These 1940s radio broadcasts have been issued on previous Arhoolie vinyl albums and cassettes, and without those original releases handy as reference, it's difficult to say whether this 32-track compilation gathers every bit of material from these sources that has seen the light of day. Should you still be building your
Maddox Brothers
collection, however, it's certainly good value, with tracks from 1940, 1945, and 1949, as well as some from a similar vintage whose exact year of broadcast is not known. What matters most is the content, which is good, and sometimes actually of better fidelity than their
4-Star
recordings from the same era;
Cal Maddox's
harmonica in particular seems more prominent here than in their other early work. ~ Richie Unterberger