Thursday, December 06, 2018

Classic Blues Artwork From the 1920's - Calendar/CD

I have been collecting these calendar/CD sets for a number of years now and always look forward to the latest release. These days I often have some of the tunes on the CD, but there are always more surprises (every year they somehow find never-before reissued songs for the time period) and the calendar is chock-full of amazing artwork, ads and info on the amazing musicians involved.

This time out we get some comparatively more popular artists like Memphis Minnie, Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, the Beale Street Sheiks and Charley Patton mixed with the likes of Papa George Lightfoot, Raymond Barrow, Lottie Kimbrough, Otto Virgial, Sam Butler and more. All of the performances are top-notch, though, with some amazing playing (mostly guitar based, but some piano-driven, banjo-led and more), great singing and plenty of raw charisma and energy.

I love this stuff and anyone who is a fan of the early days of the blues will surely dig it, as well. Highly recommended for the combination of music, artwork and info! A terrific series!