Track Listing

1. Broke Down Engine Blues
2. Statesboro Blues
3. Travelin' Blues
4. Searching the Desert for the Blues
5. Dark Night Blues
6. Three Women Blues
7. Atlanta Strut
8. Writing Paper Blues
9. Come Around To My House Mama
10. Scarey Day Blues
11. Mama Let Me Scoop For You
12. Mama, Tain't Long Fo' Day
13. Death Cell Blues
14. Kind Mama
15. Low Rider's Blues
16. Loving Talking Blues
17. Drive Away Blues
18. Love Changing Blues
19. Southern Can Is Mine
20. B and O Blues No. 2
21. Stole Rider Blues
22. Talkin' To Myself
23. Lay Some Flowers On My Grave

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24946 in Music
• Released on: 2004-09-21
• Number of discs: 1

About the Artist
Blind Willie McTell was one of the greatest of the pre-World War II country blues artists; he was also an anomaly. Throughout the history of the blues, few artists have matched his total command of rural traditional music. He was a brilliant guitarist equally adept in a variety of styles and had a unique ability to reinvent a few favorite arrangements into new-sounding pieces. He sang, composed and preserved some of the most inventive and breath-taking traditional songs, blues and arrangements of all time. Although his nasal voice did not have great range, it processed volumes of warmth and conviction and was charged with sensitivity and a broad range of emotion. McTell plays the 12-string guitar with unusual clarity and precision, whether performing slow blues with a bottleneck/slide or a fast ragtime dance.

Customer Reviews

The finest Blind Willie compilation for selection & sound!
I have been also a fan of old blues recordings since the early 1970's. Blind Willie is one of my favorites. If you love twelve-string guitar, he was the master. McTell was from Atlanta, so he never got the credit like those from the Mississippi Delta (Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson, Son House etc) and McTell's form of blues was categorized as the "Piedmont Style" and featured some pop and ragtime influences than just hard-core blues. It was also sunny and cheerful at times. I've owned blues compilations with Blind Willie cuts and also owned the Columbia/Legacy version and found the guitar and overall balance to have less presence than this new Yazoo release. These are the finest sounding recordings ever on McTell. The sound is crisp and vibrant and you can hear the 12-string ring like a bell or a train whistle. This Yazoo CD covers the best of the early Victor recordings and also the Columbia ones. The only knock I have is that there are no specific dates when the songs were recorded. The Victors are from 1927 to 1932 and the Columbias are from around 1928 to 1935, but it would have been nice for "record nerds" like me to know exactly when they were recorded, so we could figure out who he was influenced by (current events,crazes, other musicians, movies etc.). Music can be influenced by the style of the times. Anyway, if you love guitar and folk blues excellence, Blind Willie is fantastic, plus he had a way with words. Bob Dylan is a also a fond admirer of McTell and even wrote a great song about him. This CD offers the finest selection of his greatest songs and with the greatest sound ever released. If you are a blues historian or fan, this is a must for your collection!

Two Of The Greatest Lines Can Be Found On This CD
They are, and I quote: "She looked like a lump of Lord have mercy," and "I drink so much I stagger when I sleep."
As to the rest of the CD, McTell was a bit more urbane than many of his delta blues contemporaries. (And yes, I meant "urbane" not "urban.") His guitar playing has a more jazzy feel to it, and you can tell that the music will be making its way to the big city soon. He's probably my favorite Delta blues guy, and young whipper snappers will be able to hear where Jack White got his schtick.
How's the sound quality on this release? Um, pretty darn excellent, all things considered.

A great compilation
I highly recommend this compilation to all music lovers. Blind Willie McTell was an outstanding 12-string guitar player, songwriter, and performer. This release truly gives you a sense of Blind Willie's hilarious personality. He had a funny way with words, and seemed to love singing about the ladies. However, the woman's voice heard on these recordings is from his life-long wife, Kate McTell. In addition, the sound quality is quite remarkable given the time frame of the recordings. This is a must have for all acoustic blues enthusiasts.