The complete Checker singles 1955-62 plus the classic LP 'Down And Out Blues'. Sonny Boy Williamson was an enigma in the modern blues world of the early 1960s, a real true example of the travelling blues man who rambled and hoboed across America playing music, gambling, womanising and drinking heavily along the way. 26 tracks including all 12 titles from the classic 'Down And Out Blues' albums which reach No. 20 in the UK charts. Herein are gems such as "One Way Out", "Fattening Frogs For Snakes" and as the title of this collection suggests the hit "Don't Start Me Talkin'" which has been covered by The Doobie Brothers, Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher and even the New York Dolls. Session musicians include Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Jimmy Rogers, Willie Dixon and more.
40 CD box set. Artists include John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson, Leadbelly, Big Bill Broonzy, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Mississippi John Hurt, Memphis Minnie, John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Williams and many more. 725 tracks all digitally remastered to enhance the original recordings without manipulating the character of the music. Recordings made between 1923 and 1948. 20 double slimline jewel cases housed together in a cardboard box.
This 52-disc (no, that is not a typo) comp, ABC of the Blues: The Ultimate Collection from the Delta to the Big Cities, may just indeed live up to its name. There are 98 artists represented , performing 1,040 tracks. The music begins at the beginning (though the set is not sequenced chronologically) with Charlie Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson, and moves all the way through the vintage Chicago years of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, with stops along the way in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, New York, and all points in between. Certainly, some of these artists are considered more rhythm & blues than purely blues artists: the inclusion of music by Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Bo Diddley, and others makes that clear.
Recorded between the mid-'50s and mid-'60s, most of this electric blues and R&B was laid down at Mira Smith's studio in Shreveport, LA, appearing on tiny labels like Ram, Jo, Clif, Speed, and Red River; a dozen of the tracks were previously unreleased. This is pretty tenuous ground for a compilation, and it should be pointed out that Smith also recorded some other styles in her studio that are not represented here; also, the disc is filled out by five cuts done elsewhere in Shreveport by Jesse Thomas in the early '60s. Nonetheless, it's a pretty fair collection of early electric Louisiana blues, TV Slim the only name likely to evince even faint recognition from most collectors.
The Vintage Blues Box is a carefully planned journey around the blues world of the 1920s, '30s and '40s. Listeners who take their seat in Big Bill Broonzy's rockin' chair are booked for a ride across the American South, from the Carolinas throungh Mississipi to Texas, then north to Chicago…