Scrapper

Despite its similarity to other works such as "Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down," Big Bill Broonzy turns in another typically solid performance on "Mountain Blues," on which he is assisted by the expert accompaniment of Black Bob, a blues pianist who is largely a biographical blank. Broonzy also joins Cripple Clarence Lofton on the superb "Policy Blues," with the latter utilizing a "slow 'trucking' rhythm," according to booklet notes writers Stephen Calt and John Miller. The title of "When You Left" is a misinterpretation of the song's opening line "When you' left eye go to jumpin', you know something goin' on wrong." Confusion with the lyrics aside, the song is a fine pairing of brothers Bo Carter (nee Armenter Chatmon) and rarely recorded multi-instrumentalist Harry "Tie" Chatmon…

This wonderful set includes four discs, 100 tracks in all, of vintage blues 78s released between 1924 and 1942 compiled by collector and archivist Neil Slaven. Each of the four discs has a theme, with the first disc presenting songs about gambling (including Peg Leg Howell's harrowing and kinetic "Skin Game Blues"), the second covering alcohol and drugs (including Tommy Johnson's immortal "Canned Heat Blues"), the third playlisting songs about jail and prison (including Bukka White's powerful "Parchman Farm Blues"), and the fourth winds things up with songs about death (including Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"). Several of the sides here will be familiar to serious fans of prewar country blues, but there are enough rare sides here, too, to make this set an archival treasure, and the themed discs help sketch out the imagined (and sometimes very real) arc of many of these players' lives and times.

From the earthy guitar-driven country blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charley Patton to the sequined glamour of the classic blues singers Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, this Rough Guide charts the early recorded history of the blues through its key pioneers.