Label: Yazoo Records.
Release Date: April 4, 2006.
Recording Time: 140 minutes.
Release Info: Studio Recording.
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Appalachian, Bluegrass-Gospel, Country Blues, Country Gospel, Delta Blues, Gospel, Jug Band, North American Traditions, Old-Timey, Pre-War Country Blues, Regional Blues, Southern Gospel, String Bands, Traditional Country.
For anyone who's collected 78-rpm records, enjoyed Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, or expressed interest in the great missing old-time and blues records of yesteryear, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of will be the Holy Grail. Whereas it isn't unusual for Yazoo to place a rarity on a new collection by Blind Blake or Blind Lemon Jefferson, this two-disc collection -- all 46 cuts -- is a testament to rarities. Perhaps the best-known (to a general old-time/blues audience) performer here is Son House, and the collection includes recordings of "Mississippi County Farm Blues" and "Clarksdale Moan." Others might be familiar with Dock Boggs ("Old Rub Alcohol Blues"), Ken Maynard ("Sweet Betsey from Pike"), and the Memphis Jug Band ("Jim Strainer Blues"). Incredibly, several of these tracks were recorded as test pressings and never officially released, meaning that as far as the recording industry is concerned, they don't exist. It's probable that all of the fuss made over this collection of rarities will make little sense to folks who don't spend all of their spare money and time hunting down 78-rpm records, and there's a point here. If you don't know that a certain item is rare, you won't value it in the same way a collector might. In this sense, one CD filled with scratchy old recordings is as good as another. But even for those who might not understand why they should be excited by The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of, the collection nonetheless holds up as good old-time folk and blues, and expense-wise, Yazoo always offers lots of quality music for one's money. As an added bonus the cover art and inside cartoon has been put together by none other than Robert Crumb, a record collector and one-time string band performer himself. - Review by Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.
Notes: 3 fold DVD size case with 19 page booklet. Records used were from the collections of Richard Nevins, Pete Whelan, Frank Mere, Dave Freeman, Joe Bussard, Chris King, Mark Blaesing, John Coffee, John Tefteller, Richard Spottswood, Don Kent.
Artwork (Cover Art) by Robert Crumb.
Credits: Amedie Ardoin - primary artist; Ashley & Foster - primary artist; Andrew Baxter - primary artist; Jim Baxter - primary artist; Dock Boggs - primary artist; John Byrd - primary artist; Jaybird Coleman - primary artist; Crowder Brothers - primary artist; Sleepy John Estes - primary artist; Freeny's Barn Dance Band - primary artist; Georgia Pot Lickers - primary artist; Jack Gowdlock - primary artist; Blind Roosevelt Graves - primary artist; Uaroy Graves - primary artist; Grayson & Whitter - primary artist; Grayson County Railsplitters - primary artist; J.D. Harris - primary artist; William Harris - primary artist; Roy Harvey - primary artist; Osey Helton - primary artist; King Solomon Hill - primary artist; Roy Hobbs - primary artist; Son House - primary artist; Little Harvey Hull - primary artist; Tommy Johnson - primary artist; Jess Johnston & The West Virginia Ramblers - primary artist; Jab Jones - primary artist; Luke Jordon - primary artist; Kentucky Ramblers - primary artist; Lottie Kimbrough - primary artist; Asa Martin - primary artist; Ollis Martin - primary artist; Ken Maynard - primary artist; Kansas Joe McCoy - primary artist; Dennis McGee - primary artist; Memphis Jug Band - primary artist; Memphis Minnie - primary artist; Middle Georgia Singing Convention - primary artist; Richard Nevins - liner notes, producer, remastering; Chubby Parker - primary artist; Ernest Phipps & His Holiness Singers - primary artist; Yank Rachell - primary artist; Long "Cleve" Reed - primary artist; Bill Shepherd - primary artist; Hayes Shepherd - primary artist; Smith & Irvine - primary artist; Sweet Brothers - primary artist; Jesse Babyface Thomas - primary artist; Three Stripped Gears - primary artist; Wayne Ward - primary artist; Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles - primary artist; Ed Webb - primary artist; Henry Whitter - primary artist; Reverend B.L. Wightman - primary artist; Geeshie Wiley - primary artist.
Tracks, Disc 1: 1) Croquet Habits - Freeny's Barn Dance Band; 2) Mississippi County Farm Blues - Son House; 3) Up Jumped the Rabbit - Georgia Pot Lickers; 4) I'm Going Back Home - Kansas Joe McCoy / Memphis Minnie; 5) Fightin' in the War with Spain - Wilmer Watts & The Lonely Eagles; 6) Old Timbrook Blues - John Byrd; 7) A Little Talk With Jesus - Ernest Phipps & His Holiness Singers; 8) Slidin' Delta - Tommy Johnson; 9) Alabama Blues - Three Stripped Gears; 10) Rollin Dough Blues - Jack Gowdlock; 11) Ginseng Blues - Kentucky Ramblers; 12) Police and High Sheriff Come Ridin' Down - Ollis Martin; 13) John Hardy Blues - Roy Harvey / Jess Johnston & The West Virginia Ramblers; 14) The Down Home Boys/Original Stack O' Lee Blues - Little Harvey Hull / Long "Cleve" Reed; 15) Two Step de la Prairie Soileau - Amedie Ardoin / Dennis McGee; 16) Operator Blues - Andrew Baxter / Jim Baxter; 17) The Grey Eagle - J.D. Harris; 18) Jim Strainer Blues - Memphis Jug Band; 19) Ain't That Trouble in Mind - Grayson County Railsplitters; 20) Old Rub Alcohol Blues - Dock Boggs; 21) Mistreatin' Mama - Jaybird Coleman; 22) It's a Rough Road to Georgia - Henry Whitter; 23) Live the Life - Lottie Kimbrough / Reverend B.L. Wightman.
Tracks, Disc 2: 1) Sweet Mama - Sleepy John Estes / Jab Jones / Yank Rachell; 2) We All Love Mother - Crowder Brothers; 3) Clarksdale Moan - Son House; 4) Bull Dog Sal - Ashley & Foster; 5) Down in Texas Blues - Jesse Babyface Thomas; 6) Chicken Don't Roost Too High - Georgia Pot Lickers; 7) I'm Leavin Town (But I Sho' Don't Wanna Go) - William Harris; 8) Wild Cat Rag - Roy Hobbs / Asa Martin; 9) Whoopee Blues - King Solomon Hill; 10) Davey Crockett - Chubby Parker; 11) Skinny Legs Blues - Geeshie Wiley; 12) I'm Gonna Marry That Pretty Little Girl - Sweet Brothers; 13) I Shall Not Be Moved - Blind Roosevelt Graves / Uaroy Graves; 14) Lonesome Road Blues - Smith & Irvine; 15) If I Call You Mama - Luke Jordon; 16) My Mind Is to Marry - Grayson & Whitter; 17) Green River - Osey Helton; 18) Don't Speak to Me - Lottie Kimbrough; 19) Married Man's Blues - Wayne Ward; 20) Sweet Betsey from Pike - Ken Maynard; 21) Boll Weevil - Jaybird Coleman; 22) Bound Steel Blues - Bill Shepherd / Hayes Shepherd / Ed Webb; 23) Bells of Love - Middle Georgia Singing Convention.