Customer Reviews

Classic Sides

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Blind Lemon Jefferson was the greatest of the country bluesmen. (For a measure of my enthusiasm, see my review of the Yazoo set.)

If you dig him enough, or are curious enough, to want his entire output in one place for a budget price, then by all means this is the package to buy.

But completeness and price are the top virtues of this set. If you want to hear these records at their best, with careful attention to making them sound clear and present, the Yazoo one-disc compilation still leads the pack, far and away.

Except for a slightly better mastering job, these four discs mirror the four separate BLJ volumes on Document. In fact, I would not be surprised to learn that these _are_ the old Document masters, run through a noise reduction system. The sound quality is quite uneven: the better-sounding takes sound pretty good, but some of the others are awful.

The version of " 'Lectric Chair Blues," one of Lemon's finest records, as heard here is terribly worn and noisy, to the point of being unintelligible. Also true of the same track on the Document. On Yazoo, it's a wonderful listen and you can hear and understand all of the words.

"Long Lonesome Blues," take 2, is also nearly inaudible. On the Yazoo, it sounds as if they may have been working with the same 78 disc, but the results are much improved.

JSP Records gained a stellar reputation because its earliest roots-and-jazz compilations were mastered by the late John R. T. Davies, who was a genius at resurrecting old recordings and making them sound real. But this is not one of those sets.

So: With Lemon Jefferson, you always get quality music, and with this JSP collection you get nearly all of it. (Several alternate takes are not here.) But if sound quality is an issue, I have to recommend Yazoo's "Best of."

Having had this since about 3/23/03, I am ready to review it. I'll start by saying that it has not left my cd player since it arrived. I've listened to 2 or more discs each day every day that I have owned it so far.

I don't have that single-disc Yazoo Blind Lemon compilation from a couple years ago, so I can't compare/contrast the sound quality with that, but this does indeed sound better than do the Documents.

I do know that the Catfish label will be releasing their own complete Blind Lemon box later in 2003 (yes I know it is listed for sale here but I have e-mailed the label and it absolutely has not been released yet, and will not be until the tail end of 2003) and I am very curious to hear that one also, but I've been loving this one so far.

This box maybe isn't the sonic improvement I was hoping for, but I really can't fault it. You're definitely upgrading from your Documents if you purchase this set but I think I will really just have to hear this side-by-side with the new Catfish box for me to make a definitive statement.

I know some of you may be wondering why I went ahead and reviewed this already if I feel I have to hear the Catfish box to be sure of what I think of this one. Well, I've really been into this one and just thought some of you who don't own it yet would like to be able to read a review of it to help you decide.

So far my review has been geared towards the people who already know Lemon and his music. Now I'll try and write a bit for those of you who may be taking your first crack at him.

First, this is an excellent choice for a first Blind Lemon Jefferson purchase. I look at it like this... this box has a great price and you get everything he recorded, thus you can fully immerse yourself in his music and decide from there whether you are into him or not.

Blind Lemon's music ranges from mournful to lewd, upbeat to low-down. I suppose that many "first-time Lemon" fans may (or may not) be coming to him from Robert Johnson. All I am going to say is that the world of pre-war blues is a very large world that covers lots of moods and modes of personal expression. RJ is not the end-all and be-all that many would have you believe. That's really all there is to remember. Blind Lemon was his own man with his own unique artistic vision, all of which pre-date RJ by a decade. This box-set collects his entire recorded output. 1926-1929 were some great years for American music!

You may also want to consider Jelly Roll Morton's 5-disc JSP box-set. I've had that one for 2 or 3 years now and it just keeps getting better!

ANY Lemon set that features both "Jack O' Diamond Blues" and "Where Shall I Be?" (absolutely immortal--listen to that little guitar intro) has got to start out being superb, and being the "complete" recordings of Lemon, how can it go downhill from superb? It can't. "Jack O' Diamond Blues" is the ultimate in blues shouting, just the best. And "Where Shall I Be?" is absolutely ethereal--what a masterpiece, being on my list of favorites with Tommy Johnson's "Canned Heat Blues" (favorite blues song), Charley Patton's "High Sherrif Blues" (favorite voice), Eddie Anthony/Henry Williams's "Georgia Crawl" (favorite fiddle and duet), Blind Willie McTell's "Scarey Day Blues" (great solo), Lonnie Johnson's "Careless Love" (only the original, on acoustic 12-string, not the later sappy stuff), Sleepy John Estes's "Down South Blues" (as mournful as it gets), Cannon Jug Stompers' "Bring It With You When You Come" (favorite banjo), Sonny Boy I's "Miss Louisa Blues" (maybe the wildest harp, short of George "Bullet" Williams's "Touch Me Light, Mama"), and Sonny Boy II's "Lonesome Cabin" (try to find a more beautiful harp). Get this Lemon box, check out my two favorites, and dig the rest of it--he was one of the coolest.

Blind Lemon Jefferson had fascinating, humorous, engaging lyrics, fluid, flamenco-like guitar playing, and high, emotive vocals. He was one of the original Bluesmen. Unfortunately, he recorded for Paramount Records, which was notorious for their records' horrendous sound quality. I feel that this album represents Jefferson's music in the best sound quality possible. The first half of the man's career was his most creative period. The originality of his music declined as the 1920s ended, but this is still fantastic music. Almost 100 hundred years later, there is still nobody alive who can successfully reproduce Blind Lemon Jefferson's guitar technique. If you're interested in other early Texas Bluesmen who were true poets, check out J.T. "Funny Papa" Smith and Texas Alexander.

Finally! Blind Lemon Jefferson all in one place! Bluesmen such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, and Charley Patton are names nailed into American culture and with damn good reason. These guys made the best sound to come out of the heart, soul, and the acoustic guitar. As you might've guessed, my absolute favorite is the great Blind Lemon Jefferson. Sure, the recording is terrible, but that gives the music a more haunting sound. The Blues and Jazz are pure American and the best music around. Just listen to Match Box Blues or Bitches Brew by the legendary Miles Davis. But getting back to the subject, this is the stuff folks. This is the first time the blues were put to wax and hearing Blind Lemon wail still sends shivers down your spine.

This four-disc JSP compilation provides a truly excellent overview of Texas bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson's career. It is very well annotated, exquisitely remastered, and certainly worth more than the asking price (as is the case with all of JSP's blues box sets).

Every song Lemon ever recorded is here, the religious sides and the blues numbers, including "Match Box Blues", "Jack O' Diamonds Blues", "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", and several alternate takes. There is quite a lot of surface noise present, but that is the case with all Blind Lemon-compilations - some of these songs were comitted to tape 80 years ago, remember. The original masters are long lost, and some songs have been remastered from seriously damaged 78s, which means that the sound quality varies a lot, but this box set sounds as good as any collection currently on the market, with the possible exception of the excellent Milestone CD "Blind Lemon Jefferson".
Lemon's highly advanced guitar playing is often partly obscured by the noise, but his expressive tenor voice cuts is clearly audible, conveying emotions like longing, grief, fear, and bitterness...just listen to songs like "'Lectric Chair Blues" or "That Black Snake Moan".

This is a find for the serious blues lover, but it is just too much for slightly more casual fans, who will be better served by Yazoo's "The Best Of Blind Lemon Jefferson", or Catfish's "Squueze My Lemon". But if you want it all, this is the place to get it. A truly impressive document.

I owned a couple of Blind Lemon cd's, and I was very excited to get this box set. And I was not disappointed. Chances are if you're looking at this item, you know that there is a limit to the sound quality due to the source material (namely old 78 RPM records which are nearly a century old.) Taking that into consideration, I found these discs to be very listenable.

The quality of the 3rd and 4th discs is the best. Unfortunately I didn't much care for the songs on those. I found the the 4th disc in particular to be tiresome, with most, if not all, of the tracks sounding the same.

The first two discs however, are a completely different story. You get a great deal of variety. When people talk about Blind Lemon, these tracks are the stuff they're talking about. After listening to this, you'll understand why his guitar style has never been replicated.

Also be sure to check out Blind Blake.

This album contains all known surviving Jefferson recordings. For blues lovers, having a complete Jefferson set is like having the complete works of Shakespeare.

Jefferson's powerful tenor voice and freakish guitar technique would be reason enough, but you get the songs too. "Matchbox Blues," "Black Horse Blues," "Lockstep Blues," and many others are like lyric poetry.

The sound quality is about as good as possible considering that almost everything had to be dubbed from worn 78s that defy noise reduction. That does mean that background noise is present on every track in varying amounts.

As a bonus, the notes have a touch of ironic humor that doesn't detract from the solid information they present.

Blind Lemon was one of the original masters. He was a huge influence on Robert Johnson, and Johnson borrowed more than just a line or two from Lemon.

Do yourself a favor and listen to a true pioneer who is still influencing popular music to this very day.

First Off, If you should Still Get this Cd if you Love country Blues. But I Must Say that the Way this set is Packaged leaves much to Be desired.
First off, the Liner notes are really not as extensive As they should be. They basicly tell who he was in the bare minnimum, and they don't give any detailes about his life. I know that we know very little about his life, but after reading about him in Stephen Grossmans Texas Blues Guitar Book, they actually tell about some of the people who new him and tell about what it must have been like for him. I would have been much happier if that Had Just Coppied that article word for word.
Also, the sound quality is lacking on some of these tracks (just Compair "See That My Grave Is Kept Cleen" an this album to the one on THE BEST OF BLIND LEMON).
Really, This Should not by any means stop you from buying this album. This Complaint is focused alittle More towards the record Company.

I Only Gave This Review 3 Stars because Blind Lemon was the first recorded geniuses of country blues, and if youre going to the trouble of bying a whole box set, they should atleast give you more History.