Label: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Release Date: July 20, 1999.
Recording Time: 68 minutes.
Release Info: Studio & Live.
Recording information: Barn Of Wolf Trap; Carnegie Hall, New York, NY; The Barns Of Wolf Trap; Weill Recital Hall.
Recorded between 1990 & 1996.
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Boogie-Woogie, Chicago Blues, Modern Electric Blues, North American Traditions, Piano Blues, Piedmont Blues, Pre-War Country Blues, Regional Blues, Zydeco.
Seventeen live performances on this blues compilation, drawn from 1990-1995 recordings that were done for the Folk Masters series distributed by Public Radio International; all of these were recorded at either the Barns of Wolf Trap or Carnegie Hall. There's a lot of variety and numerous styles represented: work songs, folksy songsters, modern electric blues (Joe Louis Walker does an eight-minute "Bluesifyin"), Delta-styled blues (Robert Jr. Lockwood), piano jazz-blues, and more. It's adventurous enough to go off into some detours that aren't strictly blues, but certainly blues-related, as in the zydeco by Boozoo Chavis, the a cappella vocals of the Georgia Sea Island Singers, the jazz violin of Claude Williams, and the New Orleans trad jazz of Don Vappie and the Creole Jazz Serenaders. Many of the performers were quite elderly when they made their contributions, and while it's great that there is a venue for these guardians of tradition, much of the disc is overly polite in execution. When the White Cloud Hunters Mardi Gras Indians come on with their unbridled chants on "Sew, Sew, Sew," the energy and daring really pick up. The go-go music of Rapper Dee, C.J., and Five Gallons of Fun's "My Mind Has No Color/Doing It the Go-Go Way," with percussion performed largely on paint buckets and other found objects, is another ambitious detour worth applauding.
Review by Richie Unterberger.
Dirty Linen (2-3/00, p.59) - "...aptly titled....There's a bit of everything from the African American roots music experience in the 69-minute overview..."
Credits: Louis Armstrong - composer; Etta Baker - guitar, performer, primary artist; Classie Ballou, Jr. - bass; Dallas Bartley - composer; T.D. Bell - guitar (electric), performer, primary artist, vocals; Keter Betts - bass; Blues Specialists - primary artist; Erbie Bowser - performer, piano, primary artist; Wendell Brunious - trumpet; C.J. - primary artist; John Cephas - guitar, performer, primary artist, vocals; Boozoo Chavis - accordion (diatonic), composer, performer, vocals; Boozoo Chavis & the Majic Sounds - performer, primary artist; Charles Chavis - frottoir; Rellis Chavis - drums; James Chirillo - guitar; Keith Clark - drums; Reggie Crawford - saxophone; Creole Serenaders - primary artist; Gandy Dancers - primary artist; Mel Davis - harmonica; Rapper Dee - primary artist; Parker Dinkins - technical assistance; Mike Eppley - keyboards; Five Gallons Of Fun - primary artist; Nathaniel Fontenot - guitar; Antoine Gardner - vocals; The Georgia Sea Island Singers - performer, primary artist; Carol Hardy - artwork, design; Leo Hickman - composer; Abner Jay - Banjo, primary artist, vocals; Darryl Johnson - drums (bass); Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson - guitar (electric), performer, primary artist; Luther "Houserocker" Johnson - composer; Paul Johnson - executive producer; Robert Johnson - composer; Alan Jones - vocals (background); Calvin "Fuzz" Jones - bass; Carl Jones - composer, saxophone, vocals; Jennifer Jones - vocals (background); Joseph Jones - vocals (background); Louis Jordan - composer; Booker T. Laury - performer, piano, primary artist, vocals; Danny Leake - composer; Ian Levine - composer; Robert Lockwood, Jr. - guitar (electric), performer, primary artist, vocals; Donald "Duck" Manor - drums; Mary Monseur - production coordination; Len Nichols - bass; Curtis Nutall - drums; Pinetop Perkins - performer, piano, primary artist; Steve Pistorius - piano; Jeff Place - editorial assistant; Sammy Price - composer, performer, piano, primary artist; Public Domain - composer; Doug Quimby - vocals; Pete Reiniger - remixing; Matt Sakakeeny - mastering; Tony Saunders - bass; Anthony Seeger - executive producer, production supervisor; D.A. Sonneborn - production supervisor; Leslie Spitz-Edson - editing, liner notes; Nick Spitzer - compilation producer, liner notes, producer; Donald Suhor - clarinet; Jay Summerour - harmonica; Charles Taylor - vocals; Traditional - composer; John Tyler - engineer, remixing; Don Vappie - banjo, performer, primary artist; Don Vappie & The Creole Jazz Serenaders - primary artist; Joe Louis Walker - composer, guitar, performer, primary artist; White Cloud Hunters Mardi Gras Indians - performer, primary artist; Phil Wiggins - harmonica, performer, primary artist; Claude "Fiddler" Williams - composer, performer, primary artist, violin; Warner Williams - guitar, performer, primary artist, vocals; Cornelius Wright Jr. - leader.
Nicholas R. Spitzer - producer; John Tyler - partner organization, mixing engineer; Pete Reiniger - mixing engineer; Matt Sakakeeny - mastering engineer; Nick Spitzer - liner notes; Leslie Spitz-Edison - liner notes; Carol Hardy - designer.
All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.
Tracks: 1) Rooster Call - John Henry Mealing and the Gandy Dancers; 2) John Henry - John Cephas and Phil Wiggins; 3) Step it Up and Go - Warner Williams; 4) Flipping and Flopping - Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson and Willie "Pinetop" Perkins; 5) Twenty-Fours a Day - Erbie Bowser, T.D. Bell, and the Blues Specialists; 6) Little Queen of Spades - Robert Jr. Lockwood; 7) One Dime Blues - Etta Baker; 8) Bluetail Fly - Abner Jay; 9) Gut Bucket Blues - Don Vappie and the Creole Jazz Serenaders; 10) That Certain Someone - Claude Williams; 11) Harlem Parlor Blues - Sammy Price; 12) Early in the Morning - Booker T. Laury; 13) Sew, Sew, Sew - The White Cloud Hunters Mardi Gras Indians; 14) My Mind Has No Color / Doing it the Go-Go Way (medley) - Rapper Dee, C.J. (Carl Jones) and Five Gallons of Fun; 15) Hambone - Georgia Sea Island Singers; 16) Uncle Bud - Boozoo Chavis and the Magic Sounds; 17) Bluesifyin - Joe Louis Walker and the Boss Talkers.