For anyone who's collected 78-rpm records, enjoyed
Harry Smith
's
Anthology of American Folk Music
, or expressed interest in the great missing old-time and
blues
records of yesteryear,
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
will be the Holy Grail. Whereas it isn't unusual for
Yazoo
to place a rarity on a new collection by
Blind Blake
or
Blind Lemon Jefferson
, this two-disc collection -- all 46 cuts -- is a testament to rarities. Perhaps the best-known (to a general old-time/
audience) performer here is
Son House
, and the collection includes recordings of
"Mississippi County Farm Blues"
and
"Clarksdale Moan."
Others might be familiar with
Dock Boggs
(
"Old Rub Alcohol Blues"
),
Ken Maynard
"Sweet Betsey from Pike"
), and
the Memphis Jug Band
"Jim Strainer Blues"
). Incredibly, several of these tracks were recorded as test pressings and never officially released, meaning that as far as the recording industry is concerned, they don't exist. It's probable that all of the fuss made over this collection of rarities will make little sense to folks who don't spend all of their spare money and time hunting down 78-rpm records, and there's a point here. If you don't know that a certain item is rare, you won't value it in the same way a collector might. In this sense, one CD filled with scratchy old recordings is as good as another. But even for those who might not understand why they should be excited by
, the collection nonetheless holds up as good old-time
folk
, and expense-wise,
always offers lots of quality music for one's money. As an added bonus the cover art and inside cartoon has been put together by none other than
Robert Crumb
, a record collector and one-time
string band
performer himself. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.