Additional notes
Album Notes: Part of Columbia's Roots N' Blues series. Organized roughly into chronological order, THE SLIDE GUITAR-BOTTLES, KNIVES & STEEL is an expansive selection of blues slide guitar playing from the late 1920s through the mid-1960s. Some well-known slide guitar players from the 1920s and '30s, including Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and Blind Boy Fuller, are featured here. However, there are also number of lesser-known blues players from later periods, including Sister O.M. Terrell and Buddy Woods, who are deservedly featured on this recording. Though the sound quality on some of the older recordings is a little uneven and the Chicago electric slide of post-World War II Chicago blues--particularly that of Elmore James--is omitted in favor of a more intimate, raw blues sound, there is no shortage of first-rate blues playing here. The closing track featuring Son House is especially notable. House, who was recorded in the midst of the 1960's blues resurgence in a proper studio by legendary producer John Hammond, contributes a version of "Pearline" which stands as a stirring reminder of the power of the blues, even when it's just a man and his guitar.
Album Reviews: Rolling Stone (4/18/91) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "..Listen to `The Slide Guitar' and its obvious Blind Willie Johnson was an original: Not only is his ghostly, quivering vibrato nothing like the more liquid tone preferred by Robert Johnson or Tampa Red, but he also seemed to be after an entirely different effect. Rather than use the slide to energize the beat...it moves across the basic rhythm like the Holy Spirit over the world." Down Beat (2/91) - 4.5 Stars - Very Good Plus - "..an excursion across one of the blues' most emotionally charged and haunting landscapes."
Titles on disc 1
1.: Bottleneck Blues - Weaver & Beasley
2.: Untitled - Barbecue Bob
3.: God Don't Never Change - Johnson, 'Blind' Willie
4.: Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground) - Johnson, 'Blind' Willie
5.: St Louis Blues - Weaver & Beasley
6.: Experience Blues - Willis, Ruth & Blind Willie McTell
7.: Guitar Rag - Weaver, Sylvester
8.: You Can't Get That Stuff No More - Tampa Red
9.: High Sheriff Blues - Patton, Charley
10.: Homesick And Lonesome Blues - Fuller, Blind Boy
11.: Packin' Trunk Blues - Leadbelly
12.: I Believe I'll Make A Change - Weldon, Casey Bill
13.: Don't Sell It (Don't Give It Away) - Woods, Oscar 'Buddy'
14.: Muscat Hill Blues - Woods, Oscar 'Buddy'
15.: Travelling Riverside Blues - Johnson, Robert
16.: Bukka's Jitterbug Swing - White, Bukka
17.: Special Streamline - White, Bukka
18.: Swing Low Sweet Chariot - Terrell, Sister O.M.
19.: Pearline - House, Son
Ciao
Listed on Ciao since : 06/04/2005
|