CHARLEY PATTON – Complete Recordings 1929-1934 (2002) RM | 5CD BOX-SET | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

At the end of just the first disc on this five-CD set, the listener may feel like he/she was in the audio equivalent of a visual "white-out," so powerful are the sounds on that disc. From the opening bars of"Pony Blues," Charley Patton becomes a gigantic musical presence, who gets even bigger as his work goes on; with a guttural, stentorian voice that paves the way for everyone from Louis Armstrong to early Bob Dylan -- but especially for Howlin' Wolf -- he cuts through the poor condition surviving Paramount pressings like a call from the Great Beyond, almost unnaturally powerful and expressive in its smallest gesture. What's more, Patton must have broken more than his share of strings, because his playing also comes through on these sides better than almost any artist that ever recorded for Paramount, even on ruined masters like "Pea Vine Blues." This is all a lot more than a trip through history for the scholar, and some sides are just too close to some classics of the future to ignore -- "Down In The Dirt Road Blues," which could be where Willie Dixon got the idea for "Down In The Bottom," and the notion that Howlin' Wolf was the man to record it; similarly, "Some Summer Day," from the other end of Patton's career, could easily have been the demo for "Sittin' On Top Of The World" -- actually, the geneology of both songs is a lot more complicated than that, but each of these could easily have been a key part of the evolutionary chain for one or the other. And there is a raw, primordial power to Patton's music that not only grabs the listener but leaves them wanting more; that's why this box makes perfect sense, even for the casual blues listener -- the man never recorded a second-rate side or one that didn't offer at least a few of the attributes that made his best work so powerful. On a cautionary note, however, the producers have actually been a bit misleading by presenting this set as 92 sides by Charley Patton -- there are actually 63 sides by Patton, and the rest, appended to each disc, are recordings by other artists and are believed to have featured Patton, playing and singing or just playing, and people who were featured on Patton's sides; the latter two groups include Son House, Louise Johnson, Henry "Son" Sims, and Willie Brown, with the Big Delta Four filling out the last disc. And these sides offer some fascinating sounds, including killer tracks by Son House in his prime, and oddities like Brown's "Future Blues," which lifts part of its content from Jimmie Rodgers' repertory. The audio is remarkably consistent and, in fact, the whole set is so rewarding, that it raises an interesting notion -- might JSP or another enterprising label consider doing a series of Paramount Records boxes, assembling the surviving sides, blues, gospel, or whatever, in chronological order, as Bear Family did with Sun Records a few years back?  Bruce Eder 

 

 Disc: 1

1. Pony Blues

2. Spoonful Blues

3. Down The Dirt Road Blues

4. Prayer Of Death

5. Prayer Of Death

6. Screamin' And Hollerin' The Blues

7. Banty Rooster Blues

8. Tom Rushen Blues

9. It Won't Be Long

10. Shake It And Break It (But Don't Let It Fall Mama)

11. Pea Vine Blues

12. Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues

13. Lord I'm Discouraged

14. I'm Goin' Home

15. Snatch It And Grab It

16. Rag Blues

17. How Come Mama Blues

18. Voice Throwin' Blues

Disc: 2

1. Hammer Blues

2. I Shall Not Be Moved

3. High Water Everywhere

4. High Water Everywhere

5. I Shall Not Be Moved

6. Rattlesnake Blues

7. Going To Move To Alabama

8. Hammer Blues

9. Joe Kirby

10. Frankie And Albert

11. Magnolia Blues

12. Devil Sent The Rain Blues

13. Runnin' Wild Blues

14. Some Happy Day

15. Mean Black Moan

16. Green River Blues

17. That's My Man

18. Honey Dripper Blues: No. 2

19. Eight Hour Woman

20. Nickel's Worth Of Liver Blues: No 2

Disc: 3

1. Some Of These Days I'll Be Gone

2. Elder Green Blues

3. Jim Lee

4. Jim Lee

5. Mean Black Cat Blues

6. Jesus Is A-Dying

7. Elder Green Blues

8. When Your Way Gets Dark

9. Some Of These Days I'll Be Gone

10. Heart Like Railwood Steel

11. Circle Round The Moon

12. You're Gonna Need Somebody When You Die

13. Be True Be True Blues

14. Farrell Blues

15. Tell Me Man Blues

16. Come Back Corrina

Disc: 4

1. Some Summer Day

2. Bird Nest Bound

3. Future Blues

4. M & O Blues

5. Walkin' Blues

6. My Black Mama

7. My Black Mama

8. Preachin' The Blues

9. Preachin' The Blues

10. Dry Spell Blues

11. Dry Spell Blues

12. All Night Long Blues

13. On the Wall

14. All Night Long Blues

15. By The Moon And Stars

16. Long Ways From Home

Disc: 5

1. Dry Well Blues

2. Moon Going Down

3. We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun

4. Moaner Let's Go Down In The Valley

5. Jesus Got His Arms Around Me

6. God Won't Forsake His Own

7. I'll Be Here

8. Where Was Eve Sleeping

9. I Know My Time Ain't Long

10. Watch And Pray

11. High Sheriff Blues

12. Stone Pony Blues

13. Jersey Bull Blues

14. Hang It On The Wall

15. 34 Blues

16. Love My Stuff

17. Poor Me

18. Revenue Man Blues

19. Troubled 'Bout My Mother

20. Oh Death

21. Yellow Bee

22. Mind Reader Blues

 Credits :
Baritone Vocals – Will Mosely (faixas: 5-3 to 5-10)
Bass Vocals – Archie Smith (faixas: 5-3 to 5-10)
Lead Vocals – Wheeler Ford (faixas: 5-3 to 5-10)
Tenor Vocals – Ivory Lou Allen (faixas: 5-3 to 5-10)
Vocals – Bertha Lee (faixas: 5-19 to 5-22)
Vocals, Fiddle – Henry Sims (faixas: 3-13 to 3-16)
Vocals, Guitar – Walter Hawkins (faixas: 1-15 to 1-18), Charley Patton (faixas: 1-1 to 1-3, 1-7 to 1-11, 1-13, 1-14, 2-1 to 2-16, 3-1 to 3-12, 4-1, 4-2, 5-1, 5-2, 5-11 to 5-20), Elder J J Hadley (faixas: 1-4, 1-5), Son House (faixas: 4-5 to 4-11), The Masked Marvel (faixas: 1-6, 1-12), Willie Brown (faixas: 4-3, 4-4)
Vocals, Piano – Edith North Johnson (faixas: 2-17 to 2-20), Louise Johnson (faixas: 4-12 to 4-16)