Track Listing

1. Dough Roller Blues - Garfield Akers
2. Big Road Blues - Tommy Johnson
3. My Black Mamma - Part 1 - Son House
4. Ain't No Tellin - Mississippi John Hurt
5. Cypress Grove - Skip James
6. I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole - Blind Willie Johnson
7. Mama, Tain't Long Fo' Day - Blind Willie McTell
8. Barefoot Blues - Jaydee Short
9. I'll Go With Her Blues - Robert Wilkins
10. Squabblin Blues - Ed Bell
11. It Won't Be Long - Charlie Patton
12. What's The Matter Blues - Frank Stokes
13. Last Kind Word Blues - Geeshie Wiley
14. Bullfrog Blues - William Harris
15. You Gonna Quit Me Blues - Blind Blake
16. The Gone Dead Train - King Solomon Hill
17. Outdoor Blues - Memphis Minnie
18. Prison Cell Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson
19. Graveyard Digger's Blues - Sam Collins
20. Big Chief Blues - Furry Lewis

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #181101 in Music
• Released on: 2003-08-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Customer Reviews

Best Blues compilation I've found
I've been getting into this stuff for the last year or so and this is, far and away, the best "sampler" cd that I have found. In fact, it's much more satisfying to listen to these songs in this sequence than it is to listen to them on a compilation of pre-war 78's by a single artist.

Sure, Robert Johnson is great, but listening to all of his songs back to back to back can be a bit repetitive musically. After all, no one was making albums back then. Only singles, which often were variations on a theme which weren't intended to be played one directly after another. (I realize that Robert Johnson doesn't appear on this cd, but I am simply making a point.) Johnson's King of the Delta Blues Singers is a great album, but, I would argue, this is a better one. And that's really saying something.
Not every song chosen is the most commonly acknowledged "best" song by that particular artist, but that is actually to this disc's advantage. For example, "Cypress Grove" by Skip James is absolutely great, even if it's not as widely praised a "Devil Got My Woman." This strategy helps to prove the merits of an artist like Skip. He is not a one hit wonder. (Insofar as anything by Skip James has ever really been considered a "hit."
One last note: In the R. Crumb documentary, track number 13, "Last Kind Work Blues" by Geeshie Wiley, is the 78 rpm record which Crumb plays in his home as he assumes a near-fetal position.

It certainly is the best there ever was
This is actually my second time purchasing this. I wore out the first copy. This is, simply put, the most concentrated "cream of the crop" of pre-war guitar blues ever put out and the best sounding as well. Garfield Aker's Dough Roller is a masterpiece of the first order and there are few things on the set that don't compete neck to neck with this one. A real value and a wonder to hear!