Alabama Blues: 1927-1930
compiles the complete known recorded output of six obscure rural blues acts:
George "Bullet" Williams
,
Clifford Gibson
Ollis Martin
Bertha Ross
Jaybird Coleman
and
Frank Palmes
(which may actually be merely a pseudonym of
Coleman's
). As the liner notes point out, it's interesting to note that almost all of the artists featured here play the harmonica, an instrument whose relatively low cost made it the ideal accompaniment for the era's bluesmen, especially those from such an economically depressed area as rural Alabama; there's a clear regional sensibility linking their music, its primitive power and emotional intensity reflections of the blues at its purest. ~ Jason Ankeny