 5. I Like The Way You Do
(2:41) 6. My Baby's Blues
(2:56) 7. Private Talk Blues
(2:48) 8. Blue And Lonesome
(2:46) 9. Bosom Friend Blues
(2:55) 10. Heavy Hip Mama
(2:45) 11. Solid Jive
(2:58) 12. Love In A Loving Way
(2:30) 13. Gold Digger Blues
(2:39) 14. Sugar Bowl Blues
(2:32) 15. Treat Me Like I Treat You
(2:39) 16. Heart Breaking Blues
(2:36) 17. Moonlight Lover Blues
(2:38) 18. Cradle Rockin Blues
(2:54) 19. Day And Night Blues
(2:46) 20. Love Land Blues
(2:45) 21. Down Town Blues
(2:32) 22. Blue Memories

The third volume in Document's complete reissued early works of singing blues pianist Curtis Jones contains 22 Vocalion, Okeh, and Bluebird recordings made in Chicago between June 1939 and September 1940. The first two tracks constitute the remaining titles from a session that featured vocalist Lillie Mae Kirkman, who made records with Memphis Slim & the House Rockers a few years later. The guitarist on "What Evil Have I Done?" and "It's a Hard Way to Travel," as well as tracks three through ten, was Hobson "Hot Box" Johnson, whose technique sometimes seems to be cross-threaded with the pianist's individualistic maneuverings. The drummer on most of these recordings was Bluebird's house percussionist Fred Williams; on tracks 15-22 (which also feature blues harpist Jazz Gillum) he is replaced by the venerable Judge Riley. Jones usually chose to sing about love, attraction, separation, and loneliness. Much of his material seems to have been cut out of the same fabric, woven directly from personal experience in his native Texas and up north in Chicago. One tune that stands out from the rest is "Solid Jive," a rare example of Jones adopting a jazzier swing style and mouthing "hepcat" lyrics.

This lively number, as well as what appears to have been Jones' only known session involving a harmonica, makes Volume 3 a particularly interesting and texturally varied choice.

Vol. 3 [1939-1940]


Album: Vol. 4 1941-1953
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 93.2 MB
Time: 58:10
Released: 1995
Label: Document
Styles: Piano blues
Art: Front

(2:48) 1. Absent Freight Train Blues
(2:40) 2. No Good Guy - Part 2
(3:06) 3. South Land Blues
(2:55) 4. Bed Side Blues
(2:58) 5. Cool Playing Blues
(2:49) 6. Don't Leave Me Baby
(2:44) 7. Dream Land Blues
(2:38) 8. Flamin' Blues
(2:33) 9. Glamour And Glory Blues
(2:41) 10. Her Love Will Get It
(2:35) 11. It's A Solid Sender
(2:32) 12. Ity Bitty Jitter Bug
(2:46) 13. Love Valley Blues
(2:48) 14. Low Down Worried Blues
(2:33) 15. Mean Old Blues
(2:57) 16. My Baby Says She Loves Me
(2:56) 17. Tin Pan Alley
(2:42) 18. Too Many Blues
(2:36) 19. Upside Down Blues
(2:26) 20. Worryin' Away My Heart For You
(3:15) 21. Wrong Blues

During the 1990s, the Document label reissued 91 recordings made by Texas-born Chicago blues pianist Curtis Jones during the years 1934-1953 without expending any resources to clean up the surface noise that came rising up off of the old 78 rpm platters. Volume four begins in January 1941, includes his 1953 Parrot single "Wrong Blues" b/w "Cool Playing Blues" and ends with three rare sides cut in October 1934 with big-voiced Alfoncy Harris, who sang with Blind Willie McTell and Memphis bandleader Douglas Williams during the '20s. Like the previous volume in the series, this slice of the chronology is striated with several distinctly different styles and moods, from the straightforward gravity of the "Low Down Worried Blues" through the jazzy jive of "It's a Solid Sender" and "Itty Bitty Jitter Bug," to the fully realized, saxophone-fortified postwar Chicago-blues-band sound of the "Flamin' Blues" and its flipside, the "Upside Down Blues." Jones is heard with bassists Ransom Knowling and Alfred Elkins; with drummer Judge Riley and, on the Parrot session, guitarist L.G. McKinley. The famous "Tin Pan Alley," destined to become one of Jones' most famous tunes, refers to a dangerous section of town where even the streetwise may be taking their lives into their own hands. This is, of course, as different as could be from the connotation of the original "Tin Pan Alley," New York's music publishing district on West 28th Street near Broadway. That Tin Pan Alley gave the world songs like "Yes We Have No Bananas."

The Tin Pan Alley invoked by Curtis Jones must have been located in the roughest part of Chicago's South Side, and is light years removed from the old stamping grounds of George M. Cohan, Al Jolson, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin. ~arwulf arwulf

Curtis Jones Vol. 4 1941-1953

John Lee Hooker - Alone

Genre: Blues
Styles: Delta Blues, Country
Blues, Detroit Blues
Recorded: 1976
Released: 1989
Label: Tomato
File: mp3; 320 Kbps
Size: 93.0 +103.0 (MB)
Time: 39:07 + 43:40 (min.)
Art: Included
More info:
http://www.johnleehooker.com
http://www.virginrecords.com/hooker
http://web.telia.com/~u19104970/johnnielee.html

The First Shaw
01. I Miss You So 2:38
02. I'm Bad Like Jesse James 4:24
03. Dark Room 5:00
04. I'll Never Get Out of These Blues Alive 7:37
05. Boogie Chillen' 4:16
06. When My First Wife Left Me 5:42
07. Boom Boom 3:47
08. One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer 5:40

The Second Show
01. Put Your Hand on Your Hip 3:19
02. Trying to Survive 5:30
03. I Won't Be Back No More 5:09
04. She Left Me on My Bended Knee 5:53
05. You Ain't to Old to Shift Them Gears 2:07
06. Hobo Blues 3:54
07. I Wish You Could Change Your Ways 5:36
08. Boogie Chillen' 6:11
09. Crawlin' King Snake 5:54

John Lee Hooker - Guitar & Vocals

Recorded live at New York's Hunter College in 1976,
Produced by Kent Cooper & Heiner Stadler
© 1989 Tomato Records
http://www.myspace.com/tomatorecordsmusic

Each of the two discs of this Tomato package are separate sets from a '70s solo concert at New York City's Hunter College. The format is just Hooker and his guitar, and in this intimate setting, the blues veteran has plenty of room to stretch out, improvise and say what needs to be said. Not just the boogie, but some serious blues too. This 1976 concert recording caught Hooker up close, giving both voice and guitar a lot of force. A candidate for best John Lee Hooker live album.

The First Shaw The Second Show

Big Joe Williams - Watergate Blues

Genre: Blues
Styles: Delta Blues, Acoustic Blues, Prewar Country Blues
Recorded: 1973 and 1978
Released: 1989
Label: Five Color
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 89.7 MB
Time: 55:58
Art: front + back

1. Down In The Bottom - 2:52
2. Boogie Woogie All Day Long - 2:12
3. I Wanna Die Easy When I Die - 1:48
4. Bull Cow Blues - 2:06
5. Watergate Blues - 1:50
6. I'm Gonna Do It This Time, Ain't Gonna Do It No Mo' - 2:57
7. Stella Blues - 2:15
8. I Thought It Was Somethin' Big To Make A Record In Them Days - 3:32
9. Jinx Blues - 1:37
10. Sugar Hill Story - 2:58
11. Skin and Bone Blues - 2:41
12. Jump, Baby, Jump! - 2:01
13. Came Out The Wilderness - 0:57
14. Lord Have Mercy - 2:17
15. Motherless Children - 1:53
16. Levee Camp Holler - 1:57
17. You Gonna Need King Jesus On Your Bond - 3:17
18. Sinner Man - 1:56
19. 'Bama Leaves Fallin' - 2:41
20. This Little Light O'Mine - 2:12
21. When The Saints Go Marchin' In - 3:08
22. In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down - 3:04
23. Kansas City Blues - 1:48
24. What You Gon' Do, Sinner ? - 1:52

Personnel:
Big Joe Williams - 6-string, 9-string, 12-string guitar, dobro, slide guitar, vocals
Axel 'Ponytail Slim' Küstner - harmonica, producer
B. L. Logan - vocals

Notes: Recorded live 1973 in Berlin and 1978 in Crawford and Mashulaville, Mississippi
Relesed: 1978 titled "Back To The Roots" (Ornament LP CH-7.713)
1989 titled "Watergate Blues" American Black Blues series (5 Color CD 5383, Comerta AG, Switzeland)
2000 titled "Watergate Blues" Ornament Blues Masters series (Chrisly CD CM 30001-2)

Watergate Blues

Curtis Jones - Vols 1 & 2 (of 4-CD set)

Album: Vol. 1 [1937-1938]
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 109.7 MB
Time: 68:27
Released: 1995
Label: Document
Styles: Piano blues
Art: Front

(3:10) 1. Decoration Day Blues
(3:04) 2. Blues And Trouble (Take 1)
(3:05) 3. Blues And Trouble (Take 2)
(3:06) 4. Lonesome Bedroom Blues
(3:10) 5. You Got Good Business
(3:13) 6. Drinking And Thinking Blues
(3:14) 7. Schoolmate Blues
(3:10) 8. Bad Avenue Blues
(2:54) 9. Good Old Easy Street
(2:57) 10. Blues And Trouble (Take 3)
(2:55) 11. Little Jivin' Woman
(2:46) 12. My Baby's Getting Buggish
(2:46) 13. Down In The Slums
(2:51) 14. Let Me Be Your Playmate
(2:42) 15. Highway 51 Blues
(2:55) 16. It's A Low Down Dirty Shame
(2:46) 17. Yours All Alone
(2:56) 18. Palace Blues (Take 2)
(2:48) 19. Reckless Life Blues (Take 3)
(2:55) 20. Bull And Cow Blues
(3:02) 21. Love Season Blues
(2:56) 22. Palace Blues (Take 4)
(2:53) 23. Lonesome Bedroom Blues No. 2

Texas-born Curtis Jones came up in agrarian poverty, and most of his music conveyed residual undercurrents of that reality in its pacing, texture, and subject matter. Like many singing blues pianists of the 1930s and early '40s, he tended to use the same melodies over and over again, leaving behind a trail of recordings that when compiled sound either like multiple forays over well-trampled ground or sequential episodes in a blues oratorio that seems like it could continue indefinitely. When during the 1990s Document set out to compile all of his known recordings, the producers included alternate takes without making any effort whatsoever to doctor up the sound quality through the use of noise reduction technology. All of this could make the first volume of Curtis Jones' Complete Works a challenging assignment for those who expect melodic variety, upbeat entertainment, and crystal-clear sound in their blues. Yet that's not what this kind of a listening experience is about. Like his competitor Walter Davis, Jones found a direct way of expressing himself and seldom varied the formula. He told his stories with earthy honesty, half singing and half speaking the words while kneading the piano in a very personal manner that is quite different from more exacting conventional techniques employed by flashier performers. Jones sings of love and life, death and solitude. His companions during this segment of his story were guitarists Big Bill Broonzy and Willie Bee, early jazz trumpet legend Punch Miller, the mighty Washboard Sam, and drummer Fred Williams. ~arwulf arwulf

Vol. 1 [1937-1938]

Album: Vol. 2 [1938-1939]
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 111.8 MB
Time: 69:44
Released: 1995
Label: Document
Styles: Piano blues
Art: Front

(2:53) 1. Loving Blues
(2:59) 2. Good Whiskey
(2:57) 3. Pocket-Book Blues
(2:51) 4. Black Gypsy Blues
(2:47) 5. Alley Bound Blues
(2:43) 6. Who You're Hunchin'
(2:59) 7. MisTakes In Life
(2:37) 8. Hot Dog Man
(2:34) 9. I'm With You Again
(2:31) 10. I'm Losing My Mind Over You
(2:48) 11. Reefer Hound Blues
(2:50) 12. War Broke Out In Hell
(2:53) 13. Little Girl, Little Girl
(2:44) 14. Night Life Blues
(2:51) 15. Hattie Mae Blues
(2:53) 16. Blues In The Alley
(2:28) 17. Down In The Gutter
(2:35) 18. Blues In The Basement
(2:37) 19. Love I'm Without A Shelter
(2:48) 20. Sad, Lonely And Crying Blues
(3:00) 21. I'm Fallin' For You Baby
(2:40) 22. Roll Me Mama
(3:00) 23. When You Leave Me Honey
(2:51) 24. He's Just My Size
(2:44) 25. Hop Head Blues

Back in the 1990s, Document reissued the "complete recorded works" of singing blues pianist Curtis Jones in four volumes, covering the years 1937-1953.

Volume two presented 25 sides dating from a 12-month period beginning and ending in the summers of 1938 and 1939. Jones was signed to Vocalion at the time, and the "Reefer Hound Blues" was so popular that it was also issued on the Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s Conqueror label (tracks 13 and 14).

Fortunately for posterity, Vocalion and Bluebird were competing for record sales, and this resulted in large catalogs which today serve as valuable reservoirs of classic prewar blues. While some of the players remain unidentified (including an electrically amplified guitarist on tracks 7-12), we do know that Jones used guitarists Joe McCoy, Willie Bee, and, on tracks 15-25, Hobson "Hot Box" Johnson. Charlie McCoy plays mandolin on "Who You're Hunchin'" (which makes for an interesting comparison with a similarly titled record by the Chick Webb Orchestra); legendary Chicago session bassist Ransom Knowling has been positively identified on tracks 7 and 8, and the drummer on tracks 13-22 is believed to have been Fred Williams, another linchpin in the Chicago blues scene of the 1930s and a regular participant in sessions led by guitarist Big Bill Broonzy. This volume ends with the first three titles from a 1939 recording date that featured in part vocalist Lillie Mae Kirkman, who by the late '40s would make records with Memphis Slim and a group billed as Lillie Mae & the House Rockers. The remainder of the 1939 session's output opens the third volume of Curtis Jones on Document. ~arwulf arwulf

Vol. 2 [1938-1939]

vols 3&4 tomorrow.

Blind John Davis - Stomping On A Saturday Night

Album: Stomping On A Saturday Night
Styles: Piano Blues
Released: 1978
Label: Alligator
File: mp3@320K/s
Size: 88.2 MB
Time: 38:32
Art: Full

1. Goodnight, My Friends [1:03]
2. Jim Town Blues [2:10]
3. When I Lost My Baby [3:02]
4. Lime house Blues [2:21]
5. Got The World On A String [2:37]
6. It's My Boogie [1:45]
7. Summertime [3:34]
8. Kansas City [2:59]
9. Everyday I Have The Blues [4:12]
10. Cow Cow Boogie [2:35]
11. St James Infirmary [3:22]
12. Dippermouth Blues [2:01]
13. Moanin' The Blues [4:26]
14. Pinetop's Boogie Woogie [2:19]

Notes:
Stompin' on a Saturday Night is a propulsive live set recorded in Germany in 1976 that captures the pianist late in his career. While he may be past his prime, he remains a terrific, instinctive pianist, and the record goes a long way toward proving his influence.
PW: Klipkop

Stomping On A Saturday Night

50 Years: Mississippi Blues In Bentonia 1931 - 1981: Skip James and Jack Owens

Genre: Blues
Styles: Delta Blues, Prewar Country Blues, Country Blues, Acoustic Blues
Recorded: 1931 and 1981
Released: 1998
Label: Wolf
File: mp3@256K/s
Size: 127.5 MB
Time: 69:37
Art: front

1. Devil Got My Woman - 3:00
2. Cypress Grove Blues - 3:09
3. Cherry Ball Blues - 2:46
4. Illinois Blues - 3:00
5. 4 O'Clock Blues - 2:40
6. Hard-Luck Child - 2:52
7. Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues - 2:47
8. Yola My Blues Away - 3:08
9. Jesus Is a Mighty Good Leader - 3:10
10. Be Ready When He Comes - 2:54
11. Drunken Spree - 2:36
12. I'm So Glad - 2:53
13. Special Rider Blues - 2:59
14. How Long "Buck" - 2:57
15. Little Cow and Calf Is Gonna Die Blues - 2:52
16. What Am I to Do Blues - 2:59
17. 22-20 Blues - 2:58
18. If You Haven't Any Hay Get on Down the Road - 3:00
19. Hard Times - 3:27
20. Cherry Ball - 2:52
21. Give Me Your Money - 2:51
22. Devil Blues - 4:33
23. Leavin' Blues - 3:06

Personnel:
1-18
Skip James - Piano, Guitar, Vocals
19-23
Jack Owens - Guitar, Vocals

Notes: The 18 tracks that Skip James recorded in Grafton, WI, for Paramount in 1931 have long been among the most distinctive in the history of country blues, and the cumulative effect of James' high tenor vocals and odd, delicate guitar picking led many blues scholars to assign him his own niche in blues history, the founder of the so-called Bentonia (named after James' home region of Mississippi) school of country blues. When James was rediscovered in the 1960s, his skills still intact, his mysterious guitar style turned out to be the result of playing in minor key open tunings, and scholars more or less decided that there was no real Bentonia school of Mississippi blues, that James was a singular, unique stylistic iconoclast. Now it appears that there actually was a real Bentonia style, one that featured heavy use of D minor and E minor open guitar tunings (often called "cross-note" tuning), and a shared local song repertory. This intriguing album includes all of James' historic 1931 recordings, with five tracks of Jack Owens singing related material recorded in 1981, and the similarities are striking and eerie. Owens doesn't use the high tenor as much as James did, and his vocals have a decidedly rougher edge, but on songs here like "Hard Times," "Cherry Ball," and "Devil Blues," the link to James is obvious, particularly in the guitar style and the overall ethereal feel that Owens generates. Blues scholars were quick to call Owens a disciple of James, but that appears not to be true, either, since the two were actually contemporaries (Owens claimed to actually have taught James how to play guitar, which appears unlikely, since both appear to have learned their craft [or at least the minor key open tunings] from another local guitarist, the never-recorded Henry Stuckey). In retrospect, there actually was a small and viable local Bentonia school of Mississippi blues, and although Skip James thus turns out not to have been quite as unique a stylist as scholars and collectors originally thought, he was clearly and unarguably the high-water mark of this particular style. Adding Owens' tracks to James' original 78s makes 50 Years of Mississippi Blues both a blues history lesson and a wonderful purchase (if you can find it). ~ Steve Leggett

50 Years: Mississippi Blues In Bentonia 1931 - 1981

Robert Pete Williams - Legacy of the Blues, Vol. 9

Genre: Blues
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Country Blues, Acoustic Louisiana Blues
Recorded: 1973
Released: 1990
Label: GNP
File: mp3@192K/s
Size: 54.5 MB
Time: 39:43
Art: front

1. Woman You Ain't No Good - 4:10
2. Come Here Sit Down on My Knee - 4:16
3. Angola Patience Blues - 7:10
4. Late Night Boogie - 3:19
5. I'm Going to Have Myself a Ball - 3:33
6. Poor Girl Out on the Mountain - 5:07
7. Graveyard Blues - 2:50
8. You're My All Day Steady and My Midnight Dream - 4:25
9. Keep Your Bad Dog off Me - 4:49

Personnel:
Robert Pete Williams - guitar, vocals

Notes: Also relesed as "The Sonet Blues Story" with same track list, Verve 2005.
Among the last of the great old country blues players discovered in the '60s, Robert Pete Williams was easily the most unique. His ragged griot approach to the blues paid little attention to standard rhymes or blues forms, allowing him to spin personalized stories of tremendous emotional power, even when he was working off of traditional pieces, and his songs take on the feel of a nakedly open journal. The recordings collected here were originally released as part of Samuel Charters' Legacy of the Blues series in 1973, and they carry an incredible intimacy, like all of Williams' work. They also feature some beautiful and ghostly acoustic slide guitar playing, a skill Williams picked up from his friend and fellow blues festival performer Mississippi Fred McDowell. Two songs in particular from this set encapsulate Williams' unique approach to country blues, the riveting and autobiographical "Angola Penitentiary Blues" and the beautifully poetic "You're My All Day Steady and My Midnight Dream," which, even though it makes use of stock blues lines, manages to be a deeply personal song that is every bit as haunting as it is lovely. Williams' songs are so eccentrically his that it is difficult to imagine anyone else doing them, and there is no more singular performer in the history of the country blues. Harry Oster's 1961 field recordings of Williams, Angola Prisoner's Blues, if you can find it, would be a logical place to start exploring Williams' body of work, but everything he recorded has the same insular intimacy, and this set is as good as any other in demonstrating this one of a kind bluesman's fascinating appeal. ~ AMG

Legacy of the Blues, Vol. 9

Cam Waters - Magical Mystery Train

File: VBR ~210K/s
Size: 61.6 MB
Time: 41:32
Released: 2008
Label: (Self-Released)
Styles: Acoustic blues
Art: Front

(2:49) 1. Didn't Know What To Say
(3:49) 2. I'm Not Laughing Now
(3:07) 3. And When I Die
(3:24) 4. Get Yourself Back Home
(2:28) 5. Maybe I'll Just Stay Home
(3:02) 6. The Rocket Motel
(1:04) 7. Texas
(3:37) 8. One Less Name In The Telephone Book
(3:52) 9. Shake Sugaree
(3:36) 10. Leave Me Alone
(2:59) 11. Mississippi River Blues
(3:44) 12. Ragged And Dirty
(3:53) 13. Like A Highway

Cam Waters has spent the last twenty-odd years crisscrossing the country and honing his unique style on the stages of coffeehouses, clubs, concert halls, and festivals. Music writers across the country and in Europe consistently commend his understated, expressive singing and his simple yet inventive fingerstyle and slide guitar playing. His literate, tradition-based songwriting mixes seamlessly with his arrangements of rural blues, jug band songs, and American folk music. He has appeared in concert with Doc Watson, Dave Van Ronk, David Bromberg, Maria Muldaur, Greg Brown, Spider John Koerner, Roy Book Binder, Steve James, Bob Brozman, Robin and Linda Williams, and many more of acoustic music’s most well-respected performers. Waters also spent five years playing National metal-bodied guitars, singing, and stomping on a thrift store hi-hat cymbal with a jug band-influenced trio called The Sugar Kings, which also included Clint Hoover (harmonica, vocals) and Steve Sandberg (tuba). The group released one CD entitled "Take Your Time, Mr. Brown" (2000), enjoyed critical raves, and performed at several major Midwestern music festivals before disbanding in early 2002. Waters has released a number of recordings since his first in 1988. These CDs have helped make Waters a Minnesota Public Radio favorite and and have received airplay across the US and Europe. His most recent, "Magical Mystery Train," is far and away his finest to date. It returns the focus to Waters' songwriting after several years of emphasizing blues and folk arrangements, though it still includes a few of these. This new recording also features some of the finest accompanists in the Midwest, and was recorded by vintage microphone collector and tone freak Matthew Zimmerman at Wild Sound in Minneapolis. A native of Iowa’s only bona fide tourist trap (Okoboji and its environs), Waters spent six years in Iowa City, IA, seven on the Mississippi River in Red Wing, MN, and six more in St. Paul before moving to Rochester, MN in the early part of this century.

the link has been removed per request. the album will stay posted to promote the artist and his album. those who wish to obtain his music, please buy his CDs.

Booker T. Laury - Nothin' But The Blues

Style: Memphis Piano Blues, Boogie Woogie
Recorded: 1993
Released: 1994
Label: Bullseye Blues
File: mp3 @ 320kbps
Size: 115.85 MB
Time: 49:44
Art: Front Cover

1. The Slop Jar Story - 4:19
2. Introduction To The Blues/That's All Right For You - 7:02
3. Early In The Morning - 4:56
4. Woke Up This Morning - 4:41
5. D.B. Blues - 4:39
6. Disco Strut - 4:12
7. Sweet Root Man - 5:07
8. Booker's Boogie - 4:57
9. Blues With A Feeling - 3:34
10. Blues On The Prowl - 6:09

Personnel:
Booker T Laury - Piano, Vocals

Notes: Booker T. Laury grew up with Memphis Slim and the two are good friends with him and with Roosevelt Sykes. Consequently, his piano style has much of the same barrelhouse sound as Slim's. Laury has stayed in Memphis, making occasional forays into Arkansas and Missouri however, playing in the same clubs his entire life. Although some foreign albums were released, he had no domestic full-length.
'...A veteran of the old Beale Street scene and once a partner of the legendary Memphis Slim, Laury never got his shot at fame and fortune, or even the opportunity to cut a record. Now, approaching his 80th birthday, Laury finally made his debut and shows on this rollicking, highly delightful CD that his boisterous voice and piano skills remain in good shape. Every number is an original, as Laury opens the session with some uncensored remembrances about old Southern sanitary habits. From there, you get terse, spirited singing, powerful left and right hand piano lines, and a percussive, pounding attack that features octave-jumping forays and furious phrasing. One record can't correct a lifetime of being unfairly overlooked, but it can go a long way...'~~ by Ron Wynn

Nothin' But The Blues

Sleepy John Estes - The Legend of Sleepy John Estes

Genre: Blues
Styles: Memphis Blues, Prewar Country Blues, Blues Revival
Recorded: 1962
Released: 1962/1990
Label: Delmark
File: mp3@256K/s
Size: 65.7 MB
Time: 35:51
Art: full

1. Rats in My Kitchen - 3:38
2. Someday Baby Blues - 2:24
3. Stop That Thing - 1:52
4. Divin' Duck Blues - 3:49
5. Death Valley Blues - 2:23
6. Married Woman Blues - 4:24
7. Down South Blues - 2:31
8. Who's Been Telling You, Buddy Brown Blues - 2:55
9. Drop Down Mama - 4:03
10. You Got to Go - 2:55
11. Milk Cow Blues - 2:15
12. I'd Been Well Warned - 2:37

Personnel:
Sleepy John Estes - Guitar, Vocals
Hammie Nixon - Harmonica
John 'Knocky' Parker - Piano
Ed Wilkinson - Bass

Notes: In the late '50s Sleepy John Estes wasn't nearly as visible as he had been before and during World War II -- in fact, he had become so obscure that some historians wondered if he had died. But the blues veteran was still very much alive, and in 1962 a 63-year-old Estes (some claimed he was 58 or 57) made an impressive comeback with The Legend of Sleepy John Estes. Produced by Delmark president Bob Koester on March 24, 1962, this historic acoustic session finds singer/guitarist Estes joined by Ed Wilkinson on bass, John "Knocky" Parker on piano, and long-time ally Hammie Nixon on harmonica. Legend isn't much different from Estes' recordings of the '20s, '30s, and '40s, and the Tennessee native successfully revisits old favorites like "Divin' Duck Blues," "Someday Baby Blues," "Stop That Thing," "Milk Cow Blues," and "Married Woman Blues." Although not the definitive recordings of these songs, Estes' 1962 versions are captivating nonetheless. Delmark has a lot to be proud of, and getting Estes back into the studio after many years of neglect (reunited with Hammie Nixon, no less!) is certainly among the Chicago indie's greatest accomplishments. ~ Alex Henderson, AMG

The Legend of Sleepy John Estes

Maria Muldaur - Garden Of Joy

Genre: Blues
Styles: Jug Bands, Folk-Blues
Released: 2009
Label: Stony Plain Music
File: mp3@320K/s
Size: 108.7 MB
Time: 46:54
Art: front

1. The Diplomat - 3:49
2. Shake Hands and Tell Me Goodbye - 3:07
3. Shout You Cats - 3:02
4. The Ghost of St Louis Blues - 3:50
5. Let It Simmer - 4:36
6. Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul - 4:18
7. Medley: Life's Too Short/When Elephants Roost in Bamboo Trees [Medley] - 5:13
8. Garden of Joy - 2:23
9. He Calls That Religion - 4:08
10. I Ain't Gonna Marry - 2:57
11. Bank Failure Blues - 5:24
12. The Panic Is On - 4:03

Personnel:
Maria Muldaur - Vocals, Producer
Bowen Brown - Percussion, Drums
Danny Caron - Guitar
Ruth Davies - Bass
Pete Devine - Percussion
Jim Rothermel - Clarinet, Slide Whistle
Bob Schwartz - Trumpet
Suzy Thompson - Fiddle
Kevin Porter - Trombone
And guests
David Grisman - Mandolin, Mandola
Taj Mahal - Banjo, Guitar
Fritz Richmond - Bass
Dan Hicks - Guitar

Notes: "America's First Lady of Roots Music," Maria Muldaur, returns to her original roots - Jug Band Music! Maria first recorded in the early 60's with both The Even Dozen and The Jim Kweskin Jug Bands. Here she has reunited with several of her former jug band mates and recorded many tunes from the classic jug band era (early 30's), as well as two hilarious newly penned gems by Dan Hicks.Special guests include John Sebastian, David Grisman, Taj Mahal, Dan Hicks, Fritz Richmond and sensational discovery Kit Stovepipe. This is happy, lighthearted, "Good Time Music for Hard Times" indeed!

Garden Of Joy

Drink Small - Does It All

File: mp3@VBR ~229K/s
Size: 111.9 MB
Time: 69:37
Released: 2003
Label: Bishopville
Styles: Acoustic blues
Art: Front

(4:05) 1. I Want to Make Love
(2:08) 2. You Don't Have to Be Funky
(3:30) 3. Fish Fryin' Mama
(5:38) 4. A Woman Is the Sweetest Thing God Ever Made
(4:22) 5. Bingo Lover
(4:14) 6. Mr Green Is the Barbecue Man
(4:19) 7. South Carolina Boogie
(3:28) 8. You Can't Take the Country Out of Me
(2:12) 9. Coon Shine Baby
(5:24) 10. Plain Old Country Blues
(6:02) 11. Come On Let Me Love You
(4:26) 12. You Got to Love Everybody in the World
(4:50) 13. Glory, Glory
(6:19) 14. Motherless Child
(5:47) 15. I'm Gonna Run On
(2:44) 16. Roll, Jordan, Roll

The breadth of Drink Small's repertoire is fascinating in itself, but what's even more impressive is his depth as a performer in any of his chosen genres.

His records may suddenly shift from a solo acoustic blues-guitar track to a smooth soul ballad with horns to who-knows-what, yet Small never seems to be caught out of place. He can be gruff and rough, clean and modern, or light and bouncy, altering his voice and guitar to suit the mood. Rated one of America's top gospel guitarists before he turned to blues in the late '50s, the South Carolina "Blues Doctor" for years had only one 45 on the market (Sharp, 1959). His discography has recently begun to grow considerably, finally revealing the extent of his songwriting and performing talents. ~bio by Jim O'Neal

Does It All

Amos Milburn - Bad Bad Whiskey

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 48.5 MB
Time: 30:17
Released: 2009
Label: Vanilla OMP
Styles: Jump blues, Early R&B, Piano blues
Art: Front

(2:57) 1. Bad Bad Whiskey
(2:51) 2. Sax Shack Boogie
(2:41) 3. In The Middle Of The Night
(2:58) 4. Down The Road Apiece
(3:00) 5. Walking Blues
(2:39) 6. Let`s Rock A While
(2:49) 7. Hold Me Baby
(2:20) 8. Pretty Mama Blues
(2:45) 9. Roomin' House Boogie
(2:28) 10. House Party Tonight
(2:43) 11. Let Me Go Home Whiskey

House rent parties once used to be the rage whenever ghetto inhabitants decided to cover their weekly or monthly tab. But all that drinking, carousing, and letting those "good times roll", also provided plenty of raw material for multitudes of boogie-drenched numbers that dominated the R&B charts from the mid-40's to early 50's. And no other vocalist/piano player captured the mood of those carefree times as convincingly as did Amos Milburn. From 1948 until 1954, Milburn's sides ruled the R&B charts, and they burst the the lid open on crazy times, booze-drenched fun, and jive talkin'. Only Ruth Brown managed to attain the same level of popularity during this time period.

Bad Bad Whiskey

Sleepy John Estes - Goin' To Brownsville

Genre: Blues
Styles: Country Blues, Piedmont Blues, Memphis Blues, Prewar Blues
Recorded: 1962
Released: 1998
Label: Testament
File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 105.2 MB
Time: 73:28
Art: full

1. Run Around - 2:19
2. Lost My Eyesight - 2:56
3. It Was A Dream - 2:32
4. Try Him And See - 3:09
5. Divin' Duck - 2:35
6. Street Car Blues - 1:55
7. Sloppy Drunk Blues - 2:21
8. I'm Goin' Home - 2:24
9. Floating Bridge - 3:53
10. Sixty One And Sixty Two Rats - 3:15
11. Vernita's Blues - 2:20
12. Somebody Baby - 2:45
13. Freedom Loan - 3:06
14. Bye And Bye When The Morning Comes - 1:30
15. Working Man's Blues - 2:45
16. Bring Me My .38 Pistol - 2:33
17. Married Woman Blues - 2:38
18. Sweet Sugar Mama - 2:36
19. Stop That Thing - 1:53
20. In My Father's House - 2:43
21. Goin' To Brownsville - 3:00
22. Sleepy John Estes Interviewed by Pete Welding - 18:12

Notes: Sleepy John Estes never really changed or altered his style during the 50-year period he recorded. The records he made for Victor in the 1920s didn't sound much different than the ones he made in the late 1960s and 1970s for various collector's labels. This collection features 21 previously unissued solo performances from 1962 capped with a lengthy interview with Sleepy John conducted by producer Pete Welding. Estes is in fine form throughout, particularly effective on "Lost My Eyesight," "Run Around," "Floating Bridge," "Vernita's Blues" and Big Bill Broonzy's "It Was a Dream." In the 18-minute interview that closes this disc, Estes discusses making records for Decca, Victor and other labels, coming to Chicago and losing his eyesight. Compelling music and even more compelling conversation, all of it loaded with realism and ambience galore. ~ Cub Koda

Goin' To Brownsville

Various Artists - Texas Blues Volume 2

Album:
Style: Texas Country Blues
Released: 196?
Label: Arhoolie
File: MP3 320 Kbps
Size: 79 MB
Art: Front and back

Tracklist:
Manny Nichols
- Long Skinny Mama
Mance Lipscomb
- You Don't Mean No Good
Black Ace
- Beer Drinking Wooman
Rattlesnake Cooper
- I'm Leaving Town
Mercy Dee & Otis Cherry
- Ebony Baby
Lightning Hopkins & Isam Hisam
- I'm Feeling Bad
Manny Nichols
- Walking Talking Blues
Tom Moore
- Billy Bizor
Alex Moore
- Chock House Boogie
Smokey Hogg
- Hello Baby
Robert Shaw
- The Fives
Lightning Hopkins
- Hurricanes Carla & Esther
Mercy Dee / K.C. Douglas / Otis Cherry
- 8th Wonder Of The World

Texas Blues Volume 2

Mark Nomad - Acoustic Land

File: mp3@224K/s
Size: 83.5 MB
Time: 52:06
Released: 2007
Label: Blue Star
Styles: Acoustic blues
Art: Front

(4:19) 1. The Journey
(2:56) 2. Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
(4:59) 3. Hannah Lee
(3:58) 4. Baby Please
(4:17) 5. My Trouble Blues
(2:53) 6. God Don't Never Change
(3:04) 7. Waitin' On You
(3:57) 8. Green Eyes
(5:40) 9. Special Rider
(2:56) 10. Comin' Home to You
(3:12) 11. You Got to Move
(2:58) 12. Angel Boy
(3:40) 13. Got to Carry On
(3:11) 14. Heavenly Bound

Acoustic Land is the long awaited compilation of Mark Nomad's solo acoustic recordings which span five cd's. Downbeat Magazine has this to say: "This singer and guitarist from western Massachusetts, performing solo or with a band, redefines the Skip James, Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker blues he holds dear with a convicton that escapes many better known musicians."

new link: Acoustic Land