Customer Reviews

Legends of Country Blues

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This 5-disc boxset is a must-have for anyone who needs to upgrade (or hear for the first time) even just 2 of the artists included. Look at it like this, buying 2 single discs by any of these guys will put you between $25 and $30. The price for this entire set.

This is the complete pre-war recordings of Skip James, Son House, Bukka White, Tommy Johnson, and Ishman Bracey. In other words, included here is some of the best music America ever produced.

I will first say that in terms of Tommy, Son, Ishman, and Bukka, this is the best sonic quality in which I have heard them. The Documents and Sony/Columbia releases are not as good as this. Skip's stuff was released by Yazoo so if you have that and love it you may think you don't need this for Skip, which is fine though, because the 4 others still sound much better here.

Tommy in particular has never (at least beyond hearing his original sides, decades ago) sounded better, in my opinion. Honestly, I will probably always have a tough time deciphering alot of what he is saying, but I can make out alot more of it here than I ever could in the years I owned the Document disc. His guitar playing and tone sound better, fuller, also. I've appreciated Tommy more in the 4 months I've had this box than I did in the previous however many years I had the Document. I must mention that the one minor mistake of the box is on Tommy's disc. Boogaloosa Woman and Morning Prayer are in the opposite order listed on the cd. Not a big deal at all.

I was quite looking forward to the Bukka disc because previous to buying this box, I only had his Okeh and Vocalion stuff from 1937 and '40. All the earlier stuff was new to me. Having heard it all now, I think the Okeh '40 is his best. His guitar playing is fantastic during all eras, but I like his voice best in '40.

Ishman I was the least familiar with, only having heard some of his stuff at an acquaintances place, but never owning it or getting any repeated listenings of my own. There is some good and not so good stuff here, in my opinion. For me, the defining highlight of alot of Ishman's stuff is the mandolin playing of Charlie McCoy. He is captured louder, and has a much bigger presence with Ishman than he ever had with Tommy Johnson and it makes for a great overall sound.

After buying this in 2003 I checked to see what another site had to say about it, and they said it was great for the blues novice. Hogwash. Whether you never heard of any of these guys before, or have been listening to them since before I was born, this box is a fantastic deal and has great sound (by the standards of what one can reasonably expect when so much of the source material is from Paramounts). The richness and tone of the guitars and voices are there, but without the degree of noise-reduction that flattens the sound. This is an essential box set for any fan of pre-war blues.

Skip: The haunting ghost-voice of Mississippi. Son: All the fire & brimstone. Bukka: Groove-blues to shake your tail feathers to. Tommy: Drunken, languid pain. Ishman: Sometimes great, sometimes goofy.

There's no denying that the music on these discs is fabulous (although Ishman Bracey is hardly of the same caliber as Skip James or Son House). No, the problem with these discs (and JSP discs generally) is that the sound quality is terrible. Obviously any CDs made from old 78s are going to have loud hiss and pops. That's to be expected. What's terrible here is that JSP's solution has, from the sound of it, been to lop off the higher end of the sound, with the result that everything sounds muffled and distant. It's as though they'd put a heavy blanket over your speakers. I prefer Yazoo's method, which has more hiss and other noise, but infinitely more clarity and presence. The difference between JSP's version of Booker T. ("Bukka") White and Yazoo's is like night and day: you'd never know what a subtle vocalist and guitarist he actually was if all you heard were the versions on these discs. It's even worse with the great Skip James, since in his case the originals are in really bad shape: if you're not careful (and JSP is not), you end up with mud instead of genius. In short, the remastering has real consequences for what you can hear of the music. All the nuance is absent on these discs. Get the Yazoo or the Biograph or the Roots-n-Blues ones instead: you'll have more background noise, but you'll also know why people rave over these musicians in the first place.

I have owned many different cd copies of each of these artists on various labels, yazoo, document, ect., but none come close in terms of the sound quality ! I know this can be a very subjective issue, bbut believe me i have been listnening to this music four years and i feel as if im hearing the music anew !so dont just sit there shake your moneymaker on down to the record shop and score yourself a copy, and at this price the music wont be the only thing that makes you smile !

For me I first began to be interested in blues after listening to Led Zeppelin and wondering what artists inspired them. However concerning this album, I have a warning you better like the blues or else this will not be your cup of tea. First, you need to understand the sound does not suck, it actually sounds great! Keep in mind. just like it states on the box these are PRE-WAR RECORDINGS, which means there won't be that noise-free perfectly crystal clear audio that so many people (especially young people like myself) are use to. So, if you can get past the sub-par audio quality (by modern day standards), you will treasure this collection of some of the best musicians that have ever graced the earth.

As far as I can tell, this box contains the only comprehensive collection of Son House's prewar recordings on the market. (All of the other Son House compilations I'm aware of (or own) gather his material in various combinations--all less than complete--e.g., the Travelin' Man CD containing only his Library of Congress sessions.) Just for everything of his in one place, I might have been willing to pay some $30.

But Legends of Country Blues also offers all of Skip James', Bukka White's, Tommy Johnson's, and Ishman Bracey's ante-WWII works. If you don't already own the output of two or more of these preeminent bluesmen, you can't afford not to buy this set.

(I should add that the "remastering" JSP has done is absolutely fantastic. Somehow they've managed to remove a phenomenal amount of scratchiness without compromising the magnificence of the music. Again, God bless JSP.)

But I wish I had known about it before I bought the many CDs I now own that contain these songs! I've bought many JSP collections of other artists and been very pleased with them. On this set, I just see a great collection for anyone just getting into the really old delta blues, without buying at least six different high priced CDs by these artists separately. If you're wanting to get into the delta blues and wondering where to start....JUMP ON THIS!! .....Then buy the complete works of Robert Johnson.

I downloaded the MP3s not realizing that not all songs on the 5-CD box set are included. Which was my loss because I realized that I now want all the music from all the musicians! While I already owned many of Son House's recordings, the other artists were new to me. Skip James' music is so haunting and beautiful that I wanted all of it, not just a sampler. I also just love Bukka White, who was also a discovery for me.

So this is a mixed blessing. You either have to get the physical CDs for the full music or get an abridged version for the download. I decided to go totally digital a while ago but may have to make an exception in this case to get the full set of music.

You won't find a better box set or recordings of the blues, they're all here, the legends of country blues, the delta sounds of Skip James, Sonhouse, Tommy Johnson, Bukka White, and the unusual bluesman, Ishman Bracey, Bracey is joined by session man Charlie McCoy twanging the mandolin on a few tracks, mandolin is seldom heard on blues recordings, unique like Papa Charlie Jackson and his banjo. These are also the complete pre-war recordings of each artist and the only existing recordings of Tommy Johnson. Recently listening to the "Early Cajun Recordings" on this British label, JSP, the audio surpasses most everything recorded on disc, most comparable with Germany's Bear Family in the sound department. Purchasing this set, is an upgrading for me, owning everything in this set on different compilations except White and Bracey, yes, some pops and scratches are still heard throughout, but the vocals and guitar are more clear and vital than say the Yahoo or Document recordings, you'll notice the difference right away, this five disc set also includes liner notes, booklets, and important history facts about each bluesman. The only problem or complaint with me, the great blind Willie McTell is not included, other than that - one of the best box sets you'll ever own, essential.