The music -- a meld of
blues
and older, more satiric songster-inspired material, as well as
gospel
-influenced sides -- speaks for itself on this, the widest-ranging and best-sounding collection of
Frank Stokes
' work issued on CD.
The Best of Frank Stokes
, released by
Yazoo
, combines the highlights of such previous releases as
Frank Stokes' Dream
and
Creator of the Memphis Blues
, for a total of six solo sides by
Stokes
, a dozen by
accompanied by
Dan Sane
(usually credited to
the Beale Street Sheiks
), and four more on which he is accompanied by
Will Batts
on the fiddle. The result is a brilliant showcase for the
Memphis blues
legend, though with some inevitable shortcomings. As producer
Richard Nevins
freely admits in his opening annotation, virtually every copy of most of
' original records were marred by pressing flaws (even in otherwise perfect discs) that make for a certain amount of noise -- coming out as hiss -- in the background on playback. Additionally, because many of
' sides were recorded in a hall that was much too large for solo- or duet-performing acoustics, and didn't have the guitars mic'ed properly, the instruments do have a slightly boomy quality, without the presence and impact that one would expect. That said, the widely varying dynamics of the vocals have been balanced out here, so that this CD does, indeed, sound significantly better than the original 78's in at least one essential respect. ~ Bruce Eder