Label: Document Records.
Release Date: 1991.
Recording Time: 67 minutes.
Recording Date: June 5, 1931 - March 26, 1934.
Release Info: Compilation (DOCD-5079) Studio Recording.
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Country Blues, Delta Blues, Regional Blues, Dirty Blues.
22 songs (with three still missing) cut by Carter, solo with guitar or with Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle, over a three-year period. Document has had unusual luck with the quality on this release, as there's relatively little surface noise on much of it. This helps bring out the richness, dexterity, and playfulness of Carter's playing, as well as the expressiveness of his voice in extraordinary detail. Perhaps the most surprising element of these sides are the two unissued Okeh tracks from 1931, "The Law Is Gonna Step On You" and "Pig Meat Is What I Crave," which are the equal of anything that the label did put out from those same sessions, and show Carter's playing to great advantage and in extraordinarily high-quality sound. His music was probably closest in spirit to the early work of Tampa Red and Georgia Tom Dorsey, with its mixture of double-entendre lyrics and hokum influences. The three-year gap in Carter's recordings, caused by the crunch that hit the blues business with the Great Depression, show him re-emerging at the end (for Bluebird) with a more sophisticated sound, less stripped-down than his early sides but just as playful in its risqué way ("Banana In Your Fruit Basket," etc.). ~ Bruce Eder
from DOCD-5079:
Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. In the time between his December 1928 New Orleans session and his next solo recording date at the King Edward Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi on December 15, 1930, Bo Carter had participated in numerous sessions in the role of accompanist. There were two sessions in Memphis in late September 1929 and February 1930 where Chatman’s Mississippi Hotfooters (with Carter probably on violin) backed both Walter Vincent (Vincson) and Charlie McCoy on several tracks apiece. On these occasions he most likely had contact with some of the other artists who recorded there. Included among their number were some of the more popular and influential Race artists of the period: Jim Jackson, Tampa Red, Georgia Tom, Speckled Red, Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie, Kansas Joe, Robert Wilkins, Jed Davenport, and Garfield Akers. An extended session with the Mississippi Sheiks in San Antonio in June 1930 was the occasion to record not only with the family group and to support Texas Alexander with them, but to record with Walter Jacobs (Vincson) and the Carter Brothers as well. The point of all this is that Bo Carter went from being a versatile performing musician to being an experienced recording musician in a relatively short time period. He had ample opportunity to witness first-hand what other artists were recording, how they met the very different demands of the new medium, what the companies themselves were likely to want, and ultimately, what it took to produce a best-selling blues record. ~ Ken Romanowski, Document Records, 1991-2007.
Credits: Bo Carter - composer, guitar, guitar (rhythm), primary artist, vocals; Lonnie Chatmon - violin; Johnny Parth - producer; Ken Romanowski - liner notes.
Tracks: 1. So Long, Baby, So Long; 2. The Law Gonna Step On You; 3. Pig Meat Is What I Crave; 4. Howling Tom Cat Blues; 5. Ants In My Pants; 6. Blue Runner Blues; 7. I’ve Got A Case Of Mashin’ It; 8. You Don’t Love Me No More; 9. What Kind Of Scent Is This?; 10. Pretty Baby; 11. I Want You To Know; 12. Last Go Round; 13. I Keep On Spending My Change; 14. Baby, How Can It Be?; 15. Bo Carter Special; 16. Beans; 17. Nobody’s Business; 18. Queen Bee; 19. Tellin’ You ‘Bout It; 20. Please Don’t Drive Me From Your Door; 21. Pin In Your Cushion; 22. Banana In Your Fruit Basket.