Series: Roots N' Blues.
Release Date: May 30, 1994.
Recording Time: 39 minutes.
Recording Date: February 1937 - August 1940.
Release Info: Columbia / Legacy - 475704 2, CD, Compilation, Reissue, Mono.
The Complete Bukka White is a highly acclaimed compilation album that gathers the 14 essential pre-war Vocalion recordings made by legendary Delta bluesman Bukka White between 1937 and 1940. Initially compiled on vinyl in 1969 and famously reissued on CD in 1994 as part of Columbia Records' Roots N' Blues series, this release stands as an essential pillar of country blues history. It features White's raw vocals and aggressive, percussive slide-guitar work on a National steel guitar, heavily backed on several tracks by the rhythmic driving force of Washboard Sam.
Rife with bittersweet sentiments and stark and often desperate imagery, and driven by the bite of his National steel guitar, the recordings of Bukka White offer a vivid and moving portrait of the daily tribulations of black life in the American mid-south during the 1930s and '40s. White's powerful art mirrors his hard and colorful life and survives as the very essence of country blues.
* * * * *
Here it is all in one place, all 14 of Bukka White's legendary Vocalion recordings. Kicking off with his lone 1937 single of "Pinebluff, Arkansas" and "Shake "Em on Down," the set continues with the marathon 12-song session from 1940 which produced such classics as "Sleepy Man Blues," "Parchman Farm Blues," "Fixin' to Die Blues," and "Bukka's Jitterbug Swing." This is personal blues, hitting on a number of subjects usually too stark for blues lyrics, but all on open-wound display here. Powerful stuff, indeed. ~ Cub Koda
Using the simplest melodies as his canvas, Delta bluesman Bukka White painted vivid pictures of his own life in the rural South, punctuating his words with a highly percussive steel-guitar attack. Among his subjects: trains, booze, sex, prison, and death. After shooting an old Mississippi rival during a roadside showdown, White had allegedly jumped bail to record his first two songs in 1937. The bawdy "Shake 'Em On Down" was a hit, but White spent two years in prison for his indiscretion. When White returned to Chicago in 1940 to record again, producer Lester Melrose rejected his roster of cover tunes, giving him two days to come up with his own material. Under the gun, White created the 10 autobiographical gems that round out this collection. ~ Marc Greilsamer
* * * * *
"I pulled all my songs out of my brain." - Bukka White
"This is a completely unique and astonishingly beautiful collection of blues." - Simon A. Napier, in the notes to the 1970 Lp reissue
"Yeah, that's my cousin, Booker White... Booker was the only one of us that ever went into show business... He had a steel bar he would put on his finger, and the sound he'd get from the strings with it would go all through me. I never could do that, but I learned to trill my hand..." - B.B. King, recalling his cousin Bukka White
"A fascinating poetic and autobiographical ducument, this album shares with the work of Robert Johnson (and that of few others) the distinction of aspiring to high art... one of the most emotionally compelling and moving autobiographical bodies of work, in many ways similar to that of Robert Johnson in its consciously thought-out lyrics, vocal intensity. and taut interplay between voice and guitar. As with Johnson there is a poetic sensibility at work..." - Peter Guralnick, The Listener's Guide To The Blues (New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1982)
"You can write the truth with the blues... You see, I tell you, you gotta feed your mind with something all the time..." - Bukka White
Credits: Compilation Producer (Roots N' Blues Series Producer) - Lawrence Cohn; Engineer (Archival Restoration), Mastered By - David Mitson; Guitar (Slide Dobro), Vocals, Written-By - Bukka White; Liner Notes - Mark Humphrey; Photography By - Stephen C. LaVere; Reissue Producer (Lp Reissue) - Frank Driggs; Washboard - Washboard Sam (tracks: 3 to 14).
Tracklist:
- 01. Pinebluff, Arkansas [2:48]
- 02. Shake 'Em On Down [2:59]
- 03. Black Train Blues [2:56]
- 04. Strange Place Blues [2:51]
- 05. When Can I Change My Clothes? [2:57]
- 06. Sleepy Man Blues [2:49]
- 07. Parchman Farm Blues [2:38]
- 08. Good Gin Blues [2:21]
- 09. High Fever Blues [2:49]
- 10. District Attorney Blues [2:40]
- 11. Fixin' To Die Blues [2:47]
- 12. Aberdeen Mississippi Blues [2:33]
- 13. Bukka's Jitterbug Swing [2:37]
- 14. Special Streamline [2:54]
Tracks 1 & 2 recorded in Chicago, IL, 2/9/1937.
Tracks 3 to 8 recorded in Chicago, IL, 7/3/1940.
Tracks 9 to 14 recorded in Chicago, IL, 8/3/1940.
Reissue engineered & mastered at Sony Music Studios, Hollywood, CA.