Robert Pete Williams

Robert Pete Williams | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 11, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fat Possum Records
• ASIN: B00005O6BX
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,099 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars deepest blues, October 31, 2001

By 

Jerome Clark (Canby, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Robert Pete Williams (Audio CD)

Robert Pete Williams, who died on December 31, 1980, in Rosedale, Louisiana, was one of the South's great deep bluesmen. This Fat Possum reissue of field recordings -- the crowing chicken and passing train in the background testify to the literalness of that phrase -- is more than a welcome reminder of the power and passion Williams brought to his music. It is also the finest recording, artistically and acoustically, released under his name. Though the titles are largely familiar from the folk-blues canon -- "Farm Blues," "Matchbox Blues," "Railroad Blues" -- they have little in common with the songs ordinarily associated with those names. Backed only by acoustic or electric guitar, sometimes with slide, Williams improvises original lyrics and incorporates traditional ones into a distinctly personal, roughhewn storytelling style. There is not, it must be said, a lot of melodic variation here, but Williams's intense, no-prisoners approach overwhelms and moves the listener. It's hard to imagine a more wrenching, touching tribute to another bluesman than "Goodbye, Slim Harpo." One of the most compelling blues recordings I've ever heard, it elevates Williams into the ranks of such seminal deep-blues figures as Howlin' Wolf and Mississippi Fred McDowell. One complaint, however: the liner notes are barely more than useless. Dated February 1971, they leave the impression that Williams is still with us, and worse, they tell us little, failing even to note the remarkable parallels between Williams's life as murderer-freed-to-sing and that of another towering figure in Louisiana folk music, Lead Belly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Blues Bliss!, September 23, 2001

By 

SIMON AGUILAR-GARCIA (Seattle, Wa. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Robert Pete Williams (Audio CD)

Haunting and piercing Blues. Takes you on a journey. This is one of the few Delta Blues cd's that I have heard in it's entirety over and over even though I only received it about 10 days ago! Not a bad song, they flow one after each other adding to the whole cd. I am partial to "Goodbye Slim Harpo" since Harpo is one of my favorite artists and I believe he died in the early 70's, around the time this cd was first recorded. Play him often on The Crazy Coyote Blues and Jazz Power Show 1490 KOTY in southcentral Wa. state.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Doesn't Get Much Better, January 25, 2003

By 

Riley (Highland, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Robert Pete Williams (Audio CD)

He lacks Robert Johnson's technique, but Robert Pete Williams probably is the most sublime blues guitarist since the Master. Don't be put off by the chunky, clunky playing - listen deeply. His musical vocabulary is wholly original (and a powerful influence on Captain Beefheart) and his sense of form and structure is unparalleled. The interplay between voice and guitar is extraordinary.

These essentially are field recordings and sound like it. But the immediacy and sense of time and place are a big part of the power of this record. And it is very powerful. This is the real thing.