Old time blues in Blues Music

"Please Warm My Weiner: Old Time Hokum Blues" (1992) Blues Various Artists, YazooPerformers include: Bo Carter, Memphis Minnie, Buddie Burton, Butterbean, Susie. This collection consists of bawdy and vaudeville-inspired songs and routines. Liner Note Author: Stephen Calt.

"Old Time Black Southern String Band Music" (02/07/2006) Blues Cage, Butch, ArhoolieButch Cage: James "Butch" Cage (vocals, fiddle); Rosalie Wilkerson, Willie B. Thomas, Robert Jenkins. Personnel: Butch Cage (vocals, fiddle); Willie B. Thomas, Robert Jenkins (vocals, guitar); Rosalie Wilkerson (vocals). Liner Note Authors: Chris Strachwitz; Harry Oster. Recording information: Zachary, Louisana (1960). Photographer: Harry Oster. Louisiana fiddle and guitar duo Butch Cage and Willie B. Thomas were recorded in 1959 by folklorist Harry Oster, who sought to capture a record of the fast-vanishing tradition of string bands who played dance and worship music for parties and church services. Primitive-sounding yet compelling, Cage and Thomas's versions of rarely heard ancient country blues songs like "I Had a Dream Last Night" and "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More" are a window into a bygone age, while their performance of "The Dirty Dozen" brings to light a song that, like the blues itself, has been constantly evolving for generations.

"Old-Time Music From West Virginia (1927-1929)" (09/2000) Blues Various Artists, Document (USA)Personnel: Dick Justice, Frank Hutchison (vocals, guitar); Irving Williamson, Curry (guitar, banjo); Arnold Williamson (fiddle). Audio Remasterer: Gerhard Wessely. Liner Note Author: Tony Russell. Recording information: Chicago, IL (04/??/1927-07/09/1929); N.Y.C., NY (04/??/1927-07/09/1929); St. Louis, MO (04/??/1927-07/09/1929). Old-Time Music From West Virginia features the complete recordings of Dick Justice and the Williamson Brothers and Curry, along with eight sides by Frank Hutchison, whose earlier work is collected on Document's Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1926-1929). This set is consistently worthwhile, though only Hutchison is well known among the performers; the Williamson Brothers and Curry only produced six obscure records, but these sides reveal extensive performance experience and vintage string band style. Justice is an able guitarist who plays rags and ballads with equal skill, also producing a couple of decent waltzes with fiddler Reese Jarvis. Several of his sides demonstrate obvious familiarity with black musical styles: his "Brown Skin Blues" entirely transcends the conventions of racial classification, while the excellent "Cocaine" is clearly derived from an earlier recording of "Cocaine Blues" by black singer and fellow West Virginian Luke Jordan. Frank Hutchison was allegedly a friend of the Williamson Brothers and Curry as well as Justice, though his recorded output and subsequent influence far outweighed those of his associates. While in his earlier sessions Hutchison recorded with harmonica and guitar, these sides from July of 1929 only include the latter instrument, which the player gracefully leads through a range of genres. In "Cumberland Gap," his guitar skillfully evokes the sound and style of a claw-hammer banjo; for his two final performances, Hutchison adopts a slide and produces a couple of genuine blues. Though Hutchison's recordings provide a substantive closure to this set and to the career of a talented musician, his work is available elsewhere, and this is not the place to start a Frank Hutchison collection. What makes this CD most worth owning is instead the presence of the lesser-known figures. These men stand out on their own as able and experienced (if under-recorded) artists; their performances are additionally interesting for their insight into West Virginia's most engaging musical community on record. Recommended to fans of the genre. ~ Burgin Mathews