Prison Songs Vol.1 - Murderous Home (Historical Recordings From Parchman Farm 1947-48) / Alan Lomax - Reissued in 1997

ARTIST`````Various Prisoners

ALBUM`````Prison Songs Vol.1 - Murderous Home (Historical Recordings From Parchman Farm 1947-48)

GENRE`````Folk, World, Blues, Country, Non-Music

YEAR````````1997

What?

[This album] is a reissue of [Alan] Lomax's original Negro Prison Songs.... Volume one is a masterpiece, the best single document of the African American work song and field holler tradition.... The group work songs, while excellent examples of the style, are by their nature less distinctive than the extraordinary solo performances. Nonetheless, they are uniformly strong and include many of the most common of such pieces.

“These songs belong to the musical tradition which Africans brought to the New World, but they are also as American as the Mississippi River. They were born out of the very rock and earth of this country, as black hands broke the soil, moved, reformed it, and rivers of stinging sweat poured upon the land under the blazing heat of Southern skies, and are mounted upon the passion that this struggle with nature brought forth. They tell us the story of the slave gang, the sharecropper system, the lawless work camp, the chain gang, the pen.” – Alan Lomax

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First released 1957 as 'Negro Prison Songs', Tradition Records TLP-1020. Recorded 1947 Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman, MS.

Pete Molinari - Today Tomorrow and Forever (2009)

ARTIST`````Pete Molinari
ALBUM`````Today Tomorrow and Forever
GENRE`````Blues, Folk

YEAR````````2009

Info from damagedgoods
Hooking up once again with Adam Landry (who also produced this EP) and a number of local musicians including steel player Chris Scruggs (grandson of Earl Scruggs) the recordings surpassed all expectations but were then taken up a gear when a chance introduction to The Jordanaires - who were completely bowled over by Pete’s voice and treatment of these songs - led to these legendary singers agreeing to provide backing vocals to the tracks. Even to be in the same town as these rock ’n’ roll heroes was a dream come true for this boy from Chatham in Kent but to then actually record with the very same men who backed up the likes of Elvis and Patsy Cline turned the sessions into a surreal experience.


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Get his previous album Virtual Landslide here.

Pete Molinari - Virtual Landslide (2008)

Hi, I am Bob Pete Dylan Patsy Molinari Guthrie II

ARTIST`````Pete Molinari
ALBUM`````Virtual Landslide
GENRE`````Blues, Folk
YEAR````````2008

What?
A really, really good album from a really, really good artist. Most of the critics are bullshiting around calling him the Most Awesome Thing Since The Beginning Of Time - but hey - they get paid for that. I find him to very refreshing and pure in form. His songs are dominated with a powerful voice (based on Bob Dylan). The most intriguing thing is how similar he can be to early Dylan but it's obvious he is not "stealing" - he is very much obsessed and strongly influenced by Patsy Cline, Bob Dylan, Billie Holliday and John Coltrane. The most natural thing is not to be shy and continue the story. One thing most of the critics missed to point out is the importance of Molinari's singing + arrangements of straightforward, classic, raw blues - it's so clean it sounds literally like a 60's vinyl record -and that's why it sounds so fresh when released in a confusing mash-up time like the 2000's are.

Here's some short info: Molinari’s voice takes a little getting used to, just like Dylan’s. But once you get over his nasally falsetto and take in the overall feel of the music, you’ll wonder how a young Maltese/Italian/Egyptian man from the U.K. can sound so much like an American folk singer from the 1960’s. The influences Molinari cites are from another time, ranging from Jack Kerouac to John Coltrane to Johnny Cash. And they all come through in his harmonica-laden acoustic tunes.

Review
From Boomkat

To say Pete Molinari is old school would be a great understatement. A Virtual Landslide is Molinari's second album, and was recorded at the all-analogue Toerag studios, famous for recording The White Stripes' Elephant LP among others, and you can certainly hear the vintage charm of the studio's pre-1960s equipment. From the classic boogie-woogie of 'I Came Out Of The Wilderness' to the jangling balladry of 'One Stolen Moment' the album sounds pretty darn delightful, but there's always a danger that the militantly retro production spills over into gimmickry, ultimately detracting from Molinari's writing. But with songs like 'There She Still Remains' on board, there's no such danger. The recording features some lyrical pedal steel playing from BJ Cole, and sounds a bit like something from Dylan's Nashville Skyline period, recalling a lonesome country blues that just doesn't get old. Highly recommended.


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My favourite track "It Came Out of The Wilderness" is included on a compilation V.A. I'm Gonna Burn Yourself (2010) so you might want to get that also:)

V.A. I'm Gonna Burn Yourself (2010)

ARTIST`````VARIOUS
ALBUM`````I'M GONNA BURN YOURSELF
GENRE`````BLUES, BLUES-ROCK, NOISE, JAZZ, PSYCHEDELIC
YEAR````````2010
BLEEDING PANDA COMPILATION

WHAT?
A pack of mostly filthy blues/blue-rock songs (from delta classic to contemporary). To widen it up I added a few noise (post-kraut-whatnot) tracks (Adult., Aluk Todolo...), a gorgeous psychobilly track from Laika and the Cosmonauts and even an electronica 4x4 beat song from Whomadewho. A rather filthy and sometimes difficult sound in general. I just hope it sounds coherent at all hahaha. Anyways, some great artists here that you should explore more.

Note: Please if someone can identify track 17 I would be eternally grateful!

TRACKLIST:
01 Adult - The Importance Of Being Folk Part 2 (2006)
02 Pete Molinari - It Came Out of The Wilderness (2008)
03 Exuma - Exuma, The Obeah Man (1970)
04 The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Can't Stop (1996)
05 Howlin' Wolf - Crying at Daybreak (1966)
06 C.W. Stoneking - Bad Luck Everywhere You Go (2007)
07 Screamin Jay Hawkins - Alligator Wine (1982)
08 Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers - Buster's Boogie (1974)
09 Chris Whitley & Jeff Lang - Underground (2006)
10 The Chatham Singers - All Who Cheated and Lied (2009)
11 Aluk Todolo - Disease (2007)
12 Bob Crosby - Big Noise from Winnetka (1938)
13 The Legendary Tiger Man - Walkin' Downtown (2006)
14 Laika And The Cosmonauts - Experiment In Terror (2008)
15 Whomadewho - Raveo (2009)
16 Dan Auerbach - Street Walkin' (2009)
17 Roland P. Young - Row Land (tnx to Feq'wah for identifying)

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HOWLIN WOLF - HOWLIN WOLF or the The Rockin' Chair Album (1962)

ARTIST`````HOWLIN' WOLF
ALBUM`````HOWLIN' WOLF (also known as The Rockin' Chair Album)
GENRE`````BLUES, CHICAGO BLUES,
YEAR````````1962

SHIT:
How the hell didn't I hear this guy's records before is beyond me. He is a formidable cult figure in blues history and one of it's most original and powerful singers. When I heard just a first few screams from his huge mouth I immediately though - shit: Tom Waits had lots of fun listening to this... I am really not blues-oriented or informed so this is quit a find for me especially because I was into Tom Waits for 10 long years (!?). I heard a few Howlin' Wolf later hit songs but I never listened to a full album. It took me just a few clicks to find out that Tom Waits was directly influenced by this passionate loud-mouth killer.
This record was released 10 years before 1973 Tom Waits debut light-hearted but beautiful album "Closing Time" and 20 years before his revolutionary Swordfishtrombones (1983) where he fully released his gravelly voice. Wolf has been singing since the 1930's and played on one of the first electric guitars anyone had ever seen (that's how old his music is). Even the themes and some phrases are identical. The thing that struck me the most was that while listening Wolf's mostly 2,50 mins long songs I constantly had a feeling of purity, power and strength that Waits lost over time in his often over-done cabaret aesthetic. If you listen to the sharp guitar stabs and vocal beat of Spoonful, or the backing instrumentation and the shuffled beat of Who's Been Talkin'? you will simply hear Tom Waits cooking the same soup all over again.
I found a comment here that even as a dedicated Waits listener I have to agree with:

J. P. Spencer
I happen to love Tom Waits' music, "The Black Rider" in particular, but I have one big beef about him. Why is he always suing people for sounding like him when he himself sounds like Howlin' Wolf? I think it's safe to say that Waits has made more money suing people for musical plagiarism than he has from his truly impressive catalog of songs. You would think that The Continuum of Universal Fairness would dictate that this should be the other way around.

One of my favorite tracks from this album is The Red Rooster - a moronically simple song about a measly farm problem with a missing lazy rooster. This brilliant line - If you see my little red rooster, please drag him home (like he's a wasted drunkard) is something we could easily hear in Tom's live or recorded ramblings. People can easily get lost in the huge universe of Tom Waits discography (I did) and never look beyond it (or before it). This reminds me of a documentary on rock music of 1970's (can't remember the name) where Keith Richards said that pretty much every cult rock song or guitar solo was either a direct remake or was heavily based on a 50 year old blues song hahaha.

Anyways, this album is really a must-listen. Repost the damn thing.

WHO IS HE?

In the history of the blues, there has never been anyone quite like the Howlin' Wolf. Six foot three and close to 300 pounds in his salad days, the Wolf was the primal force of the music spun out to its ultimate conclusion. A Robert Johnson may have possessed more lyrical insight, a Muddy Waters more dignity, and a B.B. King certainly more technical expertise, but no one could match him for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.

Howlin' Wolf:

Biography @ allmusic

Howlin' Wolf @ Wikipedia

Website
Howlin' Wolf (album)

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Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid (2009)

ORGANIC RIFFS AND A FAMILIAR MOAN
ARTIST`````Dan Auerbach
ALBUM`````Keep It Hid
GENRE`````Indie Rock, Alternative, Punk Blues
YEAR````````2009

ALBUM REVIEW by Sean Murphy : Auerbach never seems to be straining himself or merely appropriating other, signature sounds just for the sake of doing so. The music he has so obviously, and voraciously, absorbed makes him who he is, pure and simple. For instance, on “Mean Monsoon” his voice is a chemical snarl that seems a bit like Peter Green filtered through early, dirty Junior Wells. The music is reminiscent of vintage Yardbirds, complete with tambourine tapping and chorus-crashing bongo flourishes. “When I Left the Room” features his now patented paranoid snarl, propelled by guitars that seethe behind a banjo (!) march. It is not unlike the best Black Keys material, with all the obvious and not-so-obvious influences on the surface, unfolding into something startling original. His voice, which at times is able to convey a pained vulnerability offset by a gruff, even defiant resolve, has improved with each album. On “Whispered Words”, possibly the best thing Auerbach has achieved to this point, all of his skills are on display: the opening build-up is Motown without the horns, with subdued guitar weaving around his plaintive vocals. As the song gathers steam, suddenly it takes a detour from Detroit and heads south into Stax territory, sans the crackerjack studio musicians. It is astounding that these very unique and even sacrosanct sounds are being incorporated in a fashion that manages to feel unforced and even organic.

Read the full review:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/70150-dan-auerbach-keep-it-hid/

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FLASHBACKS : DRUG SONGS - HIGH AND LOW 1917 - 1944

RARE HISTORICAL CELEBRATIONS OF ILLEGAL SUPSTANCES!

ALBUM`````````````DRUG SONGS - HIGH AND LOW
GENRE`````````````JAZZ/BLUES
YEAR```````````````2002 (RECORDED 1917-1944)

ALBUM INFO:
Listeners under the impression that drug music began with "White Rabbit" and ended with "White Lines" would be wise to pick up the first and best volume in the German Trikont label's excellent Flashbacks series -- compiling 25 jazz, blues, and vocal cuts from the first-half of the 20th century, the set documents World War II-era vice and sin at its finest, deftly mixing radio hits with utter obscurities. The songs range from the benign (Gene Krupa's "Feeling High and Happy") to the explicit (the Memphis Jug Band's "Cocaine Habit Blues"), and while some of the selections are clearly reaching to justify their thematic inclusion -- Bukka White's immortal "Fixin' to Die Blues" almost certainly has nothing to do with "fixing" in the junkie lexicon sense of the term -- the pacing and sequencing are dead-on, and even novelty throwaways like Harry "The Hipster" Gibson's "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?" stand up to repeated listening in this context. Excellent remastering and liner notes (in both English and German) round out the package

TRACKLIST

01 The Cat Is High - The Ink Spots
02 Junker's Blues - Champion Jack Dupree
03 Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphys Ovaltine - Harry 'The Hipster' Gibson
04 Don't You Make Me High - Blue Lu Barker
05 I'm Wild About My Stuff - Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie
06 You're A Viper - Stuff Smith & His Onyx Club Boys
07 Selling That Stuff - McKinney Cotton Pickers
09 Moonshine Man Blues - Peter Cleighton with Blind John Davis
10 Cigarettes, Cigars - Florence Desmond
11 Minnie The Moochers Wedding Day - Mills Blue Rhythm Band
12 The Ghost Of Smokey Joe - Cab Calloway
13 Let's Have Another Cup Of Coffee - Waring's Pennsylvanians
14 Dope Head Blues - Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson
15 Wacky Dust - Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb & His Orchestra
16 Fixin' To Die Blues - Bukka White
17 Cocaine Habit Blues - Memphis Jug Band
18 Reefer Man - Baron Lee & The Blue Rhythm Band
19 Cocaine - Dick Justice
20 Jake Walk Papa - Asa Martin
21 Kickin' The Gong Around - Louis Armstrong
22 The Candy Man - Rosetta Howard & The Harlem Hamfats
23 Repeal The Blues - Ray Noble & The New Mayfair Orchestra
24 Feeling High And Happy - Gene Krupa & His Orchestra
25 Knockin' Myself Out - Jean Brady & Big Bill Broonzy
26 Smoke Clouds - Herbert Payne

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