Customer Reviews

Mountain Blues: Blues Ballads & String Bands

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Another fantastic collection from JSP Records out of the UK. If you had any doubts that country music was hugely influenced by African American blues, this box set will assure you that despite societal segregation, cross pollination between musicians was rampant. Fans of steel guitar will find some gems in this compilation. Roy Smeck and King Benny Nawahi make appearances as well as lesser known players like Lemuel Turner. The early 20th century Hawaiian music craze obviously made its impact on old time string band players as well as the early blues slide guitarists. And wait until you hear Gene Autrey belting the blues! But historical interest aside, these four discs are filled with wonderful songs and instrumental and vocal performances. JSP Records deserves accolades for their preservation of early American folk and blues recordings.

Very much in the same vein as the earlier White Country Blues, 1926-1938: A Lighter Shade Of Blue (and possibly duplicating much of it - I haven't checked) this collects blues-influenced tracks cut by old-time country performers. You've got solo guitarist-singers, string bands, duets, harmonica solos (something I don't normally pursue, but there were some fantastic cuts on here) and lots of great fiddling.

Sound quality is very good given the source material - there were a few tracks that I might have omitted as being too badly beaten up, but only a very few. JSP really know their remastering - all of their releases can be trusted in this regard so far as I know and I have quite a few (Louis Armstrong's The Hot Fives & Sevens is a must-have)

The musical selection is very fine given the theme. One quibble is that they've sometimes included the one blues number by an artist who only recorded two or three tunes, so one wonders where the other cuts will turn up, but that's the completist/collector talking. For sheer enjoyment, this collection can't be beat!