Release Date: December, 1998.
Recording Time: 80 minutes.
Recording Date: late 1960s.
Release Info: CDCHD 705, CD, Compilation, Reissue.
"Rural Blues" brings together two legendary acoustic country blues musicians from southern Louisiana: Robert Pete Williams and Ford "Blind Snooks" Eaglin. The album compiles raw, expressive tracks originally captured in 1960 by famed ethnomusicologist Harry Oster. Rather than collaborating directly on the tracks, the double album splits the spotlight: the first record highlights Williams' haunting, unconventional style, while the second features Eaglin's masterful, blind-street-singer guitar arrangements.
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Both artists on this CD are acoustic country blues singers from southern Louisiana, and their respective contributions were recorded in 1960. But despite their apparent similarity, Robert Pete Williams and Snooks Eaglin are two very different musicians. Folklorist Harry Oster had discovered Williams in Angola Penitentiary, serving a life sentence for murder. Robert Pete's self-taught, modal guitar playing, and long, improvised blues about his life and feelings, often unrhymed and semi-spoken, at once marked him out as a unique blues artist. It was thanks largely to Oster's efforts that when these recordings were made, Robert Pete was free on parole, although, as The Hay Cutting Song wittily notes, it was a harsh kind of freedom, working 80 hours a week for $75 a month. In his songs, Robert Pete unflinchingly confronts a world in which loneliness, death and approaching old age loom large, and transforms them into poetic lyrics and funky, dancing music. Williams, born in 1914, is now dead, but happily Ford "Blind Snooks" Eaglin is still with us, and still a master guitarist and entertainer. Snooks was only 24 in 1960. Blind from infancy, he had always lived in a world of sound, developing his remarkable guitar talent, and picking up songs from records and the radio. Despite his youth, he had been working in R&B bands in his native New Orleans for some years when Oster found him, playing acoustic guitar outside a department store to make some extra money. Consequently, it was as a country blues singer that Oster recorded him. The lovely, flamenco-tinged I'm A Country Boy is proof of Snooks' songwriting abilities, though most of the songs on this CD are cover versions. Snooks makes them his own, however, with his hoarse, wistful singing, and an orchestral guitar style that simultaneously supplies rhythm, harmony and melody. ~ Chris Smith
Rural Blues pairs two sets, the first by Robert Pete Williams and the second by Snooks Eaglin, and it's a fine combination. In particular, Eaglin's vocals and playing were seldom more disciplined and exciting. ~ Ron Wynn
Credits: Arranged by - Williams (tracks: 1 to 10), Eaglin (tracks: 11 to 22); Art Direction - Tony Lane; Liner Notes - Robert Shelton; Photography by - Lee Friedlander; Recorded by - Harry Oster; Remastered by - Mike Reese; Vocals, Guitar - Robert Pete Williams (tracks: 1 to 10); Vocals, Guitar [6-string & 12-string] - Ford "Blind Snooks" Eaglin (tracks: 11 to 22); Written by - Traditional.
Tracklist:
- 01. Robert Pete Williams - Free Again [5:01]
- 02. Robert Pete Williams - Almost Dead Blues [4:03]
- 03. Robert Pete Williams - Rolling Stone [4:48]
- 04. Robert Pete Williams - Two Wings [4:51]
- 05. Robert Pete Williams - A Thousand Miles From Nowhere [5:17]
- 06. Robert Pete Williams - Thumbing A Ride [4:37]
- 07. Robert Pete Williams - I've Grown So Ugly [2:49]
- 08. Robert Pete Williams - Death Blues [5:14]
- 09. Robert Pete Williams - Hobo Worried Blues [4:11]
- 10. Robert Pete Williams - Hay Cutting Song [4:16]
- 11. Snooks Eaglin - Mama Don't You Tear My Clothes [1:54]
- 12. Snooks Eaglin - Mailman Passed [2:34]
- 13. Snooks Eaglin - I'm A County Boy [2:24]
- 14. Snooks Eaglin - I've Got A Woman [3:07]
- 15. Snooks Eaglin - Alberta [2:33]
- 16. Snooks Eaglin - Brown-Skinned Woman [3:37]
- 17. Snooks Eaglin - Don't You Lie To Me [2:07]
- 18. Snooks Eaglin - That's All Right [2:07]
- 19. Snooks Eaglin - Well, I Had My Fun [3:50]
- 20. Snooks Eaglin - Bottle Up And Go [2:47]
- 21. Snooks Eaglin - The Walkin' Blues [3:10]
- 22. Snooks Eaglin - Fly Right, Baby [3:51]
Compiles the CD:
Robert Pete Williams: Free Again (Bluesville 1026), recorded, probably in New Orleans, on or about Nov. 14, 1960.
Snooks Eaglin: That's All Right (Bluesville 1046), recorded, probably in New Orleans, late in 1960.
Remastered, 1973.