Before the Blues - – The Early American Black (Vol 3) [1996]

01. MEMPHIS MINNIE,Frisco Town
02. MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT,Spike Drivers Blues
03. CANONN’S JUG STOMPERS,Feather Bed
04. HENRY THOMAS,Fox and the Hounds
05. BUSTER CARTER & PRESTON YOUNG,A Lazy Farmer Boy
06. LUKE JORDAN,Pick Poor Robin Clean
07. BOBBY GRANT,Nappy Head Blues
08. TAYLOR’S KENTUCKY BOYS,Sourwood Mountain
09. TEXAS ALEXANDER,Levee Camp Moan Blues            play
10. EVANS & MCCLAIN,John Henry Blues
11. BIDDLEVILLE QUINTETTE,Coming to Christ
12. CLARENCE ASHLEY,House Carpenter
13. LIL MCCLINTOCK,Furniture Man
14. COW COW DAVENPORT,Alabama Strut
15. FURRY LEWIS,Kassie Jones (Part 1)                play
16. BLIND BOY FULLER,Thousand Woman Blues
17. BLIND BLAKE,Champaign Charlie Is My Name
18. MOSES MASON,Molly Man
19. FRANK STOKES,Chicken You Can Roost Behind The Moon
20. JOHN HAMMOND,Little Birdie
21. BARBECUE BOB,Black Skunk Blues
22. COLEY JONES,Drunkard’s Special
23. BLUE BOYS,Easy Winner

Before the blues? If you take Webster’s first definition–”Low spirits: melancholy”–well, then we’re not talking pre-W.C. Handy. We’re going back to Eve and the Apple. But, for Yazoo’s three-disc Before the Blues series, it’s safe to assume the anthologists worked off of the second definition: “A song of lamentation characterized by 12-bar phrases [and] 3-line stanzas in which the words of the second stanza repeat those of the first, and continual occurrence of blues hones in melody and harmony.” That works. The 23-song first set in the series offers up a vastly entertaining assortment of rags, breakdowns, and shuffles. Some names may ring a bell with noncollectors (Henry Thomas, Mississippi John Hurt), and a few tunes have become a part of America’s musical landscape (notably the eerie “Pretty Polly”). Most of what’s found here, however, is unfamiliar, and fascinating.

download:     uploaded ziddu 26G

back