Hi
the recent robert johnson post here touched on an idea i hadn't thought of incredibly i'm a big fan of blues music from this era and never considered if the releases i had (many are old ones from document records) were the best sounding ones i could find and since the music from this time is so tragically lo-fi finding the best sounding releases of these artist is important to me so i was wondering if anyone can share what they think are the best sounding releases

of particular interest would be these artists
1.charley patton
2.bessie smith
3.blind lemon jefferson
4.blind willie mctell
5.son house
6.memphis minnie
7.leroy carr

and any others you could think of in that vain

Its a never ending search but
In about half those artist above
the Yazoo's still hold their ground
sound wise but in most cases they never
did complete recording sets of artists .....

The Documents cover the artists complete
recordings but sound wise they are not real
good and once Johnny Parth sold it to a Scottish
farmer things went down hill real quick ...
I think they still operate but are mainly downloads or CDRs..
Then Jack Whites Third Man jumped into bed with them and
released some Patton ... McTell ... Sheiks stuff but that
seems to have ground ta a holt ...

Blind Lemon .. AMAZING artist but those Paramount
recording were poorly pressed etc from the beginning
so he's always gonna be a tough listen ...

Bessie well the Complete has been on vinyl and CD box sets
a few times over the years and with Jackie Kay's recent book
and things like the Ma Rainey Black Bottom film there may be
a reissue of Bessie and many of prewar female blues artists ...

There's a recent Memphis Minnie Keep On Going 2CD which
is great but not complete and includes the hard to find
Broken Heart that she cut at Chess in '52 with Little Walter ...

Check out the American Epic 4CD set that was released
in conjunction with doco ... through new process they
did a good job of cleaning up the sound of many of those
artists .... and like Third Man they too did a hand full
of best of's of some of those artists then ground to a halt ...

Any of The Revenant releases are great if you can still find them
and usually include John Fahey's liner notes ....
The Patton box is stunning

Also look into labels like Dust To Digital and Old Hat

Happy searching ....



ROCKMAN

thank you Rockman i will look into those
anything for son house's original recordings

Masters Of The Delta Blues - Friends Of Charlie Patton
Yazoo 2002 carries the Son House early stuff...

The Revenant Patton Box carries
the same tracks ....

The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of ... Yazoo 2202
has two additional House tracks that were found
in the early 2000's .....

ALL of the above are essential ..... Just get 'em ...



Yazoo have a best of Frank Stokes but wish they'd have done a complete .....



ROCKMAN

thank you those are the ones i have glad to know i got em already saves me a lot of trouble tracking them down

also whats a good place to start with lead belly



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-01-31 00:44 by ProfessorWolf.

Leadbelly ..... Geez man there's a million sets ...
We could be here for days .... hhhhaaaaaaaa

And many of them just come and go ....

Search out his early stuff and find sets ....

The last set I picked up was the 2015 Smithsonian/folkways
box ... even came with a cool Leadbelly T-shirt ....

Have always loved Leadbelly - Sings Folk songs album ...
Played it to death over the years ... things
like Keep Ya Hands Offa Her .. Outskirts Of Town ...
Fiddlers Dram ... Jean Harlow ...

The track Grey Goose - Leadbelly with Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet
from 1940 .... Knocks me everytime I hear it ....Lordy Lordy Lord ....



ROCKMAN

Liner notes from Leadbelly 2015 Smithsonian/folkways set --- ^^^^^^^^








ROCKMAN

HEY Yeah Professor ..... I recall a
Keith Richard interview from a few years
back where he said that Tom Waits had sent
him a copy of a new Leadbelly set
No proof but Possibly the Smithsonian Folkways set .....

Keith did a version of Irene on Xeyed Heart ...



ROCKMAN

I would definitely check out Third Man Records first--- they have done some pretty cool releases of Charlie Patton and others, and their big Paramount blues package sounds great, if you can afford the coin for it !

Quote
Rockman
Its a never ending search but
In about half those artist above
the Yazoo's still hold their ground
sound wise but in most cases they never
did complete recording sets of artists .....

The Documents cover the artists complete
recordings but sound wise they are not real
good and once Johnny Parth sold it to a Scottish
farmer things went down hill real quick ...
I think they still operate but are mainly downloads or CDRs..
Then Jack Whites Third Man jumped into bed with them and
released some Patton ... McTell ... Sheiks stuff but that
seems to have ground ta a holt ...

Blind Lemon .. AMAZING artist but those Paramount
recording were poorly pressed etc from the beginning
so he's always gonna be a tough listen ...

Bessie well the Complete has been on vinyl and CD box sets
a few times over the years and with Jackie Kay's recent book
and things like the Ma Rainey Black Bottom film there may be
a reissue of Bessie and many of prewar female blues artists ...

There's a recent Memphis Minnie Keep On Going 2CD which
is great but not complete and includes the hard to find
Broken Heart that she cut at Chess in '52 with Little Walter ...

Check out the American Epic 4CD set that was released
in conjunction with doco ... through new process they
did a good job of cleaning up the sound of many of those
artists .... and like Third Man they too did a hand full
of best of's of some of those artists then ground to a halt ...

Any of The Revenant releases are great if you can still find them
and usually include John Fahey's liner notes ....
The Patton box is stunning

Also look into labels like Dust To Digital and Old Hat

Happy searching ....

I was about to mention that box set but you beat me to it, Rockeee! The single releases from that series are also worth checking (Leadbelly, John Hurt, etc).

thank you everybody this will keep me busy for a long time
i'm looking forward to start collecting leadbelly

good thread, good info, thx! (appreciate your posts rockman)

regarding bessie smith I hadn't paid attention to her until a couple years ago, have some cd stuff, still searching for some vinyl.. love her story

Quote
Rockman
HEY Yeah Professor ..... I recall a
Keith Richard interview from a few years
back where he said that Tom Waits had sent
him a copy of a new Leadbelly set
No proof but Possibly the Smithsonian Folkways set .....

Keith did a version of Irene on Xeyed Heart ...

I remember reading an interview where Keith said that his version of Irene, with the mention of morphine was based on the original lead belly before it got cleaning up by dropping the reference to the medical white powder.
Rockandroll,
Mops

Thanks for good info, Rockman and all....

My son recently visited Blind Willie McTell's grave near Thomsom, GA.

Hey Rockman, if you could, can you suggest the best CD various artist compilation of delta blues in your experience? Maybe up to and including Chicago blues after the migration. Could be one cd, or a set more likely.

And by "best" I mean not only how much you like it for the music but also the way the music was treated and is presented, how well it was transferred from original media, complete liner notes, stuff like that.

Big bonus points if whatever it is is also available on vinyl for a reasonable price.

Name it and Imma gonna find it.

jb

to jbwelda i don't know of a good set of the best but i have a 4 cd set of largley (as Far as i know) little known blues musicians called "When The Levee Breaks Mississippi Blues Rare Cuts 1926-1941" and it is awsome (and not that expensive)
not on vinyl though as far as i know
does anyone know of other sets like this that have obscure blues artist that didn't recorded many records (or don't have that many surviving records) and it be great if there isn't much repeats in regards to the same tracks as above set

thanks professor, will look into that.

jb

Heck jb... its been a long journey ....

Loved listening to fifties rock stuff with my
elder brother ... but then Stones kicked started
the search for so many other artists .. Those first
three --- The Rolling Stones -12x5 and Now ... like who's
Ellas McDaniel ... Mckinley Morganfield .... Reed ..Harpo ...

Ordered stuff from small local music shop but they
took weeks ta get stuff in so somehow talked guys a
few years older than me inta taking me to Melbourne ...
So many incredible record shops in those times .. and
they all had really good blues sections ....

Found Muddy's The Real Folk Blues and Johnsons King Of The
Delta Blues singers .... plus an Australian blues collector
had put out a bootleg of most of the the remaining Johnson
stuff long long before Columbia dropped the Vol.II album ......

Found Yazoo albums like Blind Willie McTell .... and
Mississippi Blues album that kicked off with Harvey
Hull's - Gang Of Brown Skin Women -- Couldnt believe
this stuff existed .... Bought whatever blues books/albums
around .... Discurio records Melbourne hidden away up
end of a lower floor arcade had two guys behind the counter
who knew their blues stuff ... got heaps of albums from them.

Really The Country Blues was a treasure ta find... Garfield Akers !!
Late 60's Paul Oliver's - The Story Of The Blues ...
who's Barbeque Bob .... Who's Tommy Johnson .....????

Columbia dropped Johnson's Vol.II with that great cover
art around 1970 ....Rounder records started
Just kept buying whatever blues stuff that was around

Charley Records kicked off mid ta late seventies and started
pouring out Sun and R&B stuff .... Small labels like Flyright
outta the UK were doing Louisiana/Excello stuff ... Amazing

Charley then got going and put out the MASSIVE 10 album
SUN RECORDS - Blues Box .... man was that revelation at the time ...
Later released as a 10 CD set by Bear Family

Bear Family SUN Country Years 10 vinyl set was just as amazing ...
Harmonica Frank ... Howard Seratt ... Ripley Cotton Choppers ..

Incredible Pre war blues albums started appearing out
Austria on labels like Wolf ... Matchbox ... RST ... HK records ....
AMAZING STUFF ... guitar guys like Bayless Rose ... William Moore ...

Then CD's hit and that opened a flood gate of so much stuff ....
Labels like Yazoo ... Columbia ....Chess.. ACE ... BearFamily etc ...
just poured stuff out ... Complete sets of guys like Jimmy Rodgers
Muddy Waters ... Wolf .... Elmore James .... Carters ... etc ..

Dunno where you start jb ... Depends what blues artists
you want to track down ... there's just so much
been released but hard ta find now in the record shops ...

Maybe comb through blues books and sites for what is
currently still out there ... The return to vinyl has killed
off most of those labels and their amazing reissue work ...

AND some of those labels that are still surviving have deleted
so much of their stuff from their catalogues

There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in blues stuff anymore
The remaining record stores lean towards stocking just
classic rock albums from sixties--- seventies ....

Sure there's blues albums reissued now and then
but you just dont get extensive liner notes bonus
tracks or complete recordings any more ...

Hope this helps in someway jb ....



ROCKMAN



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-02-03 05:27 by Rockman.

Hey Hey yeah ... Forgot about JSP label as Professor
has suggested ... you can buy directly from their site ....



ROCKMAN

That sounds a lot of my deep immersion into reggae music in the late 70s up to today. I know a lot of that stuff but appreciate the overview. What I really had in mind, and I may have asked you about this before, was if you had one stand out collection of delta blues that you pull out whenever anyone asks. Even a ten cd box or something like that, in current print or not. I have been listening to raw blues for quite a while but never really enough to get a grip on more obscure recordings. I should probably check out that Harry Smith B Sides and the original sets he curated. I have some of that scattered around but nothing organized.

I started getting more interested in this genre when I read a book about early recording of race artists. Then it occurred to me how much Mick's promo song Exile Blues, put out on the flexidisk included with NME or whatever it was sounds like an old blues 78. Crackles from the crap flexi pressing and all, it all fit together. Had never put that together before but made me love that little gem all the more. And it just increased my curiosity for music from when 78s were king and "race" music was pretty obscure and dangerous genre. Reading a book on Skip James and another on Muddy Waters increased my interest all the more. So now I find myself trying to make sense time and style wise of the roots of blues music.

Thanks again man and if you think of anything let me know. I already ordered the disks Professor recommended and just got the improved Robt Johnson set in the mail today.

jb

Just get these .........

Masters Of Delta Blues -- Yazoo 2002
The Best There Ever Was -- Yazoo 3002

Screamin' and Hollering the Blues - 7disc -- Revenant 212

American Epic -- 5disc -- Sony/Legacy



ROCKMAN

Awwwww yeah and get either one of these ....

Vinyl 10 LP set or later updated 10 CD set --- ESSENTIAL



ROCKMAN

Awwwww yeah and get this ---- ESSENTIAL



ROCKMAN

OK thanks again, that American Epic set, I noticed you mentioned it the other day, so it is the soundtrack to the PBS special on the blues or something? I also notice there is a "sessions" disk, what is that about? I think you implied it was multi disk set but the only ones i see at the moment seem to be 1 disk and called a "soundtrack".

Edit to add: now i see the five disk set of American Epic, plonked into my cart.

I got that Muddy Waters one on the short list, am checking some of your other recommendations. When someone of your stature says just get it, thats what i tend to do, star.

jb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-02-03 07:03 by jbwelda.

.... Go jb Go ...
nuffin like receiving some gifts to yaself in da mailbox .... Hhhhaaaaaa



ROCKMAN

Might as well, ain't no covid on those disks.

thanks again and if you got more I'm all ears, like Keef in 64.

jb

Re Charley Patton... the Revenant set is incredible. But it's insanely expensive. Unless you're loaded you're much better off opting for this:

Charley Patton & Associates - Complete Recordings 
JSP 7702  
5CDs, 92 tracks, 285 minutes

The packaging is bare bones. But I would argue that it sounds at least as good - and possibly better - than the Revenant set.  

I noticed that Screamin and Hollerin the Blues set was pretty expensive so I am glad to hear of an alternative. Give thanks timdog

jb

Yep Screamin and Hollering is expensive ...
Won a truck load of awards the year it was released ...



ROCKMAN

Just want to give a big thanks for this thread... I've been following & loving it.

Ol' Delta blues is the best & even though I've been into it for years, I have so much to learn yet.

I so appreciate the younger blues musicians doing their best in keeping the blues alive, but I really miss the old Delta blues sound. Was so lucky to see Muddy once & David Honeyboy Edwards & Pinetop Perkins numerous times. Buddy more times than I can even count (living in Chicago helps that a bit)! Would love to have seen Slim Harpo. So many others that I've seen & am drawing a blank on right now.

Hoping for a retirement trip down to the Mississippi Delta once things are safe.