BO CARTER — The Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 1 • 1928-1931 | DOCD-5078 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Bo’s first appearance on record seems to be a Columbia session held in Atlanta, Georgia on November 2, 1928, where he, Charlie and Joe McCoy, and an unknown pianist, backed a singer named Alec Johnson. A Columbia session did take place on December 17, 1928 in New Orleans, with Bo Carter, Charlie McCoy and Walter Vincson, where two titles were cut as the Jackson Blue Boys. But before that session, the group ran into the Brunswick mobile unit and recorded as Charlie McCoy and Bo Chatman, as well as backing Mary Butler on four titles. After Good Old Turnip Greens the vocal chores were turned over to Mary Butler for four blues titles. Bungalow Blues was handled smoothly, although a bit stiffly, with its occasional II and VI chords lending it a vaudeville flavour. On Mary Blues the blues style in the vocal was harder and the guitarist (probably Vincson) begins the instrumental introduction with a few bluesy slurs. On Electric Chair Blues the mandolinist had the same difficulty as on Mary Blues, and Butler cut Mad Dog Blues to better effect with only Vincson on guitar (including some mandolin imitation on the breaks). Chatman and McCoy returned with Bo’s standard Corrine Corrina a lilting vocal duet, but closer to Hillbilly blues than to the tracks just laid down by Mary Butler. Finally, Bo appeared to give in and sang East Jackson Blues, although he didn’t seem quite comfortable with the style. At his first session using the name Bo Carter in Jackson, Mississippi on December 15, 1930, the guitarist had the benefit of two years of varying recording experiences. He neatly divided the songs into three categories. The two finger picked blues numbers were the standouts (I’m An Old Bumble Bee and Mean Feeling Blues); with the next two (I’ve Got The Whole World In My Hands – a version of the Sheiks’ “Sitting On Top Of The World” – and She’s Your Cook) sounding like the Hillbilly approximations of the blues so often favoured by Bo and his brothers. The last two tracks on this date were hokum blues in deference to the popularity of Tampa Red, Georgia Tom, Big Bill and numerous others who rode the wave of the hokum fad into lengthy careers. Clearly, Bo Carter was doing his homework. DOCD-5078
Tracklist :
1    Bo Chatman–    Good Old Turnip Greens    3:06
2    Mary Butler–    Bungalow Blues    2:48
3    Mary Butler–    Mary Blues    2:40
4    Mary Butler–    Electrocuted Blues    2:45
5    Bo Chatman–    Corrine Corrina    3:17
6    Bo Chatman–    East Jackson Blues    2:55
7    Bo Carter–    I’m An Old Bumble Bee    2:53
8    Bo Carter–    Mean Feeling Blues    3:10
9    Bo Carter–    I’ve Got The Whole World In My Hand    2:46
10    Bo Carter–    She’s Your Cook But She Burns My Bread Sometimes    2:58
11    Bo Carter–    Same Thing The Cats Fight About    3:20
12    Bo Carter–    Times Is Tight Like That    3:08
13    Bo Carter–    My Pencil Won’t Write No More    2:55
14    Bo Carter–    Banana In Your Fruit Basket    3:06
15    Bo Carter–    Pin In Your Cushion    3:04
16    Bo Carter–    Pussy Cat Blues    2:52
17    Bo Carter–    Ram Rod Daddy    2:58
18    Bo Carter–    Loveless Love    2:55
19    Bo Carter–    I Love That Thing    2:44
20    Bo Carter–    Backache Blues    2:59
21    Bo Carter–    Sorry Feeling Blues    3:07
22    Bo Carter–    Baby, When You Marry    2:55
23    Bo Carter–    Boot It    3:04
24    Bo Carter–    Twist It, Baby    3:17

BO CARTER — The Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 2 • 1931-1934 | DOCD-5079 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

22 songs (with three still missing) cut by Carter, solo with guitar or with Lonnie Chatmon on fiddle, over a three-year period. Document has had unusual luck with the quality on this release, as there's relatively little surface noise on much of it. This helps bring out the richness, dexterity, and playfulness of Carter's playing, as well as the expressiveness of his voice in extraordinary detail. Perhaps the most surprising element of these sides are the two unissued Okeh tracks from 1931, "The Law Is Gonna Step On You" and "Pig Meat Is What I Crave," which are the equal of anything that the label did put out from those same sessions, and show Carter's playing to great advantage and in extraordinarily high-quality sound. His music was probably closest in spirit to the early work of Tampa Red and Georgia Tom Dorsey, with its mixture of double-entendre lyrics and hokum influences. The three-year gap in Carter's recordings, caused by the crunch that hit the blues business with the Great Depression, show him re-emerging at the end (for Bluebird) with a more sophisticated sound, less stripped-down than his early sides but just as playful in its risqué way ("Banana In Your Fruit Basket," etc.).  Bruce Eder

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes Bo Carter was still touring the South with the Mississippi Sheiks in the years 1930 through 1935. This activity took the band through Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, and as far north as Illinois and New York. During this period Bo’s eyesight got progressively worse and he eventually went blind sometime in the 1930s. This ensuing blindness and the disbanding of the Sheiks led Carter to concentrate on his solo recordings. On October 22, 1938 he had his longest session ever, recording eighteen titles in one day, all but one of them issued. This session produced some of his most advanced music from a structural and harmonic standpoint. Let’s Get Drunk Again and Some Day contained some ordinary blues and rag chord progressions structurally utilized in a manner suggesting pop music, and yet the finger picking approach was firmly in the blues mode with some stunning blues riffing in between verses. Both songs also had interesting harmonic bridges that further removed them from mainstream blues. There are also delightfully archaic pieces like Old Devil, taken at a manic pace, and Be My Salty Dog with its suggestion of John Hurt‘s “Candy Man Blues” and Willie Brown‘s “Future Blues” in the figure played in between verses on the bass strings of the guitar. Bo Carter was a veritable encyclopedia of Mississippi blues styles, and then some. At his last session cut in Atlanta on February 12, 1940 he recorded fourteen tracks with twelve being issued. There was less of a divergence from straight blues at this session, but Bo Carter still knew how to put an original stamp on any blues he recorded. Border Of New Mexico Blues is a version of “Kokomo Blues” first recorded by Madlyn Davis as “Kokola Blues” (a mistitling by Paramount) in 1927, and popularized by Kokomo Arnold as “Old Original Kokomo Blues”, and Robert Johnson as “Sweet Home Chicago”. He finished the date with Honey and What You Want Your Daddy To Do?, two eccentric tracks somewhat similar to Some Day (recorded at the previous session). DOCD-5079

Tracklist :
1        So Long, Baby, So Long (A) 3:09
2        The Law Gonna Step On You    (A) 2:41
3        Pig Meat Is What I Crave (A) 2:48
4        Howling Tom Cat Blues (A) 2:47
5        Ants In My Pants (A) 2:53
6        Blue Runner Blues (A) 2:56
7        I've Got A Case Of Mashin' It (B) 3:03
8        You Don't Love Me No More     (B) 3:10
9        What Kind Of Scent Is This? (B) 3:23
10        Pretty Baby (C) 3:02
11        I Want You To Know (C) 3:00
12        Last Go Round (C) 3:06
13        I Keep On Spending My Change (C) 3:10
14        Baby, How Can It Be? (C) 3:28
15        Bo Carter Special (D) 3:03
16        Beans (D) 2:51
17        Nobody's Business (D)     2:57
18        Queen Bee (D) 3:07
19        Tellin' You 'Bout It (D) 2:38
20        Please Don't Drive Me From Your Door (D) 3:01
21        Pin In Your Cushion (D) 2:54
22        Banana In The Fruit Basket (D) 2:52

BO CARTER — The Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 3 • 1934-1936 | DOCD-5080 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes The first Bluebird sessions in March of 1934 marked a return to the studio for Bo after a two and a half year absence. Tastes in blues had changed and the record companies could no longer afford to take chances on untested acts or untried material. A more disciplined approach was applied in the studio and this sometimes led to records that sounded formulaic or unexciting. Bo Carter’s records at this time showed as much or more diversity as any of his recording rivals and his regular trips to the studio attested to his popularity. The twelve titles cut at the January 1935 session further consolidated his position. More than four-fifths of the tracks were finger picked blues and the two that fell outside of this category were piano-guitar duets where considerations of volume may have dictated a change in style. Blue Runner Blues was a remake of his own Okeh recording and Mashing That Thing was a reworking of Papa Charlie Jackson’s best-selling “Shake That Thing”. Bo Carter must have been doing something right because the following five years would see him double his recorded output. DOCD-5080

Tracklist :
1        Howlin’ Tom Cat Blues (A) 2:30
2        Don’t Cross Lay Your Daddy     (A) 2:57
3        Who Broke The Latch? (B) 3:04
4        Don’t Do It No More (B) 2:21
5        Skin Ball Blues (B) 2:51
6        Old Shoe Blues (B) 2:56
7        Please Warm My Weiner (B)    2:58
8        She’s Gonna Crawl Back Home To You     (B) 3:00
9        Let Me Roll Your Lemon     (B) 2:55
10        Mashing That Thing (B) 2:38

11        Blue Runner Blues (B) 2:48
12        Fifty-Fifty With Me (B) 2:55
13        To Her Burying Ground     (B) 3:02
14        When Your Left Eye Go To Jumping (B) 2:55
15        Ride My Mule     (C) 2:50
16        T Baby Blues (C) 2:52
17        I Get The Blues (C) 2:54
18        Spotted Sow Blues (C)     2:55
19        Rolling Blues (C) 2:38
20        All Around Man (C) 2:57
21        Fat Mouth Blues (C) 2:56
22        You Better Know Your Business (C) 2:56

BO CARTER — The Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 4 • 1936-1938 | DOCD-5081 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. It has taken quite some time for Bo Carter‘s rightful place in blues history to be established. His music was complicated and multifaceted. The question of whether his lyrics are “pornographic” or merely an uninhibited and even healthy view of sexuality is really a relative one. There is certainly enough “raw” data contained in Bo Carter – Vol. 4 for the listener to come to his own conclusion. All Around Man, It’s Too Wet, Cigarette Blues, Your Biscuits Are Big Enough For Me, and Don’t Mash My Digger So Deep are classics of their type and the gorgeous guitar work on Cigarette Blues alone should be enough to persuade even the casual listener that there is more here than suggestive wordplay. Beginning with the February 1936 session all of the remaining titles Bo Carter was to record were finger picked on his National resonator guitar. He sometimes returned to earlier material that he would previously have played with a plectrum, but now it was played with a steady thumb or alternating bass pattern. He remade “Ants In My Pants” (itself a version of “Sitting On Top Of The World”) as Flea On Me, and the standards “Trouble In Mind” (as Trouble In Blues) and “My Monday Woman” (as A Girl For Every Day Of The Week). The session in San Antonio in October 1938 produced more songs than he had ever recorded at one sitting, including some of his most interesting pieces. Without a doubt, Bo Carter was at his peak. DOCD-5081

Tracklist :
1        It’s Too Wet    (A) 2:50
2        Dinner Blues    (A) 2:44
3        Ain’t Nobody Got It(A) 2:45
4        Cigarette Blues(A) 3:14
5        Pussy Cat Blues (B) 2:48
6        The Ins And Outs Of My Girl (B) 2:56
7        All Around Man - Part 2    (B) 3:00
8        Bo Carter’s Advice    (B) 3:11
9        Doubled Up In A Knot (B) 2:50
10        Worried G Blues (B) 2:58
11        Your Biscuits Are Big Enough For Me (B) 2:07

12        Don’t Mash My Digger So Deep (B) 2:56
13        Flea On Me (B) 2:36
14        Got To Work Somewhere (B) 2:25
15        Sue Cow    (B) 3:06
16        Shake ‘Em On Down (C)    3:08
17        A Girl For Every Day Of The Week (C) 3:10
18        Trouble In Blues (C) 2:52
19        World In A Jug (C) 2:50
20        Who’s Been Here? (C) 2:35
21        Whiskey Blues (C)    3:22
22        Shoo That Chicken  (C)  2:46

BO CARTER — The Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 5 • 1938-1940 | DOCD-5082 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes Bo Carter was still touring the South with the Mississippi Sheiks in the years 1930 through 1935. This activity took the band through Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, and as far north as Illinois and New York. During this period Bo’s eyesight got progressively worse and he eventually went blind sometime in the 1930s. This ensuing blindness and the disbanding of the Sheiks led Carter to concentrate on his solo recordings. On October 22, 1938 he had his longest session ever, recording eighteen titles in one day, all but one of them issued. This session produced some of his most advanced music from a structural and harmonic standpoint. Let’s Get Drunk Again and Some Day contained some ordinary blues and rag chord progressions structurally utilized in a manner suggesting pop music, and yet the finger picking approach was firmly in the blues mode with some stunning blues riffing in between verses. Both songs also had interesting harmonic bridges that further removed them from mainstream blues. There are also delightfully archaic pieces like Old Devil, taken at a manic pace, and Be My Salty Dog with its suggestion of John Hurt‘s “Candy Man Blues” and Willie Brown‘s “Future Blues” in the figure played in between verses on the bass strings of the guitar. Bo Carter was a veritable encyclopedia of Mississippi blues styles, and then some. At his last session cut in Atlanta on February 12, 1940 he recorded fourteen tracks with twelve being issued. There was less of a divergence from straight blues at this session, but Bo Carter still knew how to put an original stamp on any blues he recorded. Border Of New Mexico Blues is a version of “Kokomo Blues” first recorded by Madlyn Davis as “Kokola Blues” (a mistitling by Paramount) in 1927, and popularized by Kokomo Arnold as “Old Original Kokomo Blues”, and Robert Johnson as “Sweet Home Chicago”. He finished the date with Honey and What You Want Your Daddy To Do?, two eccentric tracks somewhat similar to Some Day (recorded at the previous session). DOCD-5082

Tracklist :
1    Let’s Get Drunk Again (A) 3:16
2    Some Day (A) 2:47
3    Old Devil     (A) 3:00
4    Country Fool (A) 3:12
5    Santa Claus (A) 3:12
6    Be My Salty Dog (A) 3:13
7    Five Dollar Bill (A) 3:32
8    Ways Like A Crawfish (A) 3:19
9    Brown-Skin Woman  (A) 3:15

10    Lucille, Lucille (A)     2:47
11    The County Farm Blues (B) 3:28
12    Border Of New Mexico Blues (B) 3:17
13    Arrangement For Me-Blues (B) 3:05
14    Lock The Lock (B)     3:17
15    Trouble, Oh Trouble (B) 3:00
16    Baby Ruth (B) 3:05
17    My Baby (B) 3:01
18    Policy Blues (B) 3:04
19    Tush Hog Blues (B) 3:10
20    My Little Mind (B) 2:50
21    Honey (B) 2:44
22    What You Want Your Daddy To Do? (B) 2:58