''The Country Blues'' is a seminal
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...
released on
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
in 1959, catalogue RF 1. Compiled from
78 recordings by
Samuel Charters
Samuel Barclay Charters IV (August 1, 1929 – March 18, 2015) was an American music historian, writer, record producer, musician, and poet. He was a widely published author on the subjects of blues and jazz. He also wrote fiction.
Overview
Cha ...
, it accompanied his
book of the same name to provide examples of the music discussed. Both the book and this compilation were key documents in the
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Billie Holiday, Richard Dyer-B ...
of the 1950s and 1960s, and many of its songs would either be incorporated into new compositions by later musicians, or covered outright.
Background
Recordings of the music known as
country blues
Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...
derived from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s, commencing after the proven commercial appeal of
classic female blues
Classic female blues was an early form of blues music, popular in the 1920s. An amalgam of traditional folk blues and urban theater music, the style is also known as vaudeville blues. Classic blues were performed by female singers accompanied by ...
and ending when the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
greatly curtailed the market for the
record industry
The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...
. These recordings had all been collected on 78s, and with the exceptions of top-sellers like
Lonnie Johnson and
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Lemon Henry "Blind Lemon" Jefferson (September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929)Some sources indicate Jefferson was born on October 26, 1894. was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular blues sing ...
, pressings rarely exceeded approximately 5000 or so. At the time of the issue of this record, the catalogue of
country blues
Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...
music on long-playing album was fairly small. The jazz label
Riverside Records and Folkways had made contemporary recordings of artists such as
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell (October 24, 1911 – March 11, 1986), known as Sonny Terry, was an American Piedmont blues and folk musician, who was known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers and oc ...
,
Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk music and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.
Life and career
McGhee was ...
,
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African American audiences. In the 1930s ...
,
Reverend Gary Davis, and
Lead Belly
Huddie William Ledbetter (; January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949), better known by the stage name Lead Belly, was an American folk and blues singer notable for his strong vocals, virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the folk sta ...
. Reissue compilations of 78s had also been undertaken by both Riverside and Folkways, but they were few, and indeed Charters complained in 1959 that companies owning various country blues
masters were interfering with any attempts to bring the music back on the market.
[''Country Blues'' liner notes.] The most famous reissue, and the most easily accessible to the burgeoning
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
folk revivalists, was the
Harry Smith anthology released in 1952.
Content
Charters undertook this fourteen-song compilation to accompany his ground-breaking study also published as ''
The Country Blues'', both to illustrate the styles and artists referenced, and to bring back more of this music into circulation. Charters took care not to duplicate any recordings already found on the earlier Smith anthology.
The album includes selections from
Leroy Carr
Leroy Carr (March 27, 1904 or 1905 – April 29, 1935) was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. Mus ...
, one of the best-selling blues artists of the 1930s, to
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...
, who was virtually unknown through the 1950s. The recordings were taken from the collections of Pete Whalen, Pete Kaufman, Ben Kaplan, and Charters himself, with the Broonzy and
Bukka White
Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White (November 12, 1906 February 26, 1977) was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer.
Biography
White was born south of Houston, Mississippi. He was a first cousin of B.B. King's mother (White's mother and ...
selections from the archives of Folkways Records and
Moses Asch
Moses Asch (December 2, 1905 – October 19, 1986) was an American recording engineer and record executive. He founded Asch Records, which then changed its name to Folkways Records when the label transitioned from 78 RPM recordings to LP records. ...
.
Charters initially took the Robert Johnson track, "Preachin' Blues," as a different take from the one issued on Vocalion 4630, but it is in fact the only version, issued on both the ''
King of the Delta Blues Singers
''King of the Delta Blues Singers'' is a compilation album by American Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, released in 1961 on Columbia Records. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential blues releases. In 2020, ''Rolling Stone' ...
'' album two years later and
its 1970 sequel.
"Preachin' Blues" is one of the two recordings
John Hammond played at his ''
Spirituals to Swing'' concert at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...
in 1938 to represent the work of the recently deceased Johnson.
Legacy
The publication of the companion book was a "signal event in the history of the music, a moment of recognition and legitimization." The album itself aided in the further dissemination of country blues music, following as almost a coda to the Smith anthology. It had its detractors, however, irritated at the presence of "commercial" artists like Carr and Jefferson, countering with an anthology of "pure" country blues artists, purity determined by lack of sales, entitled ''Really! The Country Blues.''
Later artists recorded versions of songs from this album.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
included "
Fixin' to Die" on his
debut album, and "
Matchbox Blues" had been handed down through
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...
and
Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...
to end up on the ''
Long Tall Sally''
extended play single by
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
. The
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...
recorded "
Stealin', Stealin'" as their first single in 1966 on the small Scorpio Records label in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
.
"
Key to the Highway
"Key to the Highway" is a blues standard that has been performed and recorded by several blues and other artists. Blues pianist Charlie Segar first recorded the song in 1940. Jazz Gillum and Big Bill Broonzy followed with recordings in 1940 an ...
" would appear on
Eric Clapton's ''
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
''Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs'' is the only studio album by the English–American rock band Derek and the Dominos, released in November 1970 as a double album. It is best known for its title track, " Layla", and is often regarded as Eri ...
'', and "
Statesboro Blues
"Statesboro Blues" is a Piedmont blues song written by Blind Willie McTell, who recorded it in 1928. The title refers to the town of Statesboro, Georgia. In 1968, Taj Mahal recorded a popular blues rock adaptation of the song with a prominent sli ...
" would be a concert staple for the
Allman Brothers Allman may refer to:
Music
*The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band was an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (founder, slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboa ...
, issued on their ''
At Fillmore East
''At Fillmore East'' is the first live album by American rock band the Allman Brothers Band, and their third release overall. Produced by Tom Dowd, the album was released on July 6, 1971, in the United States by Capricorn Records. As the title ...
'' live album. Both these last featured the guitar work of
Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman (November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971) was an American rock guitarist, session musician, and the founder and original leader of the Allman Brothers Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame i ...
.
A cover of "
Walk Right In
"Walk Right In" is a country blues song written by musician Gus Cannon and originally recorded by Cannon's Jug Stompers in 1929. Victor Records released on a 78 rpm record and in 1959, it was included on the influential compilation album '' The C ...
" by the folk trio
The Rooftop Singers
The Rooftop Singers were an American country folk-singing trio in the early 1960s, best known for the hit " Walk Right In". The group was composed of Erik Darling and Bill Svanoe (vocals, guitar) with former jazz singer Lynne Taylor (vocals).
...
would top the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 for two weeks in January 1963. "
Careless Love
"Careless Love" is a traditional song, with several popular blues versions. It has been called a "nineteenth-century ballad and Dixieland standard".
The death referenced in an old version was the son of a Kentucky governor. Although published ac ...
" would be sung by
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...
and
Janis Joplin, among others, although they could have been referencing the record by
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the " Empress of the Blues", she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock a ...
rather than the Lonnie Johnson version here.
Track listing
''All songs written by the performer except where indicated.''
Side one
Side two
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Country Blues, The
1959 compilation albums
Blues compilation albums
albums produced by Samuel Charters
Folkways Records compilation albums
Folk compilation albums