VA ABC of the Blues: The Ultimate Collection from the Delta to the Big Cities
(Discs 1-6 of 52 CD Box Set)
Label: Membran.
Format : Flac
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. That said, along with all the well-known acts are some startling -- and wonderfully considered -- selections by Magic Sam, Barbeque Bob, Professor Longhair, Jimmy Witherspoon, and many others.
Disc 1
Kokomo Arnold
Born as James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, he got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana. A left-handed slide guitarist, his ...intense slide style of playing and rapid-fire vocal style set him apart from his contemporaries.
01 Kokomo Arnold - Backfence Picket Blues
02 Kokomo Arnold - Fool Man Blues
03 Kokomo Arnold - Long and Tall
04 Kokomo Arnold - Sally Dog
05 Kokomo Arnold - Cold Winter Blues
06 Kokomo Arnold - Sister Jane Cross the Hall
07 Kokomo Arnold - Wild Water Blues
08 Kokomo Arnold - Laugh and Grin Blues
09 Kokomo Arnold - Mean Old Twister
10 Kokomo Arnold - Red Beans and Rice
Billy Boy Arnold
Born in Chicago, he began playing harmonica as a child, and in 1948 received informal lessons from his near neighbour John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, shortly before the latter's death. Arnold made his recording debut in 1952 with "Hello Stranger" on the small Cool label, the record company giving him the nickname "Billy Boy".In the early 1950s, he joined forces with street musician Bo Diddley and played harmonica on the March 2, 1955 recording of the Bo Diddley song "I'm a Man" released by Checker Records. The same day as the Bo Diddley sessions, Billy Boy recorded the self-penned "You Got to Love Me" which was not released until the box set, Chess Blues 1947-1967, in 1992.
11 Billy Boy Arnold - My Heart Is Crying
12 Billy Boy Arnold - I Wish You Would
13 Billy Boy Arnold - I Ain't Got You
14 Billy Boy Arnold - Here's My Picture
15 Billy Boy Arnold - You Got Me Wrong
16 Billy Boy Arnold - Prisoner's Plea
17 Billy Boy Arnold - Every Day, Every Night
18 Billy Boy Arnold - No, No, No, No, No
19 Billy Boy Arnold - Rockinitis
20 Billy Boy Arnold - I Was Fooled
Disc 2
Richard Berry
Richard Berry (April 11, 1935 – January 23, 1997) was an African American singer, songwriter and musician, who performed with many Los Angeles doo-wop and close harmony groups in the 1950s, including The Flairs and The Robins.
He is best known as the composer and original performer of the rock standard "Louie Louie". The song went on to be a hit for The Kingsmen becoming one of the most recorded songs of all time, however Berry received little financial benefit for writing it until the 1980s, having signed away his rights to the song in 1959.
01 Richard Berry - Louie, Louie
02 Richard Berry - Sweet Sugar You
03 Richard Berry - You Look So Good
04 Richard Berry - Mess Around
05 Richard Berry - No Room
06 Richard Berry - I Want You to Be My Girl
07 Richard Berry - I'm Your Fool
08 Richard Berry - Walk Right In
09 Richard Berry - Give It Up
10 Richard Berry - Have Love, Will Travel
Barbecue Bob
Robert Hicks, better known as Barbecue Bob (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931) was an early American Piedmont blues musician. He was born in Walnut Grove, Georgia. He and his brother, Charlie Hicks, together with Curley Weaver, were taught how to play the guitar by Curley's mother, Savannah "Dip" Weaver.[1] Bob began playing the 6-string guitar but picked up the 12-string guitar after moving to Atlanta, Georgia in 1923–1924. He became one of the prominent performers of the newly developing early Atlanta blues style.
In Atlanta, Hicks worked a variety of jobs, playing music on the side. While working at Tidwells' Barbecue in a north Atlanta suburb, Hicks came to the attention of Columbia Records talent scout Dan Hornsby. Hornsby recorded him and decided to use Hicks's job as a gimmick, having him pose in chef's whites and hat for publicity photos and dubbing him "Barbecue Bob".
11 Barbecue Bob - Yo Yo Blues
12 Barbecue Bob - California Blues
13 Barbecue Bob - Motherless Chiles Blues
14 Barbecue Bob - She's Coming Back Some Cold Rainy Day
15 Barbecue Bob - Barbecue Blues
16 Barbecue Bob - Ease It to Me Blues
17 Barbecue Bob - Chocolate to the Bone
18 Barbecue Bob - Good Time Rounder
19 Barbecue Bob - Atlanta Moan
20 Barbecue Bob - Diddle-Da-Diddle
Disc 3
Bobby "Blue" Bland
Robert Calvin Bland (born January 27, 1930) better known as Bobby "Blue" Bland, is an American singer of blues and soul. He is an original member of the Beale Streeters, and is sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues". Along with such artists as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and Junior Parker, Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B.
Bobby Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
01 Bobby "Blue" Bland - It's My Life, Baby
02 Bobby "Blue" Bland - Honey Bee
03 Bobby "Blue" Bland - Lost Lover Blues
04 Bobby "Blue" Bland - Time Out
05 Bobby "Blue" Bland - Million Miles from Nowhere
06 Bobby "Blue" Bland - You've Got Bad Intentions
07 Bobby "Blue" Bland - I Don't Believe
08 Bobby "Blue" Bland - You Did Me Wrong
09 Bobby "Blue" Bland - Last Night
10 Bobby "Blue" Bland - Wise Man's Blues
Charles Brown
Charles Brown (September 13, 1922 – January 21, 1999), born in Texas City, Texas was an American blues singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced the development of blues performance during the 1940s and 1950s. He had several hit recordings, including "Driftin' Blues" and "Merry Christmas Baby".
In the late 1940s a rising demand for blues was driven by an increasing white teenage audience in the South which quickly spread north and west. Blues shouters got the attention, but also greatly influential was what writer Charles Keil dubs "the postwar Texas clean-up movement in blues" led by stylists such as T-Bone Walker, Amos Milburn and Charles Brown. Their singing was lighter, more relaxed and they worked with bands and combos that had saxophone sections and used arrangements.
11 Charles Brown - Driftin' Blues
12 Charles Brown - Trouble Blues
13 Charles Brown - In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down
14 Charles Brown - Get Yourself Another Fool
15 Charles Brown - Black Night
16 Charles Brown - Hard Times
17 Charles Brown - Cryin' Mercy
18 Charles Brown - Evening Shadows
19 Charles Brown - Fool's Paradise
20 Charles Brown - Merry Christmas, Baby
Disc 4
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (April 18, 1924 — September 10, 2005) was an American musician from Louisiana and Texas. He is best known for his work as a blues musician, but embraced other styles of music, having "spent his career fighting purism by synthesizing old blues, country, jazz, Cajun music and R&B styles"
He was an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, who played an array of musical instruments such as guitar, fiddle, mandolin, viola as well as harmonica and drums. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1982 for his album, Alright Again! He is regarded as one of the most influential exponents of blues fiddle and has had enormous influence in American fiddle circles.Brown's two biggest musical influences were Louis Jordan and T-Bone Walker.
01 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Midnight Hour
02 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Ain't That Dandy
03 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Dirty Work at the Crossroads
04 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Hurry Back Good News
05 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Okie Dokie Stomp
06 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Sad Hour
07 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Gate's Salty Blues
08 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Just Before Dawn
09 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Depression Blues
10 Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - For Now So Long
Blue Lu Barker
Blue Lu Barker (November 13, 1913 – May 7, 1998 ) was an American jazz and blues singer. Her better known recordings included "Don't You Feel My Leg" and "Look What Baby's Got For You." She was born Louisa Dupont, in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States,[2] and often sang and performed with her husband Danny Barker, a regular of the New Orleans music scene.
The recording of "A Little Bird Told Me" by Barker was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 15308. It first reached the Billboard chart on 31 December 1948 and lasted five weeks on the chart, peaking at #16.Barker was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame in 1997, one year before she died in New Orleans at the age of 84
11 Blue Lu Barker - Trombone Man Blues
12 Blue Lu Barker - Here's a Little Girl
13 Blue Lu Barker - A Little Bird Told Me
14 Blue Lu Barker - What Did You Do to Me?
15 Blue Lu Barker - Leave My Man Alone
16 Blue Lu Barker - Now You're Down in the Alley
17 Blue Lu Barker - When the Wagon Comes
18 Blue Lu Barker - Loan Me Your Husband
19 Blue Lu Barker - Bow Legged Daddy
20 Blue Lu Barker - Love That Man
Disc 5
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy (June 26, 1903 – August 15, 1958 ) was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century.
Broonzy copyrighted more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including both adaptations of traditional folk songs and original blues songs. As a blues composer, he was unique in that his compositions reflected the many vantage points of his rural-to-urban experiences.
01 Big Bill Broonzy - Mississippi River Blues
02 Big Bill Broonzy - Long Tall Mama
03 Big Bill Broonzy -Worrying You Off My Mind(Part 1)
04 Big Bill Broonzy - Rising Sun Shine On
05 Big Bill Broonzy - Come Home Early
06 Big Bill Broonzy - Good Jelly
07 Big Bill Broonzy - Bull Cow Blues
08 Big Bill Broonzy - I Can't Make You Satisfied
09 Big Bill Broonzy - How You Want It Done
10 Big Bill Broonzy - Hattie Blues
Scrapper Blackwell
Francis Hillman "Scrapper" Blackwell (February 21, 1903[1] – October 7, 1962[2]) was an American blues guitarist and singer; best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was an acoustic single-note picker in the Chicago blues and Piedmont blues style, with some critics noting that he veered towards jazz.
11 Scrapper Blackwell - Kokomo Blues
Blind Blake
"Blind" Blake (born Arthur Blake; 1896, Newport News, Virginia – December 1, 1934, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) was an American blues and ragtime singer and guitarist.
Blind Blake recorded about 80 tracks for Paramount Records from 1926 to 1932.[2] He was one of the most accomplished guitarists of his genre with a surprisingly diverse range of material. He is best known for his distinct guitar sound that was comparable in sound and style to a ragtime piano. Little is known about his life. His birthplace was listed as Jacksonville, Florida, by Paramount Records but that is not firmly established. On one recording he slipped into a Geechee dialect, prompting speculation that he was from the Georgia coastal region. Nothing is definitely known of his death and even his name is not certain. According to one source, his real name was Arthur Phelps, although concrete evidence for this claim is lacking. The "Phelps" name theory was entirely based on a response given by Blind Willie McTell in an interview conducted in 1955 in Atlanta, where Blake has never been reported; nor did McTell ever reside in Chicago. Recent research has discovered that many of Blind Blake's recordings were copyrighted under the name 'Arthur Blake'.
12 Blind Blake - Come On Boys, Let's Do That Messin' Around
13 Blind Blake - Hard Pushin' Papa
14 Blind Blake - Skeedle Loo Doo Blues
15 Blind Blake - Georgia Bound
16 Blind Blake - Too Tight Blues, No. 2
17 Blind Blake - Diddie Wah Diddie
18 Blind Blake - Southern Rag
19 Blind Blake - C.C. Pill Blues
20 Blind Blake - Rope Stretching Blues, Pt.1
Disc 6
Champion Jack Dupree
Champion Jack Dupree was the embodiment of the New Orleans blues and boogie woogie pianist, a barrelhouse "professor". His father was from the Belgian Congo and his mother was part African American and Cherokee. He was orphaned at the age of two, and sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs (also the alma mater of Louis Armstrong).
He taught himself piano there and later apprenticed with Tuts Washington and Willie Hall, whom he called his 'father' and from whom he learned "Junker's Blues". He was also "spy boy" for the Yellow Pochahantas tribe of Mardi Gras Indians and soon began playing in barrelhouses and other drinking establishments.
As a young man he began his life of travelling, living in Chicago, where he worked with Georgia Tom, and in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he met Scrapper Blackwell and Leroy Carr. Whilst he was always playing piano, he also worked as a cook, and in Detroit he met Joe Louis, who encouraged him to become a boxer. He ultimately fought in 107 bouts, winning Golden Gloves and other championships and picking up the nickname 'Champion Jack', which he used the rest of his life.
01 Champion Jack Dupree - Strollin'
02 Champion Jack Dupree - T.B. Blues
03 Champion Jack Dupree - Can't Kick the Habit
04 Champion Jack Dupree - Evil Woman
05 Champion Jack Dupree - Nasty Boogie
06 Champion Jack Dupree - Junker's Blues
07 Champion Jack Dupree - Bad Blood
08 Champion Jack Dupree - Goin' Down Slow
09 Champion Jack Dupree - Frankie & Johnny
10 Champion Jack Dupree - Stack-O-Lee
Cousin Joe
Cousin Joe (December 20, 1907 — October 2, 1989) was an American blues and jazz singer, later famous for his 1940s recordings with clarinetist Sidney Bechet and saxophonist Mezz Mezzrow.
His birth name was Pleasant Joseph and he was born in Wallace, Louisiana, United States. He died in his sleep from natural causes in New Orleans, at the age of 81.
11 Cousin Joe - Fly Hen Blues
12 Cousin Joe - Little Eva
13 Cousin Joe - Lightning Struck the Poorhouse
14 Cousin Joe - Baby You Don't Know at All
15 Cousin Joe - The Barefoot Baby
16 Cousin Joe - Box Car Shorty and Peter Blue
17 Cousin Joe - Beggin' Woman
18 Cousin Joe - Sadie Brown
19 Cousin Joe - Evolution Blues
20 Cousin Joe - Box Car Shorty's Confession
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