16 Classic Blues Songs from the 1920's Volume 3

 Yep, I've got 9 or 10 of these to go, so I'm going to talk about them as much as my limited time allows! As I've said, these are always fantastic collection of early, acoustic blues so if you're a fan or such sounds, these are pretty essential. You may have some of the songs on other releases, but these comps are always good collections and fine listening and usually provide some either unreleased numbers or at least some true rarities. The images that were used on the accompanying calendars are sometimes a bit politically incorrect nowadays (see above) but still are wild reminders of the times.

On this one we get Skip James' truly haunting "Devil Got My Woman", Charley Patton doing "Love My Stuff", the legendary Willie Brown and his fine guitar playing on his "M and O Blues", the Mississippi Sheiks fiddle-led "He Calls That Religion" (my band, the Swamp Gospel, did a version of this at one point), there's a bit of silliness from Blind Blake in "Champagne Charlie is my Name", Ida Cox continues to be sultry with her piano-driven "Lost Man Blues", I really dig King Solomon Hill's guitar playing on this series and here he shines on "The Gone Dead Train", there's more from Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ma Rainey (her unforgettable, Dixieland-ish "Black Bottom"), Papa Charlie Jackson (a whimsical "Skoodle Um Skoo"), Blind Roosevelt Graves (getting jazzy in "Guitar Boogie", that ironically, does not highlight the guitar), holiday "cheer" from Leroy Carr with his "Christmas in Jail", more from Mattie Delaney, Louis Lasky (fast'n'fancy guitar work here), and George Torey before the bookend finale of Skip James and his "Cypress Grove Blues". 

What more can I say - well worth the purchase!