Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Sliding Delta - Mississippi John Hurt
2. Candy Man - Mississippi John Hurt
3. Coffee Blues - Mississippi John Hurt
4. Stagolee - Mississippi John Hurt
5. Here I Am Lord Send Me - Mississippi John Hurt
6. Pallet on Your Floor - Mississippi John Hurt
7. Devil Got My Woman - Mississippi John Hurt
8. Hard Time Killing Floor Blues - Skip James
9. Preaching Blues - Son House
10. Death Letter Blues - Son House
11. Empire State Express - Son House
12. Son Blues - Son House
13. Aberdeen Mississippi Blues - Bukka White
14. Louise - Mississippi Fred McDowell,
15. If the River Was Whiskey - Mississippi Fred McDowell,
16. Walkin' Blues - Muddy Waters
17. I Can't Be Satisfied - Muddy Waters

Disc 2:

1. Levee Camp Blues - Robert Pete Williams
2. Midnight Boogie - Robert Pete Williams
3. On My Way from Texas - Robert Pete Williams
4. Freddie - Mance Lipscomb
5. So Different Blues - Mance Lipscomb
6. God Moves on the Water (The Sinking of the Titantic) - Mance Lipscomb
7. San Francisco Bay Blues - Jesse Fuller
8. I Double Double Do Love You - Jesse Fuller
9. Samson and Delilah - Rev. Gary Davis
10. I Won't Be Back No More - Rev. Gary Davis
11. Intro/The Train Is Leaving - Sonny Terry
12. Drink Muddy Water [#] - Sonny Terry
13. Long Gone - Sonny Terry
14. Key to the Highway - Sonny Terry
15. My Baby Done Changed the Lock on the Door - Sonny Terry
16. Clean up at Home - Sleepy John Estes

Disc 3:

1. Woman I'm Loving, She's Taken My Appetite - Lightnin' Hopkins
2. Baby Please Don't Go - Lightnin' Hopkins
3. Shake That Thing - Sam Lay, Lightnin' Hopkins
4. Tupelo - John Lee Hooker, Bill Lee
5. Bus Station Blues - John Lee Hooker, Bill Lee
6. Let's Make It [#] - John Lee Hooker
7. Great Fire of Natchez [#] - John Lee Hooker
8. Boom Boom [#] - John Lee Hooker
9. I Can't Quit You Baby/Stop Now Baby - John Lee Hooker
10. How Long [#] - Memphis Slim
11. Black Cat Crossed My Path [#] - Memphis Slim
12. Harlem Bound [#] - Memphis Slim
13. Piano Instrumental [#] - Memphis Slim
14. Blow Wind Blow [#] - Muddy Waters,
15. Flood [#] - Muddy Waters,
16. See See Rider - The Chambers Brothers
17. Blues With a Feeling - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
18. Born in Chicago - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140041 in Music
• Released on: 2001-04-10
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, Live

Amazon.com
These three CDs document some of the greatest moments of culture shock in American music. Most of the bluesmen who first came to Newport had never played before audiences so attentive, large, or white. And those listening had never experienced anything like Skip James's blood-chilling whine, Reverend Gary Davis's furious testifying, or Mississippi John Hurt's twirling melodies. Most of the audience, in fact, assumed the bluesmen were dead. As a cinematic sweep of just what made those countercultural gatherings so exciting and diverse, this set is an unqualified success (though the rather arbitrary and ahistorical sequencing by blues subgenre is as puzzling as the omission of specific performance dates). While many tracks have long been available on other compilations, the unreleased cuts, 11 in all, are revelations, especially Muddy Waters and Otis Spann strutting through "Flood" and John Lee Hooker sinking into the scary groove of "Let's Make It." --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews

Blues in the Open Air
The Newport Folk Festival in the 1960's regularly featured blues artists; from Son House to the Butterfield Blues Band, acoustic to electric: Mike Bloomfield was on hand with Butterfield in '65 and wound up backing Bob Dylan in his now-near-mythic "coming out" as a rocker. This new anthology of Newport blues supercedes and expands upon the "Blues With a Feeling" set, leaning heavily on the acoustic, but including some essential electric performances. The rawness and authenticity of these artists will excite anyone with ears for this kind of music. Essential for blues fans, and a real bargain as a three-CD set. Highly recommended.

A Stunning Collection Of Live Performances
If there is a better collection of live blues than this Newport 3 CD set, I haven't heard it. This stunning CD covers 10 years Newport performances during the height of the folk blues revival in the early 60's. Many of the artists were rediscovered by blues enthusiasts like John Fahey, Al "Blind Owl" Wilson and Sam Charters by canvassing remote areas of the south and locating the M.I.A.s of the 1920-30s "race" records. Some of these performers were presumed to be dead, and Newport was their first time in front of an audience in decades. There is not a single throw-away among 16 performers and the 51 (count 'em!)cuts here.

Vangaurd Records is to be commended for making the right artistic choices in thier production of this CD. Many of these performances had been floating around for years on other Newport collections. Producer Tom Vicker devoted an entire disc to each of these three categories: delta blues, country blues and urban blues. There is a sense of continuity on each disc without any jarring segues. Engineer Jeff Zaraya captures the warm analogic glory of the orginal performances and wisely chooses not to edit out foot stomping, hand clapping and crowd noises. Zaraya's mastering work captures the passion of the living blues and he avoids the mistake of reducing the performances to sterile museum piece curiosities.

The scope of performers is staggering. Son House, self proclaimed mentor of Robert Johnson, whose piercing slap-time steel guitar was the alter-ego to his gritty emotional baritone. Skip James, ghost of the delta, sings in his haunting falsetto with his mastery of complex right hand poly-rhythymic bassline fingerpicking. Jesse Fuller, San Francisco's one man band, plays his ramshackle ragtime blues. Mississppi John Hurt demonstrates his wry humor and his delicate five finger picking of his brillant orginal music. Polished performers like Muddy Waters and Brownie McGee know how to pace a show and work the crowd. Harlem's Rev. Gary Davis' does "old time religion" gospel shouting and precision ragtime picking. The suprise is an obscure ex-con, Robert Pete Williams with his eerie "stream of consciousness" lyrics and elliptical song structures. Robert Pete Williams, more than any of the performers, is connected to the roots of West African folk music. By my own count, John Lee Hooker was the last performer on these recordings to die(June 21, 2001). These astounding Newport performances are, at once, a historical document, a tribute to the diverse artistry of American blues, and some of the most passionate and riveting music I've ever heard. An essential for anyone collecting blues or roots music.

A treasure trove
It's almost hard to believe that this CD exists. So many excellent performances by legendary bluesmen like Son House, John Lee Hooker, Skip James, Muddy Waters and a whole host of others, all recorded live at the legendary Newport Folk Festival. And the sound is amazing, crisp and clear.

Disc one opens with a six-song set by "Mississippi" John Hurt which includes "Candy Man" and "Stagolee", and also includes two spooky songs by an ailing but still-powerful Nehemiah "Skip" James, four songs by Son House, and songs by Bukka White and Fred McDowell, as well as two excellent acoustic solo performances by Muddy Waters. House's "Death Letter Blues" and "Empire State Express", Muddy Waters' "I Can't Be Satisfied", and Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman" are among the highlights, but there aren't really any "lowlights".

Disc two features a great little set by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, a wonderful rendition of Sleepy John Estes' "Clean Up At Home", three excellent songs by the underrated Robert Pete Williams, and several other fine performances, including Mance Lipscomb's version of Blind Willie Johnson's scary "God Moves On The Water", and Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues" (which you may have heard Eric Clapton cover on his "Unplugged" album).

On disc three, Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins plays an electric guitar (gasp!) on a great, swaggering "Baby Please Don't Go", and is backed by drummer Sam Lay on "Shake That Thing". John Lee Hooker lays down haunting versions of "Tupelo" and "The Great Fire Of Natchez", as well as a gritty "Boom Boom". Muddy Waters is accompanied by pianist Otis Spann on a great, swinging "Blow Wind Blow". And the 6'6" John L. "Memphis Slim" Chatman plays a version of "How Long" to rival that of Leroy Carr himself.

The vast majority of these performances are acoustic, and there is a lot of wonderful acoustic slide guitar here...Muddy Waters, Son House, Fred McDowell, Mance Lipscomb, and Bukka White all play ringing bottleneck phrases. Sonny Terry blows his customary harmonica, and Memphis Slim and Otis Spann both contribute some excellent piano playing. And while many of these songs have been available on various LP and CD releases before, "Best Of The Blues 1959-1968" includes almost a dozen previously unreleased recordings, of which Sonny Terry's & Brownie McGhee's "Drink Muddy Water", "How Long" by Memphis Slim, and John Lee Hooker's "Let's Make It", are among the greatest.

This collection is a must-have for anyone with an interest in the 60s blues revival, or just acoustic blues music in general, and you won't believe the fidelity. A wonderful two hours and fifty-three minutes of music.