Often ranked with such greats as , , and was for many years the last surviving practitioner of the " " style of . This record, cut for in 1956, captures late in his career but still during the peak of his power. Indeed, a more magisterial performance could not be imagined. While born and raised on the Mississippi, takes this opportunity to demonstrate the range of musical influences he's successfully mastered over the course of his career. Proving to be equally at home in both and straight idioms, offers sparkling renditions of both and where sings an interesting set of uncommon lyrics, bending the melody with an inspired shift. On works the call and response with a choir and scathingly delivers the line, "This train carries both white and black now." Perhaps simply to prove a point, he closes with the slightly more contemporary sweetly inflecting the chorus with a tender bit of lyricism. While this is not considered "the" album to own, it is, nonetheless, a very good one, and has the obvious advantage of being kept continuously in print by . ~ Brian Whitener