Customer Reviews

The Best of Charlie Patton

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let me echo an earlier review: Yazoo has completely re-mastered these timeless songs from the best available 78's; I have never heard Patton sound so three-dimensional, the remastering bringing more of a living presence to the songs than ever before. I hear things I didn't hear before, the spoken asides jump out, little touches I hadn't noticed... I've listened to Charlie Patton for well over 30 years and have never heard him sound so good. It really is astounding what Yazoo has done. Kudos to Yazoo! Their approach to the remastering this time really paid off. This is the best sounding Patton there is.

If you're not up for one of the numerous Charlie Patton box sets, this is a really excellent alternative.
Yazoo's "The Best Of Charley Patton" gathers 23 cuts, 70 minutes of music, including "Down The Dirt Road Blues", "Pony Blues", "Shake It And Break It", "Banty Rooster Blues", and numerous others. The sound quality is a good as any disc you'll ever come across, and while these sides certainly aren't as clean as Robert Johnson's or Blind Willie McTell's prewar singles, Yazoo has done a really fine job remastering the songs.

There are other excellent Charlie Patton discs, like Wolf Records' "Pony Blues: His 23 Greatest Songs", Recall's very reasonably priced double-disc overview "Screamin' & Hollerin' The Blues", and Snapper's brand new "Hang It On The Wall", but as far as single disc compilations go, none are better than this one, and few are quite as good.
A very fine purchase. And kudos to Yazoo Records for actually spelling Patton's name the way he spelled it himself!

I've heard four other discs of Charlie Patton's music and this new Yazoo re-remaster is by far the best sounding. Other Charlie Patton discs sound just plain muddy with too much high-end removed, others are nearly unlistenable, but not this one.

According to the liner notes, this is the first disc allowing the listener to hear "High Sheriff" and "Jersey Bull" at the correct speed. This is the only Patton disc with sound quality earning a five-star review as far as I'm concerned.

Unless you go back to 1934 and put them on a new Victrola, I doubt if these cuts ever sounded better. I've had Charlie Patton compilations in the past and many of the cuts sounded very scratchy. Those recorded on the Paramount label are the worst since they didn't have the resources that Victor or Columbia did and the Paramount 78's did not hold up with time. I don't know how they did it, but they cleaned them up on this disc and they now sound as good as ever. Patton had a rough emotional voice and his singing goes back to 1910 or even earlier. His guitar playing utilized showmanship with a lot of slapping and weird bass lines and breaks. These recordings date from 1929 to 1934, the year of his death. One minor quibble is that despite the excellent job Yazoo does on remastering these cuts they do not provide us with discography dates. "Record nerds" like me want to know when they were recorded for historical purpose. These classic blues records are a must for any blues fan or historian. Patton is mentioned in the same reverent tones as Robert Johnson. Essential!

If you want to learn the true roots of Rock n roll, this cd is it!! Patton was a true master of the blues, and his influence changed music forever. Yazoo has done the best job at restoring his music. Do not by any other labels for early blues; Yazoo only deals with the best quality 78 rmp records that exsist.

I agree with the other reviewers here. I've listened to this music for over twenty-five years on vinyl and on CD. This disc (and it's companion -"Primeval Blues, Rags and Gospel Songs") has by far the best sound. Given the available source material, I didn't think it was possible for these records to sound so good. Thanks Yazoo! (Now if you'd only start including discographies with your releases . . .)

Though I like Robert Johnson, this collection shows that all the superlatives heaped on him should probably be heaped on Patton instead. The blues don't get more powerful or essential than this. Listen to Patton's deep raspy voice and you hear the essence of what makes the blues work.
As far as the sound, I don't own a slew of different Patton recordings but from the brief bits I've heard from other collections (JSP), Yazoo seems to be the best out there.

This is my first purchase of Patton material, and it was quite a revelation, even for a fan of raw delta blues from the likes of the vaunted Robert Johnson and Son House.
As expected, there is considerable surface noise from the criminally poor quality compound used by Paramount in the original 78rpm disks.
However, much to Yazoo's credit, they exercised the greatest care possible in selecting the best quality records they could find, then judicially remastered them, without overdoing it the way so many others do by killing the high and low ends.
The sound quality will never be equal to the stunning RJ "King of the Delta Blues," but then, Paramount did not use the superior recording equipment or disk compound used by ARC/Victor/Columbia with Mr. Johnson.
With that said, Patton's incredibly energetic, yet subtle picking and bottleneck work emerges through the hiss and pop, much the way equally crappy disks used for Son House's Paramount recordings could not restrain his National guitar.
Then, there is that little matter of Patton's matchless voice, which is so raspy and powerful that the photo on the cover of him inspires disbelief that such a scrawny little guy could produce it.
He also uses it to produce a myriad of different voices, often as quick spoken asides mid-song, immediately following with his gritty singing.

The highlights for me:
"Down the Dirt Road" is an excellent example of Patton using rhythm in all ways imaginable, using his foot, finger-tapping his guitar, snapping his strings, and even his voice all at once. The guitar is very simple, especially for a gifted a guitarist as Patton.
"It Won't Be Long" immediately jumped out to me as familiar in tune to me, until I realized its tune is basically the same as Son House's incredible "Shetland Pony." I couldn't help liking it immediately, largely because this earlier work was what almost certainly inspired House.
"High Water Everywhere" is fantastic, with Patton practically screaming his raspy vocals, while tapping his guitar, stomping, speaking quick asides, and quickly strumming away. Martin Scorsese uses this song in his PBS "Blues" documentary with archival b&w footage of a Mississippi flood.
"High Sheriff Blues" is mournful, with Patton sadly describing harsh treatment by a lawman, with beautiful high bottleneck used at the end of each verse of his singing.
"Mississippi Bo Weevil Blues" is quick, with Patton making a rare foray out of raspy singing into conventional smooth bass vocals. Great bottleneck used at the end of each verse, much in the same way as "Sheriff."
"Lord I'm Discouraged" sounds as sad as one would expect, with Patton simply speaking the title at the very beginning, then sings his troubles, with beautiful bottleneck perfectly in time to his singing.
"A Spoonful Blues" is about the evils of cocaine, and he uses incredible bottleneck throughout to accent his singing, then uses dozens of different voices throughout, as a way to provide varying points of view about the drug.
"Pony Blues" is - of course - widely hailed as his "signature" song, and the odd rhythm, accented with bottleneck and muted staccato, is infectious.
"Magnolia Blues" is another unusual example of Patton singing without the rasp, with great extensive use of his bottleneck, both mirroring his singing and accenting it at the end of each verse.
"I Shall Not Be Moved" is (sadly) beset by terrible recording medium, possibly the worst found on this CD. And, yet, even that abysmal old 78 could not trap Patton's work on this, probably the REAL highlight on this disk, with Patton starting out slowly and quietly, then launching into a gallop of bottleneck and strumming, and likewise turning up the volume and pace of his singing. LOVED this one!

The other tracks on this are all very good, but those I mention above are (to me) the real standouts.
Also, anyone unfamiliar with old delta bluesmen should know that they often reused themes and tunes, not just their own, but also from each other, as Son House and (yes) Robert Johnson did with Patton.
Listening to these, one can only wonder how much bigger a figure Charlie Patton might have been had he lived well beyond 1934, long enough to be properly recorded and released on decent vinyl.
Even so, the poor sound quality cannot keep his incredible music down, and the digital medium will ensure no further deterioration will interfere.
Great work, Yazoo!

Charlie Patton was one of the great early blues legends, along with others such as Son House. His recordings were of low quality, with a lot of noise that obscured his artistry, as I understand it. This CD, remastered by Yazoo, still has noise, but the voice and instrumental playing emerges, for the most part, cleanly, revealing the artistry of Patton.

The liner notes summarize his importance (page 2): "Charlie Patton (1891-1934) was the most powerful blues recording artist of all time, as well as the most subtle. He was, and remains, a figure of immense significance in blues history." The first sentence may be a bit of hyperbole, but the CD does show us why he is so important. His guitar playing is cleanly done; he provides some of his own rhythm by foot stomping and guitar slapping; his voice is a great blues voice, ranging from softly sung songs to great "exuberation." He established a series of themes, which he would use as the basis for many songs after he began recording, by 1910.

Some illustrative cuts:

"Down the Dirt Road" is a nice example of Patton creating his own percussion effects by foot stomping and guitar tapping. His raw voice does well by the blues song here. This is one of his three best-known themes.

"High Water Everywhere" focuses on a flood in the late 1920s. What a raw powerful voice, as he nearly shouts out the tune at times. The guitar playing is rather simple, but effective. There are some nice backing vocals and the song is taken at a sprightly pace.

"Pony Blues" is perhaps "Patton's signature song. . ." It represents one of his few key themes that he varied as time went on into other songs. The background noise is among the most annoying on the CD, but it does not obscure the work of Patton. Voice and instrumentation change throughout the song. As liner notes say, "Patton's vocal dynamics usually kept his blues from being predictable and boring."

This is a "must buy" for those who want to understand where the blues came from; it represents a key point in understanding the evolution of the blues.

Charlie was truly among the greatest musicians I have ever heard. Sometimes I'm dam sure he is the greatest blues singer of all time. But rankings don't really matter here. The music matters. In the 20's - 40's when old time music was pure, music was magic. Blues was magic, it wasn't a commercial enterprise as it is now and seemingly all music is based around suburban consumerism. Artists like Charlie Patton, Uncle Dave Macon, Weems String Band, Skip James and so many others were the real deal. These are the artists that Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Ect... all clamor about as the holy grail they can never reach. I don't listen to no rock n roll. Stick to old time music. Charlie is timeless. It hardly matters that these sides were released on the Paramount label and are famous for their difficult sound. Yazoo records have done a great job bringing out the mix. These records sound "alive" which is more than I can say about modern recordings, which have no surface noise and are clearer, but in turn sound overproduced, loud, and harsh. At least these sound alive.