Founder of the Delta Blues

Charlie Patton

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 21, 1995)
• Original Release Date: 1969
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Yazoo
• ASIN: B000000G8M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #127,632 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Although the title of founder might not be exactly accurate, Patton does cast a giant shadow over Mississippi blues. His background as a medicine show entertainer made him more than the typical brooding bluesman. Much of his repertoire was upbeat and just plain fun. Take, for instance, his rendition of "Shake It and Break It": the gravelly voiced Patton snaps his strings and taps out the rhythm on his guitar while not missing a beat. His slide numbers like "High Sheriff" and "When Your Way Gets Dark" are beautiful melodic pieces seldom matched by his peers. He was also an early mentor of Robert Johnson, who probably picked up his trademark descending bass run from Patton. Charley was one of the true greats and is required listening for Delta blues fans. --Lars Gandil

From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD
Patton was the key figure in the transition between traditional folk and what came to be known as the Mississippi Delta blues. A flamboyant, popular performer, he recorded a satchelful of titles between 1929 and 1934, two dozen of which appear in this collection. He sang tales of hardship, freedom, topical events, and other matters in a rough voice that stormed with turmoil. His guitar picking was of a piece: skillfully nuanced in expression and, above all, rhythmically imperative. Yazoo's typically conscientious mastering makes the sound of primitively recorded 78s acceptable. -- © Frank John Hadley 1993

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collection of one of greatest of all bluesmen, September 21, 2001

By	R. Weinstock (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Charlie Patton was of the first generation of blues artists and exerted a profound influence on the development of what we call the Mississippi Delta Blues. This Yazoo collection brings together what are genrally regarded to be his greatest recordings. Sound quality varies and Yazoo admittedly did not eliminate some of the clicks and pops in the original because it would muffle the music. This is as good a single disc colelction of Patton's music as one can get, although there are other single-disc collections that look quite good available from other labels.
Bear in mind that the British Catfish label has collected all of Patton's recordings on a budget priced three-disc set. As I write this (9/21/01), Revenant is about to release a seven-disc box that contains not only all of Patton's recordings but every other recording that was made at the recording sessions that Patton participated so this will include pioneering recordings by Willie Brown, Son House, Lousie Johnson and others. One disc will contain recordings by persons influenced by Patton and one will contain interveiws with Patton's associates about Patton. Also included will be a reproduction of the late John Fahey's long out-of-print Patton biography. This box set is likely to be the definitive Patton release.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential roots music and best sound quality, September 8, 2000

By	Bigthumb "bigthumb" (AUSTIN, TX USA) - See all my reviews

Charley Patton is to Mississippi what Blind Lemon Jefferson is to Texas: its most important black rural artist of before WW2. If you have a taste for this sort of thing, it doesn't get better than this. A blazing performer whose singing and guitar work can still overwhelm you, seven decades later. But it's completely inaccurate to slam the disc's sound qualtity and accuse the label of "laziness." To the contrary, Yazoo Records has always had the very best in 78-reissue sound, disc after disc. Its engineers, far from being lazy, have always taken scrupulous care and a ridiculous amount of time in achieving their sonic results. The fact is that the old Paramount78s from which most of these tracks were taken were worn almost beyond recognition, from cheap manufacture and overplaying with heavy tonearms. Yazoo's audio philosophy is that you can't eliminate all the noise without eliminating the high frequencies that make the music live. If you can't take the noise, that's up to you; but the typical Yazoo CD will come closer than any other label's to the sound you'd get if you played these 78s on an antique gramophone: an entirely different, and genuine, sound experience. In the present case, this disc is a complete digital remastering, going back to the original source 78s, of a landmark Yazoo 2-LP set from about 30 years ago (and an earlier CD issue of same). This is no. 10 in Yazoo's "2000 series" of all- digital 78 reissues, and the only place you'll find Patton sounding this good is on its compantion, Yazoo 2001. Get ready to tap, no, make that stomp, your foot to one of the great American dance musicians.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Source!, February 8, 2002

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

Firstly,this bickering about 'laziness' is a bit neurotic,-as the other insightful reviewer pointed out these are Paramount 78s and no cheaper quality discs were ever manufactured and if they have survived at all their fragility rivals an old Renaissance painting SO take it easy with the conscientous engineers at Yazoo because these digital transfers are the very best that can be head with the notoriously cheapo Paramounts!
Musically this CD is a revelation AND an excellently balanced view of Patton as a performer,...not just red-hot Delta blues but also minstrel Rags and field hollers AND his eloquent percussive guitar work needs no qualifying introduction.
If the surface hiss trobules you then all I can suggest is that you take up the guitar learn these tunes then make your very own CD,...BUT you won't get anywhere tho' Patton Was (and always will be) One-of-a-kind!