Scrapper

Named after the rough and ready bars where labourers gathered to drink and dance, barrelhouse was a raucous form of piano blues that got the juke joints swinging. From early pioneers such as Cow Cow Davenport and Speckled Red to the boogie-woogie legends Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons, this collection charts the rise and incredible influence of this good-time blues.

This 52 disc Ultimate Collection features music from the Delta to the Big Cities. This special first edition also includes a historic puck harmonica. How blue can you get? You will find your favorites here and discover some hidden gems, as the 'ABC of the Blues' brings together the best of the best.

The Prestige label is a byword in jazz circles, founded in 1948 by Bob Weinstock he launched a series of subsidiary labels buoyed by its unprecedented success. One of the more successful of those sister labels was Bluesville, which proceeded to release some truly legendary blues artists in the shape of Lightnin' Hopkins, Victoria Spivey and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Sometimes in acoustic settings and in others with full accompaniment the labels' roster shone brightly no matter how they were presented…

People living in the early 21st century would do well to consider complete immersion in more than an hour's worth of vintage Vocalion blues records made during the darkest days of the Great Depression by pianist Leroy Carr and guitarist Scrapper Blackwell. Vol. 4 in Document's Complete Recorded Works of Leroy Carr contains 23 sides dating from March 1932 through August 1934, with three takes of "Mean Mistreatin' Mama" (suffused with a mood that almost certainly inspired Big Maceo's sound) and an extra version of Carr's beautifully straightforward "Blues Before Sunrise." This is not a "get up and shake your butt" kind of collection, and anyone who complains that it isn't has missed the entire point of historic blues appreciation altogether…