Stop & Listen

Mississippi Sheiks | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 14, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Yazoo
• ASIN: B000000G8I
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,281 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #31 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Strings > General
  • #36 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Traditional Blues
  • #80 in Music > Country > Classic Country > Old-Time Country

Editorial Reviews

The Sheiks were a '20's black string band who were as popular with white audiences as black, perhaps becuase they incorporated white musical influences into their blues sound. Their line-up consisted of the famous Chatmon brothers-Sam, Lonnie, and Bo (a.k.a. Bo Carter)-with help from Walter Vinson and Charlie McCoy. Key tracks include That's It; She Ain't No Good; Sitting on Top of the World; Stop and Listen Blues; Shooting High Dice and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Muddy walked all day just to hear them, June 16, 2003

By 

Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stop & Listen (Audio CD)

Read the liner notes. When he was a teenager Muddy Waters walked all day long to hear the Mississippi Sheiks! Much of Bob Wills's music starts with the Mississippi Sheiks. Their version of Sitting on Top of the World was performed by Wills note for note, word for word, in all of his recordings of the tune from the 1930s to the 1960s recording where he has Vicki Carr singing in the backgrounds to Sheiks music!
I have hipped friends who are serious violinists to the Sheiks and they have come back with words of praise for the fiddling here. As a sometimes blues singer myself, I wish I could do the tunes with half the power and joy you find here.
Curiously, the sheiks were just as, or often more popular with white audiences as they were with Blacks. In fact, they recorded several tunes under other names in the traditional string band style that were released as white hilly billy records and not race records!
They've been neglected because they do not meet the fantasy that blues players, particularly from Mississippi, are guitar playing, slide playing, Delta people. But when Muddy Waters was coming up on Stovals Planation, these guys were so good he walked all day to hear them.
Too much of this history makes one forget that this is just great music to listen to, to make you mellow, smiling, and knowledgeable about life.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Old Country Blues Way Ahead of Its Time, July 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Stop & Listen (Audio CD)

From the first song on this CD "Stop and Listen" my mouth dropped open in awe. The record could have come out yesterday and it would be good, but knowing that this came out 25 years before rock and roll was even invented is just incredible.

Listen to Walter Vinson's mournful singing "Cant ya, a-hear me talking pretty mama" and you just know this is where it all began. I'm picturing them sitting at the local gas station under the hot sun in some Mississippi desert with nobody listening to these beautiful yet bizarre blues songs except some toads. I can't believe these guys aren't as famous as Robert Johnson because they are right there in that class. Their biggest claim to fame is that they originated "Sitting on Top of the World" which has been recorded by the Dead and many other blues musicians, but it doesn't even begin to represent their amazing work. Great violin and guitar, low key and fairly simple but it has everything it needs to get the point across. Some neat melodies like in "Too Long", some great lyrics like in "He Calls That Religion", cool stories like in "Blood in My Eyes for You". This is the real deal.

This collection was put together in part by Stefan Grossman who I believe uncovered a lot of Rev Gary Davis's stuff back in the early 60s. I have been listening to this solidly for weeks and can't seem to stop.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Country Blues for the whole family!, February 18, 2002

By 

Peter Acebal (Christiansburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stop & Listen (Audio CD)

I agree with the previous Music Fan who reviewed this disc - this truly is remarkable stuff!
Perhaps what is most striking is that it preserves the sound of African-American fiddling,a tradition already fading away when these 78s were first waxed and today is all but deceased,-the playing of the Blues on the fiddle is particularly poignant (listen to how cleverly the fiddle counterpoints the sung verses on "Stop and Listen" for a start!),-this music is both a priceless preservation of a lost tradition and first-rate Delta blues performances (even if the Sheiks spent much of their time in and around Jackson,Miss.).
This cd will appeal to ALL blues lovers AND to Bluegrass and Western Swing fiddle fans as well - the Bluesy fiddling here will fascinate fans of Bluegrass fiddle great Alison Krauss and pioneering Western Swing fiddler Bob Wills.
The digital restoration follows in Yazoo's exemplary excellent standards and the liner notes are very informative and a provocative read.
In short,the whole family of fiddle tastes should snap this one up!