All Music Guide
Delta Blues Masters, a twodisc set from Fuel, combines two earlier albums, Bukka White Revisited and Big Joe Williams Revisited. Having these two bluesmen in one package makes perfect sense, since both attacked their material with gusto and passion, pushing everything along with driving guitar styles. The Bukka White disc captures his "comeback," and the story is an interesting one. In 1963, graduate students and blues fans John Fahey and Ed Denson sent a letter addressed to "Bukka White, Old Blues Singer, c/o General Delivery, Aberdeen, MS," in an effort to locate the man who had recorded a 78 called "Aberdeen Mississippi Blues" on the OKeh label in 1940. Amazingly, the letter actually reached White, who was still alive, having moved to Memphis. The two budding blues scholars rushed there to meet him, recording the songs found on this collection in the singer's room. These historic recordings reveal that White's robust guitar playing and his gruff, thundering voice had lost none of th...eir vitality in the intervening years, and the bluesman delivers impassioned versions of some of his key tunes, including "Shake 'Em on Down," and the song that led to his rediscovery, "Aberdeen Mississippi Blues." White even takes a surprisingly nimble turn at the piano for "Drunk Man Blues." These sessions were originally released on Fahey's Takoma label, and although White went on to do other recording dates, most notably with Arhoolie Records in 1963, he never sounded quite this intimate and impassioned again. The only minor complaint about this reissue is that the haunting version of "When Can I Change My Clothes" included here is mislabeled "Parchman Farm Blues." Big Joe Williams recorded for several small labels in the late '50s and through the 1960s, pounding out rough countryblues on his halfhomemade, ninestring Sovereign guitar. Revisited does a fair job of assembling a sampling of these recordings, beginning with new versions of his two signature songs, "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Highway 49" (featuring Erwin Helfer on piano), which Williams cut for Cobra Records in 1957. "I've Been Buked and I've Been Scorned," "Ain't Nothing Like Whiskey," and "Brand New Car" were recorded in 1960 in California, eventually appearing on the World Pacific and Society imprints. This was a sort of super session of sorts, teaming Williams with Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGhee. "Shake 'Em on Down" was tracked in 1963 in Copenhagen, while "Stack o' Dollars," featuring a young Paul Butterfield on harp, was recorded in Chicago in 1965, finally coming out on the Takoma label. The final song here, "Everybody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone," comes from a studio session in London in 1968, and was issued by the Liberty label in Great Britain. Despite the many different dates, labels, and locales, the sequencing here is well done, making for a wonderfully cohesive introduction to the rediscovery phase of Big Joe Williams' career. It is easy enough to pick either of these interesting albums individually, but they share a certain style and approach, and complement each other well, with White even doing a version of Williams' signature "Baby Please Don't Go" while Williams covers White's "Shake 'Em on Down." - Steve Leggett, All Music Guide Read more Less
