Various Artists - From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music (CD)

All Music Guide

An ambitious three-CD mini-box that is not 100 successful in its attempt to document the history of black country music, From Where I Stand is quite worthy and admirable nonetheless. Each disc is assembled thematically: disc one concentrates on pre-World War II stringband and folk acts, disc two has soul singers' interpretations of country material, and disc three spotlights black artists working more or less within the country mainstream from the late '60s onward. Disc one is interesting in its illustration of how early rural white and black musicians drew from such similar material that they could sound far closer to each other stylistically than historians might lead one to believe. Three of ~Grand Ole Opry harmonica player DeFord Bailey's rare cuts are here; other highlights are numbers by Leadbelly and artists (Peg Leg Howell, Bo Chatmon) who have been more commonly categorized into the blues idiom. Disc two has country-oriented material by Solomon Burke, Arthur Alexander, the Sup...remes, Ray Charles, Joe Tex, Etta James, and others, mostly from the golden age of soul. Disc three has cuts by modern black country acts, as well as outings into country by soul singers. Artistically, it's the least successful of the discs -- a black singer doing faceless country-pop is just as boring as a white singer doing it. There are so many covers of country tunes by soul singers on the final two discs that one gets the sense the compilers stretched the definition of black country as far as they could simply to fill this out to the length of a box set, which isn't necessarily such a bad thing. The soul cuts are probably the best in the box, and the historical connections between the artists and their country influences are made clearer by a fine 60-page booklet. - Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Read more Less