Pig N Whistle Red [Original recording remastered]

Blind Willie McTell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 15, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Shout Factory
• ASIN: B00009ZYDH
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,357 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable document, October 13, 2003

By 

Docendo Discimus (Vita scholae) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pig N Whistle Red (Audio CD)

This twenty-track set from Sony Records is a remastered reissue of the set Willie McTell and James "Curly" Weaver cut for the now-defunct Regal Records label in 1950, and it was previously issued in 1993 on Biograph with a different cover (but the same track sequence).

These fine songs have McTell and second guitarist Weaver sharing the vocals. They include remakes of McTell's 1933 singles "Talkin' To You Mama" and "Good Little Thing", as well as more recent material, and this session was left out of many McTell discographies until it resurfaced in 1993. And it's a good thing it did, because it is by far the best-sounding Willie McTell-material available, and the sheer diversity of this wonderful album makes "Pig 'n Whistle Red" an indispensable (and delightful) recording.

It includes country blues, gospel, ballads, and more country blues, and two quite different versions of a 20s pop song, "Pal Of Mine".

The playing is amazingly sharp and crisp, and the vocals wonderfully delicate, and this collection has to be considered essential to any serious acoustic blues collection.

(Pig 'n Whistle Red was a barbecue stand in Atlanta, by the way, and one of the places where McTell and Weaver played for tips. These sides were originally released under that moniker.)

Willie Samuel McTell and Curley Weaver were a legendary duo in Atlanta, Georgia even before World War II. Weaver, known as "The Georgia Guitar Wizard", played a strongly rhythmic, percussive second guitar, often playing full chords behind McTell's finger-picked twelve-string lead guitar. It is a real gift to have these two men still together and in excellent form on this wonderful postwar recording.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gone with the wind -- Blind Willie McTell, June 27, 1998

By 

L. Hagemann "Avid reader" (Durham, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pig 'n Whistle Red (Audio CD)

Enjoying this fantastic CD makes one wish to have been born sooner when Blind Willie McTell was alive and available to perform at will. How nice to see and hear him alive and full of improvisation. The soul of McTell comes through as vividly as possible in this CD along with buddy Curley Weaver. It is clear that his life was rough and that he had lived it to the fullest. If this CD were a bottle of fine wine you would share it with all of your friends and they would thank you forever!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant, but sadly uncredited master of the blues., December 19, 1999

By 

Jay Kiiha (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pig 'n Whistle Red (Audio CD)

For the money, it gets no better than "Pig N'Whistle Red." By the time he recorded these sessions for Regal Records, he was 51 years old and displayed an emotive sensitivity that transcends just about any other country blues recording ever made. For the sake of pure feeling alone, I rank this one on the same level as the best recordings from Coltrane, Miles and Monk. A simply brilliant expression of Piedmont style blues. Buy this CD!