Old Town Blues

Vol.1  Downtown Sides
1 	Uncle Bud 	McGhee, Terry 	2:20
2 	Climbing on Top of the Hill 	McGhee, Terry 	3:04
3 	Sweet Sweet Woman 	McGhee, Terry 	2:38
4 	Evil Hearted Woman 	Wayne 	3:44
5 	Rock Reel Rock 	Wayne 	2:33
6 	Where You Been 	Wayne 	2:48
7 	True Blues 	Wayne 	3:02
8 	Slidin' 	McGhee, Terry 	2:36
9 	Crazy About You Baby 	McGhee, Terry 	2:54
10 	Chicken Hop  	Bland, McGhee, Terry 	2:09
11 	I Need a Woman 	McGhee, Terry 	3:08
12 	Playboy 	Little Willie 	2:29					play
13 	Sweet Little Girl 	Little Willie 	2:39
14 	Hard Luck Baby 	Little Willie 	2:46
15 	Work Out 	Little Willie 	2:19					play
16 	Love's a Disease 	McGhee, Terry 	2:40
17 	She Loves So Easy 	McGhee, Terry 	2:44
18 	Confusion 	McGhee, Terry 	3:06
19 	Reap What You Sow 	McGhee, Terry 	2:28
20 	The Things That I Used to Do 	Gaddy 	4:31
21 	Could I, Would I 	Dixon 	2:13
22 	Ugly Girls 	Dixon 	1:57

Twenty-two blues tracks recorded in the 1950s for New York's Old Town label, most of which were unissued at the time. The core of this anthology is the 11 songs by Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, who do electrified city blues with an audible influence from Chicago performers like Bo Diddley and Jimmy Reed. It's not the style they're most renowned for, perhaps, but the results are pretty good. The rest of the CD is a hodgepodge of miscellany, including decent raw electric blues from James Wayne, fairly anonymous sides by Little Willie and Bob Gaddy, and a couple of rare Willie Dixon items from an unissued acetate of demos. --- Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com

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Vol.2  Uptown Sides
1 	Guitar Shuffle 	Wailers 	2:50
2 	Rock the Joint This Morning 	Paige 	2:45
3 	My Angel Child 	Paige 	2:57
4 	Guitar Blues 	Paige 	3:00
5 	Ursula's Blues 	Reed 	2:27					play
6 	Fool About the Man I Love 	Reed 	2:21
7 	Have a Good Time Baby 	Reed 	2:38
8 	You're Laughing 'Cause I'm Crying 	Reed 	3:19
9 	You Got My Nose Wide Open 	Tarheel Slim & Little Ann 	2:40
10 	Down to the River 	Young 	1:45
11 	Big Muddy 	Dale 	2:24
12 	What Your Love Means to Me 	Dale 	2:17
13 	Let Your Love Run to Me 	Dale 	2:41
14 	Let the Door Bell Ring 	Dale 	2:34
15 	Burning in Pain 	Adams Brothers 	1:52			play
16 	Storming and Raining Blues 	Baker 	2:57
17 	I Got to Talk to Somebody 	Johnson, Johnson 	2:41
18 	Keep on Lovin' You 	Johnson, Johnson 	2:32
19 	Like You Do 	Johnson, Johnson 	2:33
20 	Don't Be Messin' with My Man 	Johnson, Johnson 	2:37
21 	Slow Drag (Day Train) 	Moore 	2:53
22 	Big Muddy 	Dale 	2:35
23 	What Your Love Means to Me 	Dale 	2:26

A grab bag of blues sides with a strong R&B influence, recorded for New York's Old Town label between the mid-'50s and mid-'60s. This is aimed squarely at the blues collector/completist: there's nothing especially inept about these sides, but nothing especially captivating either. Nor is there a strong stylistic or instrumental thread connecting the tracks. It's period stuff, by obscure artists like Hal Paige, Ursula Reed, Lester Young (not the jazz great!), Larry Dale, and Sam Baker; Wild Bill Moore and Buddy & Ella Johnson, represented by some of their least known work, are the most recognizable of the bunch. --- Richie Unterberger, allmusic.com

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