Label: Document Records.
Release Date: March 8, 2005.
Recording Time: 60 minutes.
Recording Date: April 13, 1927 - 1965.
Release Info: Studio Recording.
Styles: Field Recordings, Acoustic Blues, African Folk, African Traditions, Chicago Blues, Country Blues, Early Jazz, Folk-Blues, Harmonica Blues, Jazz Blues, Jug Band, Jump Blues, Old-Timey, Piano Blues, Regional Blues, Slide Guitar Blues, String Bands, Work Songs.
Featured Artists: Bukka White, Jewel Paige and Her Brown Brownies, Skip James, Phebel Wright, Jimmy Peters and Ring Dance Singers, Jazz Gillum, Rev. Lonnie Farris and The Gospel flames, Memphis Minnie, Muddy Waters, Thyam Sy Griots, Fiddlin` John Carson, Carolina Slim, Johnny Dunn and His Band, The Brown Bombers of Swing, Harmony Four / Quartette, Frank Hutchison, Big Joe McCoy and his Washboard Band, Johnnie Temple, Bumble Bee Slim (Amos Easton), Alonzo Scales, Blind John Davis.
Document Records has nearly 900 titles in its catalog and is easily the largest purveyor of American vernacular music, with titles featuring vintage American blues, jazz, boogie-woogie, gospel, old-timey, and country, all drawn from commercially released 78s and rare field recordings. If You Take Me Back is one of a series of samplers Document has released that allows a quick glimpse into the label's vast archive, and with tracks ranging from early country blues to stylish early jazz, it has a well-sequenced variety that is often lacking on the single-artist discs, which are predominantly archival in nature. Among the highlights here are Bukka White's classic 1940 recording of "Fixin' to Die Blues"; a rediscovered Skip James doing "Illinois Blues" at a 1964 concert in Boston; a raw, stunning field recording of Jimmy Peters & the Ring Dance Singers stomping through "Rockaway" in 1934; and the exciting gospel-blues of Rev. Lonnie Farris & the Gospel Flames on "Golden Street," recorded in 1962 and featuring some amazing electric slide guitar work from Farris. The range of styles presented here is impressive, and If You Take Me Back works both as a wonderful sampler of what Document offers and as a quick introduction to true American roots music at its finest. - Review by Steve Leggett
Document Records: There is so much good music in the Document Catalogue and these samplers are an excellent way of taking a shortcut into the biggest catalogue of vintage blues, jazz, gospel, boogie-woogie and country music in the world. Maybe you already know something about Document, maybe (to use a music biz term) you are just "scratching the surface". Either way, here is a clip, a snippet, an appetizer made up from great tracks found within the catalogue. The songs and music will bring you the full spectrum of human emotion; from humour, often with tongue firmly placed in cheek, to sadness, sometimes reaching a spiritual, emotional level. The music found on Document is about so many different things; things that we will recognise, regardless of our nationality, religion, colour, politics, education, class or wealth and that is because it is unashamedly about real life as you and I have known it, either for a moment or a lifetime. "You can hear a certain type of record playin'. You can be feelin' very normal, nothin' on your mind, period. But it's somethin' on that record hits you. It's somethin' that you have happened in your life." - John Lee Hooker. Shortcuts Volume 2 features artists such as the bluesmen Muddy Waters, Bukka White, Skip James; to the old time countrystars Frank Hutchison and Fiddlin` John Carson amongst others. Each CD booklet will provide an introduction to Document, full track details and original discographical details and references to Document CDs that each track is taken from.
Credits: George Barnes - guitar (electric); Big Joe & His Washboard Band - primary artist; Oscar Lee Bradley - drums; Brown Bomber Of Swing - primary artist; Joe "Bledsoe" Brown - trumpet; Garvin Bushell - clarinet, sax (alto); Bob Call - piano; Carolina Slim - guitar, primary artist, vocals; Fiddlin' John Carson - fiddle, primary artist, vocals; James Clark - piano; Blind John Davis - piano, primary artist; Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis - sax (tenor); Calvin Dillard - vocals; Johnny Dunn - clarinet; Johnny Dunn & His Band - primary artist; Amos Easton - primary artist, vocals; Rev. Lonnie Farris - slide guitar, vocals; Rev. Lonnie Farris & The Gospel Flames - primary artist; LeVol Franklin - bass; Bob Gaddy - piano; Jazz Gillum - harmonica, primary artist, vocals; Jewell L. Grant - sax (bass); Thyam Sy Griots - primary artist; William K. "Billy" Hadnott - bass; Harmony Four - primary artist; Herb Flemming - trombone; Harry Hull - brass band; Frank Hutchison - composer, guitar, primary artist, vocals; Skip James - composer, guitar, primary artist, vocals; Thomas Johnson - vocals; Louis Jones - vocals; Ransom Knowling - bass, string bass; Willie James Lacey - guitar; Kansas Joe McCoy - composer, guitar, vocals; Robert Lee McCoy - harmonica; Willard McDaniel - piano; Brownie McGhee - guitar; Deacon McMillan - drums; Clifford Medlock - vocals; Memphis Minnie - guitar, primary artist, vocals; Mister Zero - drums; John Mitchell - banjo; Junior Morgan - guitar; Jelly Roll Morton - piano; Jewel Paige - vocals; Jewel Paige & Her Brown Brownies - primary artist; Alberta Perkins - vocals; Mort Perry - drums; Jimmy Peters and the Ring Dance - primary artist; Judge Riley - drums; Alonzo Scales - guitar, primary artist, vocals; Maurice Simon - sax (alto); Henry Singleton - vocals; Amanda Sortier - washboard; Star - tambourine; Estil Stewart - string bass; Johnnie "Geechie" Temple - primary artist; Johnny Temple - guitar, vocals; Sonny Terry - harmonica; Courtland Thomas - vocals; Traditional - composer; Washboard Sam - washboard; Muddy Waters - composer, guitar, primary artist, vocals; Tiny Webb - guitar; Casey Bill Weldon - composer, slide guitar, vocals; Booker T. Washington White - composer; Bukka White - primary artist, slide guitar, vocals; George Woods - drums; Phebel Wright - mandolin, primary artist.
Tracks: 1) Fixin' To Die Blues - Bukka White; 2) Give It Up - Jewel Paige and Her Brown Brownies; 3) Illinois Blues - Skip James; 4) Lint Head Stomp - Phebel Wright; 5) Rockaway - Jimmy Peters and Ring Dance Singers; 6) Signifying Woman - Jazz Gillum; 7) Golden Street - Rev. Lonnie Farris; 8) New Dirty Dozen - Memphis Minnie; 9) Hard Day Blues - Muddy Waters; 10) Halam Improvisation - Thyam Sy Griots; 11) Don't Let Your Deal Go Down - Fiddlin' John Carson; 12) Shake Boogie - Carolina Slim; 13) You Need Some Lovin' - Johnny Dunn; 14) Guitar Swing - The Brown Bombers of Swing; 15) Children Go Where I Send You - Harmony Four / Quartette; 16) The Last Scene of the Titanic - Frank Hutchison; 17) If You Take Me Back - Big Joe McCoy and his Washboard Band; 18) Olds "98" Blues - Johnnie Temple; 19) Lonesome Trail Blues - Bumble Bee Slim (Amos Easton); 20) She's Gone - Alonzo Scales; 21) Magic Carpet - Blind John Davis.