“When the good old Beeb put on their “Blues Night” a few years ago they surprised quite a few viewers by including clips of Bob Wills and Jimmie Rodgers. Years before that Yazoo issued a selection of white recordings under the title “Mr. Charlie’s Blues” then Larry Cohn produced his “White Country Blues” double CD set and saw to it that the subject was given adequate coverage by Charles Wolfe in the book “Nothing But The Blues”. Now Frémeaux & Associés S.A. have added to the rapidly growing canon of blues-influenced old timey recordings readily available by putting out these two beautiful sets.
Neither collection sets out to illustrate any particular point about whites playing their own brand of blues but they do so inadvertently by including some outstanding blues recordings. The Country collection opens with Sam McGee’s breath-taking picking on “Railroad Blues” and, among the murder ballads and pure country numbers such as The Carter Family’s “Wildwood Flower”, you can also locate the teeth-rattling slide playing of Jimmie Tarlton on “Slow Wicked Blues”, the black sounding guitar style of Dick Justice on “Brownskin Blues”, and the banjo fireworks on Dock Boggs’ “Country Blues”. Jimmie Rodgers, whose recordings seemed to be just as popular with blacks and whites in the south contributes “Blue Yodel No. 8” and his “Texas Blues” while one of his devotees, Cliff Carlisle uses a really fluid slide to underpin his claim to be a rod-riding “Pan American Man” and the Delmore Brothers pick furiously on their hokum number “Brown’s Ferry Blues”. Louisiana’s favoured son Jimmie “Sunshine” Davis, whose involvement with black bluesmen was outlined by Tony Russell in his book “Blacks, Whites and Blues” (if you haven’t read this monograph yet, do yourself a favour…) revels in “The Rockin’ Blues”. I do hope that Bear Family do the same magnificent hob on CD for both Davis and Darby And Tarlton that they did on vinyl. The second CD includes some great cowboy songs; pure (Jules Allen), pure Hollywood (Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and The Sons Of The Pioneers – nothing like as bas as it looks, the Autries are early stuff and Hugh Farr does his guitar stunt for The Sons) and in-between (Tex Rittter). Then there’s the pure late 30s country of Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb which winds-up the set, but between them falls the most interesting portion (for blues fans that is) which is the western swing of Wills (“What’s The Matter With The Mill”), Milton Brown (“Hesitation Blues”), Adolph Hofner and Jimmy Revard.
This leads neatly onto the “Western Swing” set itself which does not duplicate any of the cuts on the “Country” CDs but presents a further extended view of the genre. Bands featured include all those mentioned above plus those of Bill Boyd, Cliff Bruner and Ted Daffan among many others. The word “blues” appears on no less than thirteen titles (not that they all fit the description, though “Louise, Louise” and “Milk Cow” surely do) and they are backed up by items such as “Red’s Tight Like That” and “Buster’s Crawdad Song”. The musicianship is hot and the take-off solos fairly scorch allowing such odd inclusions as The Light Crust Doughboys’ search for “Pussy, Pussy, Pussy” to be forgiven.
Both sets are collections of 36 tracks backed up by booklets with texts in French and English. The sound reproduction is great and the general presentation most attractive. Unless you’re so tightly into black blues that you can’t admit to any other variety existing check these two items out.” Keith Briggs – Blues & rhythm
Neither collection sets out to illustrate any particular point about whites playing their own brand of blues but they do so inadvertently by including some outstanding blues recordings. The Country collection opens with Sam McGee’s breath-taking picking on “Railroad Blues” and, among the murder ballads and pure country numbers such as The Carter Family’s “Wildwood Flower”, you can also locate the teeth-rattling slide playing of Jimmie Tarlton on “Slow Wicked Blues”, the black sounding guitar style of Dick Justice on “Brownskin Blues”, and the banjo fireworks on Dock Boggs’ “Country Blues”. Jimmie Rodgers, whose recordings seemed to be just as popular with blacks and whites in the south contributes “Blue Yodel No. 8” and his “Texas Blues” while one of his devotees, Cliff Carlisle uses a really fluid slide to underpin his claim to be a rod-riding “Pan American Man” and the Delmore Brothers pick furiously on their hokum number “Brown’s Ferry Blues”. Louisiana’s favoured son Jimmie “Sunshine” Davis, whose involvement with black bluesmen was outlined by Tony Russell in his book “Blacks, Whites and Blues” (if you haven’t read this monograph yet, do yourself a favour…) revels in “The Rockin’ Blues”. I do hope that Bear Family do the same magnificent hob on CD for both Davis and Darby And Tarlton that they did on vinyl. The second CD includes some great cowboy songs; pure (Jules Allen), pure Hollywood (Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and The Sons Of The Pioneers – nothing like as bas as it looks, the Autries are early stuff and Hugh Farr does his guitar stunt for The Sons) and in-between (Tex Rittter). Then there’s the pure late 30s country of Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb which winds-up the set, but between them falls the most interesting portion (for blues fans that is) which is the western swing of Wills (“What’s The Matter With The Mill”), Milton Brown (“Hesitation Blues”), Adolph Hofner and Jimmy Revard.
This leads neatly onto the “Western Swing” set itself which does not duplicate any of the cuts on the “Country” CDs but presents a further extended view of the genre. Bands featured include all those mentioned above plus those of Bill Boyd, Cliff Bruner and Ted Daffan among many others. The word “blues” appears on no less than thirteen titles (not that they all fit the description, though “Louise, Louise” and “Milk Cow” surely do) and they are backed up by items such as “Red’s Tight Like That” and “Buster’s Crawdad Song”. The musicianship is hot and the take-off solos fairly scorch allowing such odd inclusions as The Light Crust Doughboys’ search for “Pussy, Pussy, Pussy” to be forgiven.
Both sets are collections of 36 tracks backed up by booklets with texts in French and English. The sound reproduction is great and the general presentation most attractive. Unless you’re so tightly into black blues that you can’t admit to any other variety existing check these two items out.” Keith Briggs – Blues & rhythm
