File: MP3 @ 320K/sTime: 57:38
Size: 135.1 MB
Released: 1994
Styles: Early Country-Delta Blues
Art: Front
1. Garfield Akers - Dough Roller Blues (3:09)
2. William Harris - Kansas City Blues (3:02)
3. Otto Virgial - Little Girl In Rome (2:36)
4. Mattie Delaney - Tallahatchie River Blues (2:46)
5. Geeshie Wiley - Last Kind Words (3:01)
6. Joe Calicott - Fare Thee Well Blues (3:11)
7. William Harris - Bullfrog Blues (3:09)
8. John D. Fox - The Moaning Blues (3:00)
9. Geeshie Wiley - Pick Poor Robin Clean (3:12)
10. Blind Joe Reynolds - Ouside Woman Blues (2:55)
11. King Solomon Hill - Gone Dead Train (3:18)
12. Garfield Akers - Cottonfield Blues (Part 1) (2:53)
13. Garfield Akers - Cottonfield Blues (Part 2) (3:17)
14. William Harris - Hot Time Blues (2:54)
15. Geeshie Wiley - Skinny Legs Blues (3:11)
16. Blind Joe Reynolds - Third Street Woman Blues (2:40)
17. John D. Fox - Worried Man Blues (2:54)
18. Mattie Delaney - Down The Big Road Blues (3:10)
19. King Solomon Hill - Whoopee Blues (3:10)
This is a well-organized, smartly chosen 20-track compilation of some of the lesser-known early Mississippi blues artists. Garfield Akers is about the most famous, which tells you right there how obscure most of these names -- King Solomon Hill, Otto Virgial, Mattie Delaney, Joe Calicott, Blind Joe Reynolds, John D. Fox and others -- are to the general listening public. It's quality material, however, and not in a drastically different league than the most renowned classics by singers like Tommy Johnson and Son House. The guitar playing and singing are emotional and inventive throughout, but standouts include Mattie Delaney, Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley, some of the relatively few guitar-playing Delta blueswomen who recorded; Wiley's minor-key, doomy "Last Kind Words" is particularly affecting. ~ Richie Unterberger
Mississippi Masters: Early American Blues Classics 1927-35
