Son House & The Great Delta Blues Singers 1928 - 1930

Twenty-four tracks featuring: Son House, Willie Brown, Kid Bailey, Garfield Akers, Joe Callicott, Jim Thompkins, Blind Joe (Willie) Reynolds, Rube Lacy.

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

Informative booklet notes by Bob Groom.

Detailed discography.

Have you ever put an album into a player and been shocked as a surge of intensity, both beautiful and at the same time disturbing hits you like nothing before? You're mesmerised, finding it hard to believe that this is a man, relying on little more than his relentless, pounding rhythmic guitar playing and his own dark, rich, voice. These are the first few seconds of Son House's My Black Mama Part 1 recorded for Paramount in 1930 and just a hint to what is to come. This album is not just an album of singers. It is a snapshot of some of the finest bluesmen to have recorded. This is the blues un-distilled. Raw, hard hitting, being exorcised and torn like a demon from man's tormented soul. This is undoubtedly the best collection of vintage Mississippi blues singers guitarist available. After being in the Document catalogue for over fourteen years it is still one of our best sellers. Blues fans certainly know a classic when they see one. Continued...

Field Recordings Vol 17 - Son House (1941-1942)
DOCD-5690 Field Recordings Vol. 17: Son House - Library of Congress Recordings 1941-1942 Son House; vocal, guitar. Includes: Willie Brown, guitar; Fiddlin’ Joe Martin, vocal, speech, mandolin; Willie Brown, guitar; Leroy Williams, harmonica. Genres; Country Blues, Mississippi Delta Blues, Bottleneck-slide guitar. Extensive booklet notes by Bob Groom, with previously unpublished information. Detailed discography. Extracts abridged from this CD's booklet notes; When, in August and September, 1941, Alan Lomax, then ‘Assistant in Charge’ of the Archive of Folk Song at the Library of Congress in Washington, undertook a field trip to record in Coahoma County, Mississippi, he had already conducted a considerable number of such trips, initially in the company of his father, John Lomax, back in 1933/4. Travelling with him in their Ford car was his wife Elizabeth. Also taking part in the project were John Work, whose idea it was to study the black culture of a limited area in Mississippi or Tennessee in detail, and Lewis Jones, both from Fisk University. They visited the Stovall Plantation, Mississippi, to record a young man named McKinley Morganfield, who had been recommended to them as a good bluesman. Apart from his musical contribution he was instrumental in guiding Lomax to where he could find former Paramount recording artist Eddie James ‘Son’ House. In an interview Muddy told Lomax and John Work that while he admired and was influenced by the recordings of Robert Johnson, his major inspiration was Son House. Continued...