Release Date: March 19, 1996.
Recording Time: 71 minutes.
Recording Date: 1920s - 1930s.
Release Info: Compilation (LC2015) Studio Recording.
Although the blues is the most renowned form of early 20th century African-American music (other than jazz), it didn't dominate rural Black music to the extent that many listeners often assume. Black and White folk musics mingled extensively before the advent of recorded technology, and Black musicians often performed gospel, religious hymns, folk ballads, and fiddle tunes as well as what we now recognize as the blues. This compilation does a good job of illustrating the diverse ancestry of African-American music with 23 rare sides from the 1920s and 1930s, when records and mass media had yet to fully introduce elements that would standardize musical genres and approaches to some degree. Some of these performers would indeed become classified as blues artists (Mississippi John Hurt, Robert Wilkins, Henry Thomas). But most of these tracks are not explicitly rooted in blues forms, examples being B.F. Shelton's banjo ballad interpretation of "Pretty Polly," Taylor's Kentucky Boys' fiddle breakdown version of "Forked Deer," or the Seventh Day Adventist Choir's "On Jordan's Stormy Banks We Stand." Remastered from old 78s, this may be of more educational than entertainment value to most modern listeners, but it's well done, with extensive liner notes explaining the various forms of Black music preserved on the disc. ~ Richie Unterberger
Credits:
Art Direction - Joan Pelosi;
Mastered By - Robert Vosgien;
Reissue Producer, Liner Notes - Don Kent;
Reissue Producer, Remastered By, Liner Notes - Richard Nevins.
Tracklist:
01. Bamalong Blues - Andrew And Jim Baxter
02. Run Mollie Run - Henry Thomas
03. Lonesome Road Blues - Sam Collins
04. Jackson Stomp - Mississippi Mud Steppers
05. On Jordan's Stormy Banks We Stand - Seventh Day Adventist Choir
06. Mississippi Jail House Groan - Rube Lacy
07. Forked Deer - Taylor's Kentucky Boys
08. Bye Bye Baby Blues - Little Hat Jones
09. Pretty Polly - B.F. Shelton
10. Soft Steel Piston - Weaver & Beasley
11. Two White Horses In A Line - Evans & McClain
12. Jamestown Exhibition - Bayless Rose
13. Dupree Blues - Willie Walker
14. France Blues - Papa Harvey Hull
15. Dying Mother And Her Child - Rev. Gates & Congregation
16. John Hardy - Buell Kazee
17. Wayward Girl Blues - Lottie Kimbrough
18. Newport Blues - Cincinnati Jug Band
19. Tom Sherman's Barroom - Dick Devall
20. Stack O'Lee Blues - Mississippi John Hurt
21. Lawdy Lawdy Worried Blues - Teddy Darby
22. I'll Go With Her Blues - Robert Wilkins
23. Christian Soldier - Denson Quartet
"The Early American Black Music Scene"
(As captured on classic recordings from the 1920s and 30s. Vol. 1)