Search - Georgia Tom Dorsey :: Essential

Why not just download these songs

Sean Tanner | Berkeley, CA | 01/08/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The music is fantastic, the packaging is terrible.

My rant about the packaging:

No recording dates, no personnel (or even speculation), no writer credits, nothing. They licensed this music from Document Records, how hard would it have been to use their liner notes? Here we have another CD manufacturer sowing their own demise by cutting back on one of the only things that make CDs a worthwhile purchase.



The music:

Classic, jazz-influenced blues recorded by Georgia Tom Dorsey with, in some cases, other artists such as Tampa Red. This is the Georgia Tom that would go on to fame as Thomas Dorsey, the father of gospel music. You wouldn't know that from listening to the piano driven smut found here. To quote one particularly ribald metaphor from Terrible Operation Blues- "...take off that gown, raise your right leg up, let your left leg hang down, take off your stockings and your silk underwear, the doctor's gonna cut you baby, don't know where..." all to the sounds of a woman moaning. Let's hear Mahalia Jackson sing that!

Even people new to pre-war blues will enjoy this."