March 02, 2003
eMusic Country Blues
eMusic may not have much in the way of popular music, but damn the blues collection available is stunning. Well it is if you're one of the rare people who totally digs country blues recorded early in the 20th century. I'm one of those people and it's thrilling to have access to so much of this stuff. I've been an avid purchaser of country blues recordings, but there was always so much more that I wanted to hear. Once you start tracking this stuff there's always an interesting web of influences that is fun to follow.
eMusic is perfect for this stuff, even though they're only 128kb MP3s it doesn't matter one bit because so much of this stuff is of such poor sonic quality anyway. Anything recorded before 1940 or so is pulled from 78s, many of which were of extremely poor quality even when they were brand new (i.e. Charlie Patton). The music is what's important though and there is some truly great stuff available.
Charley Patton
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Tampa Red
Lonnie Johnson
Blind Blake
Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry
Ma Rainey
Blind Willie McTell
Mississipi John Hurt
Skip James
Also not quite as early, but by far one of my favorite blues artists Rev. Gary Davis. Been listening to this stuff a ton and it's incredible, in particular Blues and Ragtime.
Ugh, I had so many things I wanted to do this weekend, didn't get much done. Oh well, it was fun.