Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey DOUBLE CD

Charley Patton Vol 1 1929

Charley Patton Vol 2 1929

Charley Patton Vol 3 1929 - 1934

Charley Patton, vocal, guitar, bottleneck slide-guitar.

Includes performances by; Henry Sims, vocal, violin; Bertha Lee, vocal; Willie Brown, guitar.

Genres: Mississippi Country Blues, Delta Blues, Country Blues Guitar

Charlie Patton is considered, with some justification, to be the archetypal, Mississippi Delta blues singer / guitarist. His guitar playing, including his bottleneck slide guitar technique, coupled with his gritty vocal delivery created a mixture of some of the most primitive yet sublime recordings to be made in the pre-war blues era. Many of his recorded performances are so powerful as to be unsurpassed within the genre. Truly, Charley Patton was a man amongst men. Despite his small, physical, stature he had an overpowering presence when he performed, that embodied the very essence of the Mississippi blues. Equally, he can well be thought of as a songster, in view of his wide-ranging repertoire of blues, ballads, rags, spirituals and popular songs  that he displays on his recordings which are presented on Document's three volumes of Charley Patton's recordings. Certainly, he was a showman and entertainer whose live performances could be somber, melancholy, intense or humorous. Yet he differs from his contemporaries like Mississippi John Hurt and Mance Lipscomb in that he used solid, earthy blues as a vehicle for an intensely personal musical expression. These three volumes present his complete issued recordings. All of his original 78 rpm records are extremely rare and in many cases there are only single known copies which are now the prized possessions of collectors. Continued...

Too Late Too Late Blues 1926 - 1944
DOCD-5150 Too Late Too Late Blues 1926 - 1944 Alternative takes and rare, late, discoveries. Various. The first Document CD appeared in 1990 with DOCD-5001 “Tommy Johnson”. Three years and 150 releases later the first volume of the “Too Late, Too Late” albums appeared. The unprecedented unleashing of such a fast growing bulk of blues and gospel recordings in such a “completist” fashion inspired both fans of the music and collectors alike. Once that the great river of releases had been flowing for a while collectors began to think again about what might be hidden in the corners of their collections or had until then been regarded of no real significance. In addition there were recent and continue to be, rare finds. A Big Bill Broonzy 78 had just recently been found, having been picked up in a lot that was saved from the street where it had been left for disposal. Then there was the box of Paramount tests that had been found several years ago which were made available. Collectors also began to revisit their records with more attention being paid to the recordings themselves and on many occasions found that takes that appeared on their records were not the takes that had thus far been re-issued.