The fourth in a series spotlighting
blues
releases from
the Bihari Brothers
' California-based
Modern Records
label, this installment features gutbucket
country-blues
, mostly recorded in Atlanta and Dallas between 1948 and 1952. This isn't polished stuff, and while these sides aren't exactly
field recordings
, they have that same sort of ragged, immediate intimacy, and what they lack in slickness they make up for with enthusiastic abandon. Highlights include the rousing opening track,
"Neglected Woman"
(a piano and guitar romp featuring
Alexander Herman Moore
and
Smokey Hogg
),
"Gonna Write You a Letter,"
which sports an ominous solo electric guitar turn from
Jesse Babyface Thomas
, and a tense, nuanced
"Milford Blues"
by
Little Son Jackson
. The real delights here, however, are the eight sides (including two takes of
"Applejack Boogie"
) by
Pine Top Slim
. With easy, sparse, acoustic guitar accompaniment,
Pine Top
(exactly who he is remains somewhat of a mystery) turns in fine
versions of
"Baby Please Don't Go."
There isn't too much here for the general listener, but collectors and historians of late-period
will find this disc to be a valuable archival document. ~ Steve Leggett