Release Date: September 30, 2003.
Series: The Alan Lomax Collection
Recording Time: 139 minutes.
Recording Date: July 1, 1934 - September 2, 1978.
Release Info: Rounder 82161-1866-2, 2 x CD, Compilation.
"The Blues Songs" present some of the most exciting blues Alan Lomax ever recorded. Famous and obscure artists roll out a remarkable array of blues from the country, the city, and the prison in this first-of-its-kind compilation overseen by the Lomax estate. Taken from five decades of Alan's best field recordings in the genre, the Songbook includes previously unreleased tracks and features digital transfers using DSD technology. Here is blues at its source, impassioned, and utterly real.
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From 1933-1985, Alan Lomax (along with his father, John A. Lomax) gathered field-recorded examples of African-American song forms, most of which ended up in the expansive Library of Congress American folk music collection. This two-disc collection selects some of the best of these into a single package and the result is a wonderful and indispensable journey through the blues, beginning with the sparkling opening track, "Going Down the River," a variant of a Sleepy John Estes song done by slide guitarist Mississippi Fred McDowell, with Fannie Davis on comb kazoo and Miles Pratcher on second guitar. There are several amazingly intimate performances here, including Skip James singing "Cherry Ball Blues" at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival just days after his re-discovery, and his high, eerie voice and delicate guitar playing combine to create a stunning moment in which a legend is literally reborn out of the haze of 1930s blues 78s. That feat is nearly duplicated by Dock Boggs, whose ragged voice and banjo on "Country Blues," a variant of the banjo tune "Darling Corey," brings another lost bluesman back from the land of old 78s. There are also three very different versions of "Joe Turner" here and they afford a valuable lesson in the mutability of folk material. Joe Turner was really Joe Turney, who, in the early 1890s, was the so-called "long chain man" in Mississippi, the transfer man whose job it was to march groups of prisoners from court to the penal institutions and work camps where the convict lease system operated. Needless to say, he was much feared and hated. The first version here features Ed Young on cane fife and Hobart Smith on banjo, while the second has Miles Pratcher on guitar and Bob Pratcher on fiddle, and features the lines "I laid down happy/And I woke up crying." By the time Big Bill Broonzy's version was recorded in the early '60s, Joe Turner had become a savior who sets prisoners free, an interpretation of events hardly supported by the facts, and a fascinating study in the reversal of fortune of a blues lyric. ~ Steve Leggett
Credits: Coordinator (Series) - Bill Nowlin; Liner Notes (Additional Song Notes) - David Evans, Ph.D.; Liner Notes (Introduction And Song Notes) - John Cowley, Ph.D.; Liner Notes (Preface) - Martin Scorsese; Mastered By - Phil Klum; Photography By - Alan Lomax, Shirley Collins; Producer - Anna Lomax Chairetakis; Transferred By - Steve Rosenthal.
Tracklist:
- 1-01. Goin' Down The River - Mississippi Fred McDowell, Fanny Davis, Miles Pratcher
- 1-02. Rolled And Tumbled - Rosalie Hill
- 1-03. Cherry Ball Blues - Jack Owens & Bud Spires
- 1-04. Dust My Broom - Howlin' Wolf, Hubert Sumlin, Eddie Shaw
- 1-05. Boogie Children - Boy Blue, Joe Lee, Darnel Walker
- 1-06. Stagolee - Lucious Curtis & Willie Ford
- 1-07. Stop All The Buses - Cecil Augusta
- 1-08. Worried Life Blues - David "Honeyboy" Edwards
- 1-09. The Pony Blues - Son House
- 1-10. Tangle Eye Blues - Walter "Tangle Eye" Jackson
- 1-11. Trouble So Hard - Vera Ward Hall & Dock Reed
- 1-12. Worried Blues - Sonny Terry
- 1-13. Beggin' The Blues - Bessie Jones
- 1-14. John Henry - Gabriel Brown
- 1-15. Country Blues - Dock Boggs
- 1-16. Cherry Ball Blues - Skip James
- 1-17. I Hate A Man Like You - Jelly Roll Morton
- 1-18. Roll 'Em - Pete Johnson
- 1-19. Kokomo - The Memphis Jug Band
- 1-20. Life Is Like That - Memphis Slim, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Bill Broonzy
- 2-01. I Could Hear My Name A Ringin' - Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim, Big Bill Broonzy
- 2-02. Dimples In Your Jaws - Joe Lee, Boy Blue, Darnel Walker
- 2-03. Catfish Blues - Jack Owens & Bud Spires
- 2-04. Kill-It-Kid Rag - Blind Willie McTell
- 2-05. You're Gonna Need My Help - Elinor Boyer
- 2-06. The Army Blues - David "Honeyboy" Edwards
- 2-07. Blues De La Prison - Canray Fontenot & Bois Sec Ardoin
- 2-08. I Been Drinkin' - Vera Ward Hall
- 2-09. I Been A Bad, Bad Girl - Ozella Jones
- 2-10. I Be's Troubled - Muddy Waters
- 2-11. Boogie Instrumental - R.L. Burnside
- 2-12. Blind Lemon Blues - Lead Belly
- 2-13. Sweet Patootie Blues - Albert Ammons
- 2-14. The Last Time - Sam Chatmon
- 2-15. Shorty George - Smith Casey
- 2-16. Desert Blues - Hattie Ellis & Cowboy Jack Ramsey
- 2-17. Joe Turner - Ed Young & Hobart Smith
- 2-18. Joe Turner - Miles Pratcher & Bob Pratcher
- 2-19. Joe Turner - Big Bill Broonzy
- 2-20. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean - Hobart Smith
- 2-21. How Long Blues - Lead Belly, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee
Personnel: [1-01] Guitar - Miles Pratcher; Guitar, Vocals - Fred McDowell; Kazoo (Comb) - Fanny Davis; [1-02] Vocals, Guitar - Rosalie Hill; [1-03] Harmonica - Benjamin "Bud" Spires; Vocals, Guitar - Jack Owens; [1-04] Guitar - Hubert Sumlin; Harmonica, Vocals - Howlin' Wolf; Tenor Saxophone - Eddie Shaw; [1-05] Drums - Darnel Walker; Guitar - Boy Blue, Joe Lee; [1-07] Vocals, Guitar - Cecil Augusta; [1-08] Vocals, Guitar - David "Honeyboy" Edwards; [1-09] Vocals, Guitar - Eddie "Son" House; [1-10] Vocals - Tangle Eye; [1-11] Vocals - Dock Reed, Vera Ward Hall; [1-12] Vocals, Harmonica - Sonny Terry; [1-13] Vocals - Bessie Jones; [1-14] Vocals, Guitar - Gabriel Brown; [1-15] Vocals, Banjo - Dock Boggs; [1-16] Vocals, Guitar - Skip James; [1-17] Piano, Vocals - Jelly Roll Morton; [1-18] Piano - Pete Johnson; [1-19] Bass, Jug, Kazoo - Dewey Corley; Electric Guitar - Robert Carter; Vocals, Bass, Washboard - Will Shade; Vocals, Guitar - Charlie Burse; [2-02] Drums - Darnel Walker; Harmonica - Boy Blue; Vocals, Guitar - Joe Lee; [2-03] Harmonica, Vocals - Benjamin "Bud" Spires; Vocals, Guitar - Jack Owens; [2-04] Vocals, Guitar (12-string) - Blind Willie McTell; [2-05] Vocals - Elinor Boyer; [2-06] Harmonica, Vocals, Guitar - David "Honeyboy" Edwards; [2-07] Accordion - Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin; Vocals, Fiddle - Canray Fontenot; [2-08] Vocals - Vera Ward Hall; [2-09] Vocals - Ozella Jones; [2-10] Vocals, Guitar - Muddy Waters; [2-11] Drums - Calvin Jackson; Guitar - R.L. Burnside; [2-12] Vocals, Guitar - Lead Belly; [2-13] Piano - Albert Ammons; [2-14] Speech, Vocals, Guitar - Sam Chatmon; [2-15] Vocals, Guitar - Smith Casey; [2-16] Guitar - Cowboy Jack Ramsey; Vocals - Hattie Ellis; [2-17] Banjo - Hobart Smith; Vocals, Fife - Ed Young; [2-18] Fiddle - Bob Pratcher; Vocals, Guitar - Miles Pratcher; [2-19] Vocals, Guitar - Big Bill Broonzy; [2-20] Vocals, Guitar - Hobart Smith; [2-21] Guitar, Vocals - Brownie McGhee, Lead Belly; Harmonica, Vocals - Sonny Terry.