The Best Of Blind Blake

Blind Blake | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: May 31, 2005
• Label: Shanachie Entertainment
• Copyright: 2005 Shanachie Entertainment
• Total Length: 1:10:22
• Genres:
• ASIN: B000QQXVA4
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #117,213 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Blues from 20's and 30's, June 18, 2006

By 

David L Hutchins "Music Lover" (Mesa, AZ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best Of Blind Blake (Audio CD)

There are two tradegies concerning Blind Blake. The first is that so little is known about his life, even though his work was of great importance. There is only one known photograph of him. Both his birth and date of death are unknown for certain. He recorded around 80 tracks for Paramount Records and his records sold well. In spite of that, even his real name is in question. It might have been Arthur Phelps, although most biographers maintain that it was Arthur Blake and he was known for quite some time as Blind Arthur Blake. The second tradegy is we don't have better quality recordings of his work. The ones on this album aren't terrible; they are listenable. It probably was the best available. Given the technology of the time, it's probably remarkable that we have recordings as good as this that were recorded 80 to 90 years ago. Unfortunately there is a lot of noise, worse on some tracks than others. Still it seems that the quality is better than what I have heard on some of the Blind Lemon Jefferson recordings. Lemon Jefferson was, of course, another important blind black artist of the same era. Sometimes "historically important" music such as this is just not that enjoyable to listen to, but that's not the case here. This is very enjoyable and listenable, even if you aren't a big blues fan. Buy it before it disappears forever. It's worth having in anyone's collection. 5 stars for the music; 3 for the sound quality.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid, August 21, 2001

By 

Ian Gray (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Of Blind Blake (Audio CD)

Blind Blake's guitar style has been very influencial in the history of the blues and this album has many of his best tracks on it. It is certainly easier to listen to than the old vinyl release. I guess that noise reduction stuff works to some extent. I know that the master recordings were lost long ago and this was taken from production 78's. So with that in mind, the sound quality is probably as good as it's going to get. The music is just simply fabulous!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique artist within a speical niche, October 25, 2011

By 

J. Williams "Possum Willie" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Best Of Blind Blake (Audio CD)

Blind Blake is one of those enigmatic artists on the edge of modern recording. Thank God, we have this much documented evidence of this wonderful musician. Blake's style is unique and refined and his finger picking is sophisticated, incorporating a style not often heard but much appreciated. The recording quality is really basic but adequate to convey his extraordinary talent. Almost forgotten but still kicking!