Customer Reviews

1927-33 the Early Years

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I owned this on vinyl for years and never tired of listening to it. The sound quality is better than many of Yazoo's other recordings from the '20's and '30's. This is a classic that deserves a much wider audience. Try it, maybe it will become one of your favorites too.

This is one of my favorite blues albums, and a top notch disk regardless of genre. McTell has a way of combining humor and sorrow in a powerful mixture that can have you laughing at the same time you feel the presence of that lonesome melencholy that is so famously, and unexpectedly, comforting.

I'm a little unclear why these recordings are so clear and easy on the ears. They are well recorded and well preserved. It seems to me that none of the Blind Lemon Jefferson recordings from this same period are even half as well preserved. Perhaps it was just fate, perhaps there is some other explanation.

McTell is not an obscure musician. Most of these songs are full of fun and good will. They don't have the dark, deep themes of death and loss that we find so abundantly in the work of someone like Bukka White. McTell wants you to like him, and wants you to have fun. Nevertheless, this is real blues music, driven by McTell's excellent and very inventive guitar work and a knack for story telling.

On Travlin Blues, McTell gets his slide guitar mojo in gear, and makes his guitar imitate sounds like bells and whistles, and speak sentences that make you wonder whether you couldn't have a conversation with that guitar. Sure, its a bit of a novelty song, but at the same time it really works on am emotional level. You feel McTell's longing and sorrow, and laugh at his warm sense of humor.

There are a number of popular musicians who churn out pop music today who could learn something from listening to McTell. Most of his songs feature only him and his guitar, or perhaps some minimum accompaniment. Yet these cuts are driven by a strong beat or soulful riff that carry the listener blissfully along. McTell's high, wistful voice floats to us over the years like some messenger from the soul of America. Sometimes he sings, sometimes he talks and rhymes his way through a verse. But in either case he is deep inside the heart of the blues, and his melodic slide guitar pushes the whole production over the top, making this album one that ought to be in anyone's collection who really cares about what's best in American popular music.

Like the other listeners here I wore this out on vinyl, I had it on tape, and now I have a CD. Whatever the next thing is, I am getting this. This is as good a place as any to start with Willie McTell's music. It is so good that there are now a number of McTell CDs, because he is worth listening to for hours, and every bit of his playing and singing he's engaged, communicating signifying. McTell's style is a great combination of ragtime and swing finger picking in a way that rocks in his own way. There's a biting whit, and great feeling coming through too.
You will smile when you hear this. you will pat your feet, you will listen hard. You will love this and want more. That's why we've all owned this on vinyl, tape, and CD.

I've owned two copies of this on vinyl--wore the first one out. It's short by CD standards, but has most of his best recordings. "Statesboro Blues," "Broke Down Engine," "Love Changin' Blues,".....

It offers a good overview of McTell's style featuring blues, ragtime, and several sides where he played slide. If you don't have any of McTell's recordings, this is a good place to start.

I am just discovering traditional blues and I play this CD nearly every day! Anyone know who the woman is who sings on this disc?