Electrifying, raw, wild rockabilly, lathered in sex, alcohol, and general doowhutchalike.
From 1956, his first record is one of our favourite 45s ever: Red Headed Woman backed with We Wanna Boogie. ‘Here was total abandon: coarse, untutored singing; unintelligible lyrics; ragged drumming; distorted guitar, backed by a wildly bleating trumpet. It was punk before punk, thrash before thrash’ (Colin Escott).
And as for Ain’t Got A Thing… whoa oh oh… what a KILLER.

Wonderful, hard-core country, with plenty of fiddles, honky-tonk piano, steel guitar, sexual neurosis, and razor-sharp wit, from one of the all-time greats.
Have Blues, Will Travel compiles singles releases between 1949 and 1962, across seven different record labels: Gold Star, 4-Star, TNT, Starday, “D”, Mercury and Allstar.
Take It Away Lucky… The Worm Has Turned…

‘Get hit by truck and get a busted head / Everybody says, Lucky, he ain’t dead. / Lucky old Ed, luckiest man in town.’

The first decent compilation, from the early honky tonk and rockabilly sides — total killers like the tanked-up, randy-as-a-stoat I’m Coming Home — through to the witty country hits.
‘Get your face all pretty and your hair done right / ‘Cos we’re gonna do the town tonight / Well I’m comin’ into town and right on time / I still got your lovin’ on my mind… Well I came to a hill and the truck looked down / Throwed in low and she’s huggin’ the ground / Scratchin’ gears but I’m goin’ again / I’m comin’ home baby /  I’m doggin’ it in.’

Stinging electric blues and sparkling Texas stride-blues piano, and dapper, sad, droll singing, with a measure of the slurred wit and poise of Percy Mayfield.
Mercy Dee picked cotton like his parents, and his writing about rural poverty is unforgettable: check his first, minor hit Lonesome Cabin Blues, and the bigger One Room Country Shack, covered by Mose Allison, Jr. Wells and co. ‘If I ever get from around this harvest, I don’t even want to see a rose-bush grow / And if anyone ask me about the country, Lord have mercy on his soul.’ He also richly and lovingly disses various girlfriends: ‘the mule-head woman… her mind in the gutter, and her hands on my pocketbook’; ‘the bird-brain baby, with a heart the size of a mustard seed…’
These sides are from 1949-55 — for Spire, Imperial, Colony, Rhythm, Flair, and Specialty — but don’t miss his comeback LPs for Arhoolie, too.

‘My life is blank and empty, like a pea out of a shell.’
‘I’ve tried so hard, and failed, baby.’

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.

Searing, ultra-dread Chicago blues. Total murder like Double Trouble, when Otis had barely turned twenty, with Ike Turner on second guitar. Genius.