VA ABC of the Blues: The Ultimate Collection from the Delta to the Big Cities
(Discs 41-46 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 41
Roosevelt Sykes
Roosevelt Sykes (January 31, 1906 – July 17, 1983) was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie was highly influential.
Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on the road playing piano with a barrelhouse style of blues. Like many bluesmen of his time, he travelled around playing to all-male audiences in sawmill, turpentine and levee camps along the Mississippi River, gathering a repertoire of raw, sexually explicit material. His wanderings eventually brought him to St. Louis, Missouri, where he met St. Louis Jimmy Oden. In 1929 he was spotted by a talent scout and sent to New York to record for Okeh Records. His first release was "'44' Blues" which became a blues standard and his trademark. He quickly began recording for multiple labels under various names including 'Easy Papa Johnson', 'Dobby Bragg' and 'Willie Kelly'. After he and Oden moved to Chicago he found his first period of fame when he signed with Decca Records in 1934. In 1943, he signed with Bluebird Records and recorded with 'The Honeydrippers'. In Chicago, Sykes began to display an increasing urbanity in his lyric-writing, using an eight-bar blues pop gospel structure instead of the traditional twelve-bar blues. However, despite the growing urbanity of his outlook, he gradually became less competitive in the post-World War II music scene. After his RCA Victor contract expired, he continued to record for smaller labels, such as United, until his opportunities ran out in the mid 1950s. Roosevelt left Chicago in 1954 for New Orleans as electric blues was taking over the Chicago blues clubs. When he returned to recording in the 1960s it was for labels such as Delmark, Bluesville, Storyville and Folkways that were documenting the quickly passing blues history.
01 Roosevelt Sykes - 44 Blues
02 Roosevelt Sykes - Under Eyed Woman
03 Roosevelt Sykes - Knock Me Out
04 Roosevelt Sykes - Trouble and Whiskey
05 Roosevelt Sykes - Sykes Advice Blues
06 Roosevelt Sykes - Training Camp Blues
07 Roosevelt Sykes - Sugar Babe Blues
08 Roosevelt Sykes - Jiving the Jive
09 Roosevelt Sykes - Little Sam
10 Roosevelt Sykes - The Honeydripper
Son House
Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. (March 21, 1902 – October 19, 1988 ) was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music. House did not learn guitar until he was in his early twenties, as he had been "churchified", and was determined to become a Baptist preacher. He associated himself with Delta blues musicians Charlie Patton and Willie Brown, often acting as a sideman. In 1930, House made his first recordings for Paramount Records during a session for Charlie Patton. However, these did not sell well due to the Great Depression, and he drifted into obscurity. He was recorded by John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941 and '42. Afterwards, he moved north to Rochester, New York, where he remained until his rediscovery in 1964, spurred by the American folk blues revival. Over the next few years, House recorded several studio albums and went on various tours until his death in 1988. His influence has extended over a wide area of musicians, including Robert Johnson, John Hammond, Alan Wilson (of Canned Heat), Bonnie Raitt, The White Stripes, and John Mooney.
11 - Am I Right or Wrong
12 Son House - The Pony Blues
13 Son House - Walkin' Blues
14 Son House - Depot Blues
15 Son House - Country Farm Blues
16 Son House - The Jinx Blues
17 Son House - Levee Camp Blues
18 Son House - Special Rider Blues
19 Son House - Low Down Dirty Dog Blues
20 Son House - American Defense
Disc 42
Sunnyland Slim
Sunnyland Slim was born on a farm in Quitman County, near Vance, Mississippi (some sources erroneously give this date as 1907).He moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1925, where he performed with many of the popular blues musicians of the day. His stage name came from a song he composed about the Sunnyland train that ran between Memphis and St. Louis, Missouri. In 1942 he followed the great migration of southern workers to the industrial north in Chicago. At that time the electric blues was taking shape there, and through the years Sunnyland Slim played with such musicians as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Lockwood, Jr., and Little Walter. His piano style is characterised by heavy basses or vamping chords in the left hand and tremolos with his right. His voice was loud and he sang in a declamatory style.Sunnyland Slim's first recording was as a singer with Jump Jackson's band on the Specialty label in September 1946. His first recordings as a leader were on the Hy-Tone and Aristocrat labels in late 1947. Slim continued performing until his death in 1995.
01 Sunnyland Slim - Mud Kicking Woman
02 Sunnyland Slim - Brown Skin Woman
03 Sunnyland Slim - I'm Just a Lonesome Man
04 Sunnyland Slim - Back to Korea Now
05 Sunnyland Slim - You've Got to Stop This Mess
06 Sunnyland Slim - Sunnyland Special
07 Sunnyland Slim - Leaving Your Town
08 Sunnyland Slim - I Done You Wrong
09 Sunnyland Slim - Orphan Boy Blues
10 Sunnyland Slim - When I Was Young (Shake It Baby)
11 Sunnyland Slim - Hit the Road Again
Johnny Shines
Johnny Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992)[1] was an American blues singer and guitarist. According to the music journalist Tony Russell, "Shines was that rare being, a blues artist who overcame age and rustiness to make music that stood up beside the work of his youth. When Shines came back to the blues in 1965 he was 50, yet his voice had the leonine power of a dozen years before, when he made records his reputation was based on".
12 Johnny Shines - Ramblin'
13 Johnny Shines - Fishtail
14 Johnny Shines - Cool Drive
15 Johnny Shines - Ain't Doin' No Good
16 Johnny Shines - Evening Shuffle
17 Johnny Shines - Evening Sun
18 Johnny Shines - No Name Blues
19 Johnny Shines - Brutal Hearted Woman
20 Johnny Shines - Gonna Call the Angel
Disc 43
Big Mama Thornton
Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984) was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953.[2] The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million copies.[3] Three years later, Elvis Presley recorded his version, based on a version performed by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. In a similar occurrence, she wrote and recorded "Ball 'n' Chain," which became a hit for her. Janis Joplin later recorded "Ball and Chain," and was a huge success in the late 1960s.
01 Big Mama Thornton - Partnership Blues
02 Big Mama Thornton - I'm All Fed Up
03 Big Mama Thornton - Let Your Tears Fall Baby
04 Big Mama Thornton - They Call Me Big Mama
05 Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
06 Big Mama Thornton - Walking Blues
07 Big Mama Thornton - I've Searched the World Over
08 Big Mama Thornton - I Smell a Rat
09 Big Mama Thornton - Nightmare
10 Big Mama Thornton - I Ain't No Fool Neither
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Sister Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and recording artist. A one-of-a-kind pioneer of 20th-century music, Tharpe attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings that were a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and early rock and roll accompaniment. As the first recording artist to impact the music charts with her spiritual recordings, Tharpe became the first superstar of gospel music and also became known as "the original soul sister." She was a treasured early influence on iconic figures such as Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Johnny Cash.Willing to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her inspirational music of 'light' in the 'darkness' of the nightclubs and concert halls with big bands behind her, Tharpe's witty, idiosyncratic style also left a lasting mark on more conventional gospel artists, such as Ira Tucker, Sr., of the Dixie Hummingbirds. While she offended some conservative churchgoers with her forays into the world of pop music, she never left gospel music.
11 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Let That Liar Alone
12 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Sit Down
13 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - What's the News
14 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Singin' in My Soul
15 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - The Natural Facts
16 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Two Little Fishes and Five Loaves of Bread
17 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Nobody's Fault but Mine
18 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Nobody Knows, Nobody Cares
19 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - All Over This World
20 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Four or Five Times
Disc 44
Sonny Terry
Sonny Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia. His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes and lost his sight by the time he was 16, which prevented him from doing farm work himself. In order to earn a living Terry was forced to play music. He began playing in Shelby, North Carolina. After his father died he began playing in the trio of Piedmont blues-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. When Fuller died in 1941, he established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and the pair recorded numerous songs together. The duo became well-known among white audiences, as they joined the growing folk movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This included collaborations with Styve Homnick, Woody Guthrie and Moses Asch, producing Folkways Records (now Smithsonian/Folkways) classic recordings.
In 1938 Terry was invited to play at Carnegie Hall for the first From Spirituals to Swing concert, and later that year he recorded for the Library of Congress. In 1940 Terry recorded his first commercial sides. Some of his most famous works include "Old Jabo" a song about a man bitten by a snake and "Lost John" in this he demonstrates his amazing breath control .Despite their fame as "pure" folk artists, in the 1940s, Terry and McGhee fronted a jump blues combo with honking saxophone and rolling piano that was variously called Brownie McGhee and his Jook House Rockers or Sonny Terry and his Buckshot Five.
01 Sonny Terry - Bye Bye Baby Blues
02 Sonny Terry - I Don't Care How Long
03 Sonny Terry - Blues and Worried Man
04 Sonny Terry - Harmonica Blues
05 Sonny Terry - Somebody's Been Talkin'
06 Sonny Terry - Harmonica Stomp
07 Sonny Terry - Twelve Gates to the City
08 Sonny Terry - You Got to Have Your Dollar
09 Sonny Terry - Don't Want No Skinny Woman
10 Sonny Terry - Blowing the Blues
Eddie Taylor
Born Edward Taylor in Benoit, Mississippi, United States, as a boy Taylor taught himself to play the guitar. He spent his early years playing at venues around Leland, Mississippi, where he taught his friend Jimmy Reed to play guitar. With a guitar style deeply rooted in the Mississippi Delta tradition, in 1949 Taylor moved to Chicago, Illinois.
While Taylor never achieved the stardom of some of his compatriots in the Chicago blues scene, he nevertheless was an integral part of that era. He is especially noted as a main accompanist for Jimmy Reed, as well as working with John Lee Hooker, Big Walter Horton, Sam Lay and others.[3] Taylor's own records "Big Town Playboy" and "Bad Boy" on Vee Jay Records became local hits in the 1950s. Taylor's son Eddie Taylor Jr. is a blues guitarist in Chicago, his stepson Larry Taylor is a blues drummer and vocalist, and his daughter Demetria is a blues vocalist in Chicago. Taylor's wife Vera was the niece of bluesmen Eddie "Guitar" Burns and Jimmy Burns.
11 Eddie Taylor - Bad Boy
12 Eddie Taylor - Big Town Playboy
13 Eddie Taylor - Find My Baby
14 Eddie Taylor - Stroll Out West
15 Eddie Taylor - E.T. Blues
16 Eddie Taylor - Don't Knock at My Door
17 Eddie Taylor - I'm Gonna Love You
18 Eddie Taylor - Leave This Neighborhood
19 Eddie Taylor - I'm Sitting Here
20 Eddie Taylor - Ride'em On Down
Disc 45
Big Joe Turner
Known variously as The Boss of the Blues, and Big Joe Turner (due to his 6'2", 300+ lbs stature), Turner was born in Kansas City and first discovered his love of music through involvement in the church. Turner's father was killed in a train accident when Joe was only four years old. He began singing on street corners for money, leaving school at age fourteen to begin working in Kansas City's nightclub scene, first as a cook, and later as a singing bartender. He eventually became known as The Singing Barman, and worked in such venues as The Kingfish Club and The Sunset, where he and his piano playing partner Pete Johnson became resident performers.[2] The Sunset was managed by Piney Brown. It featured "separate but equal" facilities for white patrons. Turner wrote "Piney Brown Blues" in his honor and sang it throughout his entire career.
At that time Kansas City was a wide-open town run by "Boss" Tom Pendergast. Despite this, the clubs were subject to frequent raids by the police, but as Turner recounts, "The Boss man would have his bondsmen down at the police station before we got there. We'd walk in, sign our names and walk right out. Then we would cabaret until morning".
01 Big Joe Turner - Blues in the Night
02 Big Joe Turner - Sun Risin' Blues
03 Big Joe Turner - S.K. Blues Part 1
04 Big Joe Turner - Nobody in Mind
05 Big Joe Turner - Blues on Central Avenue
06 Big Joe Turner - Ice Man
07 Big Joe Turner - Cry Baby Blues
08 Big Joe Turner - Rebecca
09 Big Joe Turner - It's the Same Old Story
10 Big Joe Turner - Chewed Up Grass
Eddie Cleanhead Vinson
Vinson was born in Houston, Texas. He was a member of the horn section in Milton Larkin's orchestra, which he joined in the late 1930s. At various times, he sat next to Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, and Tom Archia, while other members of the band included Cedric Haywood and Wild Bill Davis. After exiting Larkin's employment in 1941, Vinson picked up a few vocal tricks while on tour with bluesman Big Bill Broonzy. He then moved to New York and joined the Cootie Williams Orchestra from 1942 to 1945, recording such tunes as "Cherry Red". Vinson struck out on his own in 1945, forming his own large band, signing with Mercury Records, and enjoying a double-sided hit in 1947 with his R&B chart-topper "Old Maid Boogie", and the song that would prove to be his signature number, "Kidney Stew Blues".
Vinson's jazz leanings were probably heightened during 1952-1953, when his band included a young John Coltrane. In the late 1960s, touring in a strict jazz capacity with Jay McShann, Vinson's career took an upswing. In the early 1960s Vinson moved to Los Angeles and began working with the Johnny Otis Revue. A 1970 appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Otis spurred a bit of a comeback for Vinson. Throughout the 1970s he worked high-profile blues and jazz sessions for Count Basie, Johnny Otis, Roomful of Blues, Arnett Cobb, and Buddy Tate. He also composed steadily, including "Tune Up" and "Four", both of which have been incorrectly attributed to Miles Davis.[4] Vinson recorded extensively during his fifty-odd year career and performed regularly in Europe and the U.S.
11 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - Too Many Women Blues
12 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - Just a Dream
13 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - King for a Day Blues
14 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - Railroad Porter's Blues
15 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - Gonna Send You Back Where I Got You From
16 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - When I Get Drunk
17 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - Oil Man Blues
18 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - Ever-Ready Blue
19 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - I've Been So Good
20 Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - Bonus Pay
Disc 46
T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound.[1] He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the electric guitar.[2] In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked him at #47 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time"
01 T-Bone Walker - They Call It Stormy Monday
02 T-Bone Walker - It's a Low Down Dirty Deal
03 T-Bone Walker - Bobby Sox Blues
04 T-Bone Walker - Mean Old World
05 T-Bone Walker - Evening
06 T-Bone Walker - Long Skirt Baby Blues
07 T-Bone Walker - Midnight Blues
08 T-Bone Walker - I'm Still in Love with You
09 T-Bone Walker - Low Down Dirty Shame (Married Woman Blues)
10 T-Bone Walker - T-Bone Jumps Again
Jimmy Witherspoon
James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas.[2] He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford's band in Calcutta, India, which made regular radio broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II. Witherspoon made his first records with Jay McShann's band in 1945. In 1949, recording under his own name with the McShann band, he had his first hit, "Ain't Nobody's Business,"[2] a song which came to be regarded as his signature tune. In 1950 he had hits with two more songs closely identified with him: "No Rollin' Blues", "Big Fine Girl", as well as "Failing By Degrees" and "New Orleans Woman" recorded with the Gene Gilbeaux Orchestra which included Herman Washington and Don Hill on the Modern Records label. These were recorded from a live performance on May 10, 1949 at a "Just Jazz" concert Pasadena, CA sponsored by Gene Norman. Another classic Witherspoon composition is "Times Gettin' Tougher Than Tough". Witherspoon's style of blues - that of the "blues shouter" - became unfashionable in the mid-1950s, but he returned to popularity with his 1959 album, Jimmy Witherspoon at the Monterey Jazz Festival, which featured Roy Eldridge, Woody Herman, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Earl Hines and Mel Lewis, among others. He later recorded with Gerry Mulligan, Leroy Vinnegar, Richard "Groove" Holmes and T-Bone Walker
11 Jimmy Witherspoon - I'm Just a Lady's Man
12 Jimmy Witherspoon - Love My Baby
13 Jimmy Witherspoon - Love and Friendship
14 Jimmy Witherspoon - Geneva Blues aka Evil Woman
15 Jimmy Witherspoon - I'm Just Wandering (Part 1)
16 Jimmy Witherspoon - I'm Just Wandering (Part 2)
17 Jimmy Witherspoon - Good Jumping aka Jump Children
18 Jimmy Witherspoon - Thelma Lee Blues
19 Jimmy Witherspoon - The Doctor Knows His Business aka Doctor Blues
20 Jimmy Witherspoon - Slow Your Speed
