Customer Reviews

Masters of Memphis Blues

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Four discs. 72,74,77,77 min. each approximately. Sound is remastered to good quality. This particular set deals with the "Memphis" sound from a time period encompassing about ten years-the late twenties to the late thirties. The artists are all well-known to anyone with even a little bit of knowledge of country,pre-war blues. So,if you're looking for rarities look elsewhere. Having said that,this is a fine collection of some of the greatest songs these bluesmen ever recored.

Beale Street was well-known to everyone during this time. All of these bluesmen played (and drank) on Beale Street. Without this street,the "Memphis" sound would certainly be different. People like Furry Lewis,Frank Stokes and Gus Cannon played throughout this area. All of these tracks are basically vocal with self-accompanied guitar. Sometimes a second guitar was used depending on who was around at recording time. Some of the songs will be familiar to listeners of groups like the Rolling Stones (Robert Wilkins' "That's No Way To Get Along") and other more modern day groups.

In this collection,JSP has put together the more well-known and popular players of country blues. Memphis had quite a reputation for producing good blues singers/players,and this set will prove it. This is a good look at local blues singers in the Memphis area,which is often slighted by the more well known regions like Chicago,Detroit,or the Mississippi region. The blues singers from Memphis can certainly hold their own against any other region.

If you really love the blues, you'll want this collection. This set is like a history book. These are old recordings and some of them are scratchy, but I suspect this had more to do with the original sources than with the recording effort. This collection is a good illustration of how blues evolved.