16 Classic Blues Songs from the 1920's Volume Two

 

The title of this series would evolve as it went along since different editions would have a different number of songs on them, depending on what Blues Images were able to find each year. Of course, they did their best to keep the song'n'sound quality as good as possible while filling out a solid collection of hard-to-find tunes.

Opening with a rare cut from Skip James (I don't remember ever hearing it, anyway), "Drunken Spree", James shows off his exceptional playing, and this is followed by excellent solo and group work from the likes of Son House, Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson, Ed Bell (terrific playing on "Mamlish Blues"), the Mississippi Sheiks with their original take on the now-classic "Sitting On Top Of The World" (although there were similar tunes previously), Charley Patton and his "Pony Blues", Jaydee Short doing a favorite, "Lonesome Swamp Rattlesnake", the always excellent Blind Blake (what a player! Funnily, this tune is taken from the previous "Sitting On Top of the World")), Ida Cox, the Beale Street Sheiks, Blind Lemon Jefferson doing the holiday-themed "Christmas Eve Blues", King Solomon Hill playing some superior guitar while doing an ode to "My Buddy, Blind Papa Lemon", Blind Joe Reynolds has "Ninety Nine Blues" and the proceedings come to a close with two fun cuts from the Memphis Jug Band - "You Gotta Have That Thing" and the classic "Bottle It Up and Go".

As I've said numerous times, I'm a huge fan of this style and love these collections and am super sorry to see them go. Collect them all!