Excellent compilation of country blues, 1933-39.
Bo Carter, Scrapper Blackwell, Walter Davis, Black Ace… and less well-known names, like Peanut The Kidnapper and One Arm Slim.
‘One Arm Slim’s piano is rather erratic due to the fact that he is probably using only one hand,’ according to the sleevenotes.

One of the all-time great guitarists, Nolen was with the James Brown band from the mid-sixties till his death in 1983.
Strollin’ collects 78s and 45s released before 1961, both under his own name and as a much in demand session guitarist and touring band member with artists like Monte Easter, Johnny Otis and George Smith.
Don.

‘The trance blues stylings of Otha Turner and his Rising Star Fife And Drum Band should be a music classification unto itself, a whole new primitive take on drum and bass. This music is the oldest still-practiced post-colonial American music, and Turner was one of its greatest artists of the 20th century. Blowing the cane fife with a band of drummers as back up, The Rising Star Fife And Drum band was legendary in the hills of Tate County, Mississippi, where they would perform during the yearly goat picnics on Turner’s farm. These tracks were recorded by Luther Dickinson during such picnics and released when Turner was ninety years old. Everybody Hollerin’ Goat shows firsthand the hypnotic and rhythmic style of fife and drum music at its best — raw and beautiful. It is every bit as essential a document of America’s folk-music heritage as anything Harry Smith or Alan Lomax ever offered up for posterity. This first ever vinyl release of Everybody Hollerin’ Goat contains a whole side of unreleased recordings from one night of the picnic and is intended to bring the experience of hollerin’ for goat in Senatobia, Mississippi to the living room. Dancing around the plants is recommended (but don’t eat the pickled eggs).’

Regal rhythm and blues, rock and roll, big-band funk and the rest from this amazing man, with his son Shuggie just coming into view.

Thrilling primitive gospel from Alabama. Fuzzy, loud, dissonant guitar somewhere between Pops Staples, John Lee Hooker and the outsider R ‘n B of Hasil Adkins. True testifyin’ magic, and highly recommended.

Bawdy, vaudevillian malarkey, both country and urban, with no messing musically. Stuff like Banana Man, You Put It In I’ll Take It Out, I Had To Give Up Gym, Elevator Papa Switchboard Mama. Crumb cover.

With Leadbelly, Ramblin’ Thomas, Charley Patton and co.