This album is only one of the seemingly hundreds that come from the Alan
Lomax Library Of Congress collection--recordings made in prisons, fields and
sharecroppers shacks during the thirties and forties. On those trips Alan
and his father John found and recorded many who went on to become well known
performers (Lead Belly, Son House, Muddy Waters, Fred McDowell), and many
more who remained anonymous singers, known only to their neighbors. The
scope of the project was pretty amazing, and an important era was
documented--the era when there still was such a thing as regional song, with
tunes and styles of playing instruments that could be linked to specific
geographical sites. (Lomax wrote that when he went back in 1978 that had
all but disappeared, with radio and TV homogenizing popular culture
everywhere, simultaneously.)
The 22 titles included here were recorded in Georgia between 1934 and 1943
and run the gamut from unaccompanied group work songs and spirituals, to
banjo and guitar pieces, solo harmonica and 12 string blues guitar numbers.
The work songs come from convict groups in prisons and work farms near
Atlanta, Canton and Milledgeville and range from raw to the more polished
"performance" pieces, aimed at entertaining an audience, rather than being
used to pace a gang of workers. Its interesting to note that the Lomaxes
were driven on this 1934 trip by Lead Belly, working for them after they'd
obtained his release from prison a few years earlier by recording his plea
song to the governor.
The harmonica pieces were both somewhat derivative: John Lee Thomas (winner
of a 1941 Fir Valley State College Folk Fest, a 15 year tradition) probably
got his train imitation number from the radio performances of Deford Bailey
on the weekly Grand Ole Opry, while Buster Brown took his "War Song" style
from the recordings of Sonny Boy Williamson I. Incidentally, yes, this is
the SAME Buster Brown who hade a top ten R&B hit with "Fannie Mae" after
moving north in the fifties. His early style here is rawer, and owes a debt
to Sonny Terry, who had been heard both with Blind Boy Fuller and on his own
solo recordings.
Banjo player Sidney Stripling does 4 numbers in a mix of
blues-vaudeville-party song that harks to an even earlier era than these
1941 cuts. There are a couple of string band "rag" pieces as well, that also
come from an ear when black and white musical styles were entwined fairly
deeply.
What will catch the ears of most blues fans are the 4 tracks by fabled 12
string street singer Blind Willie McTell. He had previously recorded
extensively commercially, cutting 46 released titles for Victor, Columbia,
Vocallion and Decca labels between 1927 and 1935. When the Lomaxes found
him in late 1940, they wound up spending two hours in the morning recording
some 40 minutes of music and memories, over 19 titles. McTell had a late
career resurgence as well; cutting LPs worth of material for Regal and
Atlantic in 1949, and his "last sessions" cut in 1956 came out later on
Bluesville label. "Boll Weevil" is a ballad version of the wide-spread folk
tune, with an easy rag feel to it. "Dying Crapshooters Blues" is a raggy
piece with words piled on words, all detailing the funeral requests of a
dying man. (There are elements of "St James Infirmary" used here.) "Just
As Well Get Ready, You Got To Die" is a spiritual piece with some subtle,
sweet slide guitar work, as the guitar finishes out the verse when the vocal
drops out. In the same vein is "I Got To Cross The River Of Jordan", again
guitar shares the vocal lines with the voice. This is a real tour de force
with some nice dynamics displayed. McTell was another songster with blues
being only part of his repertoire, Lomax did a good job of plumbing his
spectrum.
Quality of the recordings is good considering they were all cut as 78 RPM
acetates some 50-60 years ago. If you want to look through a window into
another place and time, here is your chance.
This review is copyright © 2001 by Tony Glover, and Blues On Stage, all rights reserved. Copy, duplication or download prohibited without written permission. For permission to use this review please send an E-mail to Ray Stiles.
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