Blues Images Presents...1920s Blues Classics Vol. 1 (Blues Images, 2004)

Looking for a great last-minute Christmas present to give to your favorite prewar blues record fiend? My suggestion: the 2012 Blues Images calendar. In addition to 12 months worth of fantastic vintage advertising artwork, you also get a tastefully compiled CD featuring classics of the genre (most of which correspond with the illustrations) in perhaps their best ever sound quality. And if that's not enough, each sampler usually boasts at least one recently-discovered exclusive track.

TOMMY JOHNSON

So here's the accompanying disc to the calendar that started it all, the 2004 edition. While listening to it in preparation for this review, I was reminded that not only is it a first-rate collection, but moreover it would serve as an excellent introduction to anyone interested in getting their first taste of blues from the 1920s and 1930s. While it might come off as nitpicking, one must acknowledge the large number of Blind Blake and Blind Lemon Jefferson sides that have appeared on these Blues Images CDs over the years. Although it could be argued that these musicians have been over-represented, let's also not forget that they sold a lot of records during the 1920s, resulting in a greater number of print advertisements compared to other blues singers. Blake's "He's in the Jailhouse Now" (an outstanding duet with Gus Cannon on banjo) and "Bad Feeling Blues" and Lemon's "Rising High Water Blues" (interesting for the piano-only instrumental backing from George Perkins) and "Black Snake Dream Blues" may not be the most well-known songs by these visually-impaired guitarists, but they certainly have never sounded better. The complete discography of Louisiana slide guitarist Willard "Ramblin'" Thomas can be a tedious listening experience, but he committed a few really good performances to wax, including "No Job Blues." Anyone care to argue with my contention that "22-20 Blues" is the greatest of Skip James' piano sides? In similar fashion, one could also canonize Charlie Patton's "Down the Dirt Road Blues," which essentially provided the musical foundation for Howlin' Wolf's performing style. "Death Cell Blues" ranks among Blind Willie McTell's more notable recordings from the early 1930s, while Bumble Bee Slim's debut from 1931, "Rough Rugged Blues," qualifies as perhaps his most compelling moment, even with the original disc's obvious surface noise issues. Speaking of surface noise, such sonic imperfections have always plagued most of Son House's Paramount 78s, but his impassioned voice and guitar typically shine through the audio haze, as can be heard on "Dry Spell Blues Part 1." The galvanic "Beale Town Bound" deserves mention as one of the best of Frank Stokes and Dan Sain's sides attributed to their "Beale Street Sheiks" moniker and contains one hell of a great putdown: "Say fella, don't you know she's mine, she's yours, she's somebody else's, too?!" Ma Rainey's "Dead Drunk Blues" owes much of its spare nature to the unadorned piano accompaniment of Hop Hopkins, whereas the sentimentality of Tommy Johnson's "I Want Someone to Love Me" results as much from his hillbilly-esque singing as it does from its maudlin lyrics. This compilation's crown jewels, the then-recently unearthed "Cold Woman Blues" by Blind Joe Reynolds and "Times Has Done Got Hard" by King Solomon Hill, are saved for last. Simply put, these exhilarating sides exhibit radically different approaches to slide guitar by a pair of singular blues artists whose primary similarity was their Delta origins. Consequently, the performances further support the view that the term "Delta blues" is more accurately applied in a geographic sense rather than a stylistic one.


1. He's in the Jailhouse Now - Blind Blake
2. No Job Blues - Ramblin' Thomas
3. 22-20 Blues - Skip James
4. Rising High Water Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson
5. Down the Dirt Road Blues - Charlie Patton
6. Death Cell Blues - Blind Willie McTell
7. Rough Rugged Road - Bumble Bee Slim
8. Dry Spell Blues Part 1 - Son House
9. Bad Feeling Blues - Blind Blake
10. Beale Town Bound - The Beale Street Sheiks
11. Black Snake Dream Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson
12. Dead Drunk Blues - Ma Rainey
13. I Want Someone to Love Me - Tommy Johnson
14. Cold Woman Blues - Blind Joe Reynolds
15. Times Has Done Got Hard - King Solomon Hill

ENIGMATIC AND CONTROVERSIAL PHOTO SHOWING A GUITAR PLAYER WHO
MIGHT BE KING SOLOMON HILL POSING WITH A PIPE-SMOKING FRIEND