Search - Various Artists :: As Good As It Gets: Country Blues

A surprisingly good and thorough collection of early blues

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 01/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These 52 tracks offer a very good insight into early country blues. Almost every major blues artist from the 1920s and 30s is represented, among them legendary figures such as Tampa Red, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leroy Carr, 'Sleepy' John Estes, Lonnie Johnson and the great Son House, and this is definitely the place to go if you want just a sampler of the earliest blues recordings to whet your appetite.The tracks on "Country Blues" are recorded between 1926 and 1941, and most of them are solo performances. There are many well-known tracks here, "Statesboro' Blues" by Blind Willie McTell and "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" by Robert Johnson among them, and a few rarer gems such as Son House's "Walking Blues" from 1930 and Cannon's Jug Stomper's original "Walk Right In" - the basis for Dr Hook's 1977 hit!Other highlights include Jim Jackson's little-known "Hesitation Blues", "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", Leroy Carr's original "How Long, How Long Blues", "Black Snake Moan" by Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Blind Boy Fuller's "Truckin' My Blues Away".
The quality varies a bit, and it's obvious that many of these recordings were made more than 70 years ago, but everything on here is definitely worth a listen."As Good As It Gets - Country Blues" is an extremely high quality collection of the best of country blues, and it is highly recommendable to anyone who has an interest in this kind of music.
This collection is worth twice the asking price."