Take The First Train To Clarksdale: Rural Blues
Back to basics. A voice, a guitar and a tapping foot. Add a mythological bargain with the devil and you have the simple ingredients that can tilt a world on its axis, which the Blues certainly did. And ground zero was an unassuming share-cropping town situated on the bank of the Mississippi at the intersection of Routes 49 and 61. Clarksdale: the place where Robert Johnson was said to have made his Faustian pact. Here’s some of the first generation sounds which led up to and were fall-out from that encounter. Apologies for the sound quality but we are dealing with recordings made almost a century ago! 1 ROBERT JOHNSON-CROSS ROAD BLUES 2 BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON-SEE THAT MY GRAVE IS KEPT CLEAN 3 BESSIE SMITH-BLUE SPIRIT BLUES 4 MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT-STACK O’LEE 5 SON HOUSE-DEATH LETTER BLUES 6 CHARLEY PATTON-SCREAMIN’ AND HOLLERIN’ THE BLUES 7 ROBERT WILKINS-THAT’S NO WAY TO GET ALONG 8 SKIP JAMES-DEVIL GOT MY WOMAN 9 SISTER ROSETTA THARPE-THE DEVIL HAS THROWN HIM DOWN 10 BUKKA WHITE-SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN 11 LEADBELLY-(BLACK GAL) WHERE DID YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT 12 VICTORIA SPIVEY & LONNIE JOHNSON-DOPE HEAD BLUES 13 BLIND WILLIE McTELL-TRAVELIN’ BLUES 14 HENRY THOMAS-HONEY WON’T YOU ALLOW ME ONE MORE CHANCE 15 MISSISSIPPI FRED McDOWELL-LEVEE CAMP BLUES 16 MEMPHIS MINNIE-WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS 17 HAMBONE WILLIE NEWBERN-ROLL AND TUMBLE BLUES 18 ONE STRING SAM-I NEED A HUNDRED DOLLARS 19 PINK ANDERSON-IN THE EVENING 20 FLOYD ANDERSON-RUNAWAY MAN BLUES 21 BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON-JOHN THE REVELATOR 22 BIG BILL BROONZY-KEYS TO THE HIGHWAY 23 REVERAND GARY DAVIS-I’M THROWIN’ UP MY ARMS