Darby & Tarlton, Also Starring Chris Bouchillon (Country bluesmen whose songs and style influenced a generation)

Label: JSP Records.

Release Date: October 4, 2005.

Recording Time: 276 minutes.

Recording Date: 1927 - 1933.

Release Info: Compilation (JSP7746) Studio Recording.

Styles: Old-Timey, Slide Guitar Blues, Country Blues, Traditional Country, Acoustic Blues, Folk-Blues.

By all accounts Tom Darby and Jimmie Tarlton were an acrimonious duo, thrown together more by opportunity than any pressing desire to play music together, but in spite of the tension between them (or maybe because of it), the body of work they recorded together for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1933 is as singular and distinctive as any in early country or blues. Both were fine guitar players, with Darby generally handling the lead vocals and Tarlton the harmonies, but the difference-maker was Tarlton's striking slide guitar style. Tarlton played with the guitar in his lap Hawaiian-style, and reportedly fretted it with a wrist pin from a car. His slide lines give everything the duo recorded an eerie, exotic presence that, coupled with their impeccable vocals, makes them utterly unique. Darby & Tarlton played rags and waltzes and other popular dance forms of the day, but their bread and butter was always the blues, and when you hear people say that country music started as the white man's version of the blues, the tracks collected on this four-disc set from JSP Records are exactly what they're talking about. Among the obvious highlights here are the duo's version of "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" called "Down in Florida on a Hog," the sublime "Birmingham Town" (which borrows its melody from "Jesse James"), their version of Dorsey Dixon's "Weaver Blues," the fun "Ooze Up to Me," the familiar melody of "Roy Dixon" (Roy Acuff would borrow it for his "Great Speckled Bird"), and "Birmingham Jail" and "Columbus Stockade Blues," which were a two-sided hit for Darby & Tarlton, selling some 200,000 copies on 78, an impressive sales figure for the time. Ironically, the last song the duo recorded was "Let's Be Friends Again," when it was doubtful the two ever had any great affection for each other. The final disc of this set collects Chris Bouchillon's late-'20s recordings for Columbia Records. Bouchillon was an unlikely recording star, since he wore conspicuous glasses, seemingly always had a pipe in the corner of his mouth, and by most reports was an awful singer. He had a subtle sense of humor, however, and a horn man's sense of timing when he talked, and he single-handedly invented the talking blues form with the release of "Talking Blues" in 1927 (it had actually been recorded a year earlier). Tracks like "The Medicine Show" and the hilarious "I've Been Married Three Times" show that if Bouchillon wasn't a great singer, he was a master of timing, and his talking blues keep you waiting always for the next line, for the next shoe to drop. As a box set, these four discs show the deep influence of Afro-American blues forms on the creation of early country music, and while Tom Darby, Jimmie Tarlton, and Chris Bouchillon are hardly household names outside of the old-time music community, their influence is pervasive and far reaching, if not always recognized or acknowledged. ~ Steve Leggett

Credits: Chris Bouchillon - primary artist, vocals; Ethel Bouchillon - speech/speaker/speaking part; Uris Bouchillon - guitar; Darby & Tarlton - primary artist; Tom Darby - guitar, vocals; Pat Harrison - liner notes; Jesse Pitts - banjo, vocals; Jimmie Tarlton - guitar (steel), vocals.

Tracks, Disc A (Darby & Tarlton): 1. Down in Florida on a Hog; 2. Birmingham Town; 3. Birmingham Jail; 4. Columbus Stockade Blues; 5. Gamblin' Jim; 6. Lonesome in the Pines; 7. After the Ball; 8. I Can't Tell You Why I Love You; 9. Irish Police; 10. The Hobo Tramp; 11. Alto Waltz; 12. Mexican Rag; 13. Birmingham Jail No. 2; 14. The Rainbow Division; 15. Country Girl Valley; 16. Lonesome Railroad; 17. If You Ever Learn to Love Me; 18. If I Had Listened to My Mother; 19. Traveling Yodel Blues; 20. Heavy Hearted Blues; 21. The New York Hobo; 22. All Bound Down in Texas; 23. Touring Yodel Blues.

Tracks, Disc B (Darby & Tarlton): 1. Slow Wicked Blues; 2. Black Jack Moonshine; 3. Ain't Gonna Marry No More; 4. Down in the Old Cherry Orchard; 5. When the Bluebirds Nest Again; 6. Beggar Joe; 7. When You're Away from Home; 8. Birmingham Rag; 9. Sweet Sarah Blues; 10. Little Bessie; 11. I Left Her at the River; 12. Jack and May; 13. Captain Won't You Let Me Go Home; 14. Going Back to My Texas Home; 15. The Whistling Songbird; 16. Freight Train Ramble; 17. Lonesome Frisco Line; 18. Down Among the Sugar Cane; 19. The Black Sheep; 20. Little Ola; 21. Once I Had a Sweetheart; 22. The Maple on the Hill; 23. My Father Died a Drunkard; 24. Frankie Dean.

Tracks, Disc C (Darby & Tarlton): 1. Pork Chops; 2. In the Banks of a Lonely River; 3. Faithless Husband; 4. Hard Time Blues; 5. Rising Sun Blues; 6. My Little Blue Heaven; 7. Careless Love; 8. By the Old Oaken Bucket, Louise; 9. Lowe Bonnie; 10. After the Sinking of the Titanic; 11. New Birmingham Jail; 12. Roy Dixon; 13. Moonshine Blues; 14. She's Waiting for Me; 15. Goin' Down That Lonesome Frisco Line; 16. Thirteen Years in Kilbie Prison; 17. Once I Had a Fortune; 18. Dixie Mail; 19. The Weaver's Blues; 20. Sweetheart of My Dreams; 21. Ooze Up to Me; 22. Let's Be Friends Again; 23. By the Old Oaken Bucket, Louise.

Tracks, Disc D (Chris Bouchillon): 1. Born in Hard Luck; 2. Talking Blues; 3. New Talking Blues; 4. Hannah; 5. Old Blind Heck; 6. Let It Alone; 7. My Fat Girl; 8. Waltz Me Around Willie; 9. Ambitious Father; 10. You Look Awful Good to Me; 11. The Medicine Show; 12. I've Been Married Three Times; 13. My Wife's Wedding; 14. Adam and Eve, Pt. 1; 15. Adam and Eve, Pt. 2; 16. Oyster Stew; 17. Oh, Miss Lizzie; 18. Girls of Yesterday.