Various - Worried Life Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:45
Size: 111.6 MB
Styles: Folk/Gospel/Blues, Acoustic blues
Year: 2003
Art: Front

[2:58] 1. Sonny Boy Williamson II - Good Morning School Girl
[2:20] 2. Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - My Baby Left Me
[2:53] 3. Big Maceo - Worried Life Blues
[3:11] 4. St. Louis Jimmy - Going Down Slow
[3:05] 5. Memphis Slim - Grinder Man Blues
[3:21] 6. Big Joe Williams - Baby Please Don't Go
[3:05] 7. Lead Belly - Midnight Special
[2:56] 8. Tampa Red - Sweet Little Angel
[3:35] 9. Tommy Johnson - Canned Heat Blues
[2:51] 10. Robert Petway - Catfish Blues
[3:15] 11. Alberta Hunter - Beale Street Blues
[2:50] 12. Big Bill Broonzy - Keep Your Hands Off Her
[2:56] 13. Lilgreen - Why Don't You Do Right
[2:55] 14. Sleepy John Estes - The Girl I Love, She Got Long, Curly Hair
[3:25] 15. Bessie Smith - Down Hearted Blues
[3:01] 16. Johnny Moore's Three Blazers - How Blue Can You Get (Downhearted)

In the year of blues, amid the Martin Scorsese films and their requisite 30 CDs of material, other labels with substantial blues holdings got in on the act to (over)saturate the market. The good news is that a lot of material came out on CD for the first time, interesting anthologies abounded, and even the harder to find works by major and mid-level artists came to the fore. Worried Life Blues is just such a collection from BMG's massive Bluebird vaults. These 16 recordings are a who's who of the pre- and WWII era (only one cut, "Sweet Little Angel" by Tampa Red, was recorded after 1948). From Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," Big Maceo's "Worried Life Blues," Bessie Smith's "Downhearted Blues," and Leadbelly's "Midnight Special" to Tommy Johnson's "Canned Heat Blues," Big Joe Williams' "Baby, Please Don't Go," Big Bill Broonzy's "Keep Your Hands Off Her," and Alberta Hunter's "Beale Street Blues," this collection runs the gamut of prewar blues. There are a couple of real surprises here, tracks not usually included on blues compilations -- though they should be: Robert Petway's "Catfish Blues," Lil Green's "Why Don't You Do Right," St. Louis Jimmy's "Goin' Down Slow," and Johnny Moore's Blazers read of "How Blue Can You Get." In all, this is a fine-sounding, well-compiled set with great notes by no less than Colin Escott. ~Thom Jurek

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Tommy Johnson, Ishman Bracey - Canned Heat Blues

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:30
Size: 99.6 MB
Styles: Acoustic delta blues
Year: 1969/2014
Art: Front

[3:23] 1. Tommy Johnson - Cool Drink Of Water Blues
[3:09] 2. Tommy Johnson - Big Bad Road
[3:01] 3. Tommy Johnson - Bye Bye Blues
[3:29] 4. Tommy Johnson - Maggie Campbell Blues
[3:36] 5. Tommy Johnson - Canned Heat Blues
[3:14] 6. Tommy Johnson - Lonesome Home Blues (Take 2)
[3:15] 7. Tommy Johnson - Big Fat Mama Blues
[3:26] 8. Ishman Bracey - Saturday Blues
[3:27] 9. Ishman Bracey - Left Alone Blues
[3:26] 10. Ishman Bracey - Leavin' Town Blues (Take 2)
[3:07] 11. Ishman Bracey - Brown Mama Blues (Take 2)
[3:34] 12. Ishman Bracey - Trouble Hearted Blues (Take 1)
[3:19] 13. Ishman Bracey - The Four Day Blues (Take 1)

After a break of over 25 years, JSP re-enter the vinyl album market and they start with a peach - the historic, hugely influential and still majestic Tommy Johnson recordings from 1928.

While only totalling seven songs, each of these was to prove somehow pivotal in creating the template, repertoire and standard that Mississippi delta blues was to follow. In doing this, he was second perhaps only to Charlie Patton in influence, though in terms of ‘dealing with the devil' myth-making and dissolute life-style he created the path that Robert Johnson was to follow nearly a decade later. And, while other Tommy Johnson recordings were later discovered, it is these few that established the reputation.

Side 2 is given over to six sides from friend, musical accomplice and travelling partner, Ishman Bracey. These are all exemplary delta blues numbers. Bracey was reputedly a better musician than Johnson (as outlined in Neil Slaven's excellent new liner notes to this LP) but somehow was never afforded the legendary status that posterity has gifted to Johnson.

If, like me, you already have these titles on an old Roots LP (RL330), with the same running order and even an additional alternate take from both Johnson and Bracey, you might well question whether you need to buy this again. Quite simply, this new version, on high quality 180g vinyl has a much superior sound. The re-mastered versions used here by JSP have successfully removed much of the surface noise that earlier generations of LPs did not have the advanced technology to deliver. If you do want these titles on vinyl therefore, they have never sounded better than here. (This is a review on the vinyl release.)

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Tommy Johnson - Tommy Johnson (1928-1930)

File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Source: LL (from CD)
Released: 1998
Styles: Delta Blues
Time: 40:44
Size: 93,7 MB
Covers: Full

(3:37) 1. Cool Drink of Water Blues
(3:23) 2. Big Road Blues
(3:11) 3. Bye Bye Blues
(3:40) 4. Maggie Campbell Blues
(3:42) 5. Canned Heat Blues
(3:30) 6. Lonesome Home Blues
(3:20) 7. Lonesome Home Blues
(3:17) 8. Big Fat Mama Blues
(3:12) 9. I Wonder to Myself
(3:10) 10. Slidin' Delta
(3:14) 11. Lonesome Home Blues
(3:21) 12. Black Mare Blues

Delta blues musician Tommy Johnson recorded only in the late 1920s and was known for his eerie falsetto voice and intricate guitar playing. He lived in Crystal Springs for most of his live and played local parties with his brothers Major and LeDell. He also traveled the South and met and played with Charlie Patton, Willie Brown and Papa Charlie McCoy. In 1928 he recorded his first songs for Victor, including "Canned Heat Blues", in which he sang of drinking methanol from cooking fuel Sterno (Johnson was an alcoholist). Tommy Johnson recorded only 2 further sessions in 1928 and 1929. While playing for an audience he performed tricks with his guitar, playing it between his legs and behind his head. His style influenced singers as Robert Nighthawk and Howlin' Wolf. Johnson composed his own songs, blending fragments of folk poetry and personalized lyrics into hiss guitar accompaniments. He remained a popular performer in the 1930s and 1940s, sometimes performing with Ishman Bracey.

This 12-song collection (missing only two of Johnson's works, which have never turned up), is surprisingly clean and crisp. "Cool Drink of Water Blues" and "Canned Heat Blues" are by far the best known of Johnson's works, but they've got a lot of worthy pieces surrounding them. "Big Road Blues" is a fine showcase for Johnson's and Charlie McCoy's paired guitars, playing two complex, interwoven figures. And "Bye Bye Blues" and "Maggie Campbell Blues" show off his unique vocal qualities, not the dark heaviness typical of bluesmen at the time, but a more flexible, lighter-toned, more relaxed instrument that, coupled with his and McCoy's guitars, made his music as "busy" as it was beautiful. The songs featuring only Johnson's guitar are no less intriguing, if only for his ability to get a lot of sound from some surprisingly simple strumming and picking. The later songs, "I Wonder to Myself," "Slidin' Delta," "Lonesome Home Blues," and "Black Mare Blues," leave something to be desired in terms of sound, but at least they're represented here. -- Allmusic.

Tommy Johnson (1928-1930)

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Various - The First Time I Met The Blues

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 75:59
Size: 174.0 MB
Styles: Assorted blues
Year: 2002
Art: Front

[3:08] 1. Victoria Spivey - Telephoning The Blues
[3:08] 2. Cannon's Jug Stompers - Viola Lee Blues
[3:28] 3. Genevieve Davis - Haven't Got A Dollar To Pay Your House Rent Man
[3:27] 4. Ishman Bracey - Saturday Blues
[3:13] 5. Jim Jackson - When I Woke Up This Morning She Was Gone
[3:36] 6. Tommy Johnson - Canned Heat Blues
[2:32] 7. Blind Willie Mctell - Statesboro Blues
[2:55] 8. Memphis Jug Band - Stealin', Stealin'
[3:02] 9. Furry Lewis - Judge Harsh Blues
[3:02] 10. Edna Winston - Rent Man Blues
[2:46] 11. Alfoncy Harris - I Don't Care What You Say
[3:25] 12. Jelly Roll Morton - I Hate A Man Like You
[3:16] 13. Frank Stokes - 'tain't Nobody's Business If I Do (Part 1)
[2:50] 14. Sippie Wallace - I'm A Mighty Tight Woman
[2:38] 15. Jimmie Rodgers - Blue Yodel #9
[2:55] 16. Sleepy John Estes - The Girl I Love, She Got Long, Curly Hair
[3:12] 17. Memphis Minnie - Don't Want No Woman (Have T' Give My Money To)
[2:47] 18. Memphis Jug Band - Cocaine Habit Blues
[3:16] 19. Blind Willie Reynolds - Married Woman Blues
[2:57] 20. Jimmie Davis - Red Nightgown Blues
[2:51] 21. Mississippi Matilda - Hard Working Woman
[2:50] 22. Bo Carter - Doubled Up In A Knot
[2:41] 23. Daddy Stovepipe - If You Want Me Baby
[2:47] 24. Little Brother Montgomery - The First Time I Met The Blues
[3:05] 25. Mississippi Sheiks - Sales Tax

Great achievement in sound on these recordings, some of which are 80 years old. Initiates will be amazed at how closely these country and jugband blues numbers border on rock & roll, and close observers will spot originals later covered by the Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, Canned Heat, and other disciples of the genre. Essential listening. ~R. Riis

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