Search - Various Artists :: 15 Classic Blues Songs from the 1920's, Vol. 1: Down the Dirt Road Blues

Country Blues of the Highest Order

Curtiss Clarke | Calgary, Alberta Canada | 09/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is CD volume 1 of 6 volumes from John Tefteller's "Blues Images" music label, an endeavor aimed largely at promoting the music and culture of Afro-American country blues from the 1920's and 30's. As such, Tefteller has obtained some of the rarest but finest sides by artists such as Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Skip James, Charley Patton, Victoria Spivey, and Willie McTell, to name a few. Many of the artists presented on the 6 volumes to-date, recorded for Paramount records, a company that went bankrupt in the early 1930's who were not very concerned with the recording quality of their issued 78 rpm discs.



Fear not, as Tefteller has obtained the services of Richard Nevins (who should be knighted one day), to remaster these essential sides from the original 78's with amazing sound (considering) by eliminating much of the surface noise and scratches, while at the same time, managing to preserve the clarity of each artist's voice and the accompanying instrument (usually guitar). Since in many cases, only 1 or 2 copies exist of the original 78's, these CD reissues are as close as you are likely to ever hear these sides in reasonable fidelity.



It is important to know that many of these sides are not the original issued takes, but are very rare alternates, or undiscovered sides (i.e. Son House) that have been uncovered by collectors only within the last decade. In otherwords, these rare alternates have laid undiscovered for close to 80 years. Of course other CD reissue labels have jumped at the chance to issue some of these unissued/alternate sides (JSP, Document, Yazoo) but the presentation of these Blues Images CD's is both artistically and musically without peer.



Artwork is supplied from original advertisements that the issuing record companies such as Paramount used to promote their 78's and from the drawings of collector Robert Crumb. Unfortunately, the single shortcoming here is that these CD's do not disclose the master take or issue numbers (nor the exact recording day, month, and year when known).



Still, this is a small quibble and these CD's are a great place to start if the listener is interested in building a collection of pre-war country blues. These CD's are available as CD's only for a reasonable price, or with accompanying calendars (for an additional cost) that publish the original artwork at full size.



Kudo's to organizations like Blues Images for keeping this music around and alive, as it forms the basis for so much of the popular music of today.



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