Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Mr. Johnson's Blues
2. Johnson's Trio Stomp
3. To Do This You Got to Know How
4. South Bound Water
5. I Done Told You
6. Steppin' On the Blues
7. Steady Grind
8. Four Hands Are Better Than Two
9. Woke Up With the Blues in My Fingers
10. Backwater Blues
11. Mean Old Bed Bug Blues
12. Roaming Ramble Blues
13. Stay Out of Walnut Street Alley
14. St. Louis Cyclone Blues
15. Bedbug Blues, Pt. 2
16. Garter Snake Blues
17. 6/88 Glide
18. Life Saver Blues
19. I'm Not Rough - Louis Armstrong
20. Sweet Potato Blues
21. Hotter Than That
22. Savoy Blues
23. Playing With the Strings
24. Stompin' Em Along Now

Disc 2:

1. Deep Blue Sea Blues
2. No More Women Blues
3. I'm So Tired of Living All Alone
4. Crowing Rooster Blues
5. Broken Levee Blues
6. Careless Love
7. Toothache Blues, Pts. 1-2
8. Misty Mornin' - Duke Ellington,
9. Two Tone Stomp - Blind Willie Dunn, Lonnie Johnson
10. Have to Change Keys to Play These Blues - Blind Willie Dunn, Lonnie Johnson
11. It Feels So Good, Pts. 1-2 - Lonnie Johnson, Spencer Williams
12. Jet Black Blues - Blind Willie Dunn
13. Guitar Blues - Blind Willie Dunn, Lonnie Johnson
14. Blue Guitars - Blind Willie Dunn, Lonnie Johnson
15. Bullfrog Moan - Blind Willie Dunn, Lonnie Johnson
16. Sundown Blues
17. New Fallin' Rain Blues
18. You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now, Pts. 1-2 - Lonnie Johnson, Victoria Spivey
19. Hot Fingers - Blind Willie Dunn, Lonnie Johnson
20. Blue Room - Blind Willie Dunn, Lonnie Johnson
21. She's Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight
22. Another Woman Booked Out and Bound to Go

Disc 3:

1. I Got the Best Jelly Roll in Town, Pts. 1-2
2. Dirty Dozen - Lonnie Johnson, Spencer Williams
3. I Just Can't Stand These Blues
4. Deep Sea Blues
5. Long Black Train
6. I Have to Do My Time
7. No More Troubles Now
8. You're Getting Old On Your Job - Tommy Jordan, Clara Smith
9. Don't Wear It Out - Tommy Jordan, Clara Smith
10. Got the Blues for Murder Only
11. Let All Married Women Alone
12. Beautiful But Dumb
13. Sleepy Water Blues
14. Uncle Red, Don't Use Your Head
15. I'm Nuts About That Gal
16. Racketeers Blues
17. Swing Out Rhythm
18. Why Women Go Wrong
19. Jersey Belle Blues
20. Loveless Blues
21. I'm Just Dumb
22. Get Yourself Together
23. Crowing Rooster Blues

Disc 4:

1. That's Love
2. Lazy Woman Blues
3. In Love Again
4. He's a Jelly Roll Baker
5. When You Feel Low Down
6. Victim of Love
7. Watch Shorty
8. Keep What You Got
9. Love Is the Answer
10. Tomorrow Night
11. What a Real Woman
12. Falling Rain Blues
13. Working Man's Blues
14. Playing Around
15. Trouble Ain't Nothing But the Blues
16. Blues Stay Away from Me
17. Little Rockin' Chair
18. Nothing But Trouble
19. Why Should I Cry
20. It Was All in Vain
21. You Only Want Me When You're Lonely
22. Me and My Crazy Self
23. I'm Guilty
24. Just Another Day
25. You Can't Buy Love
26. Can't Sleep Any More

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #111403 in Music
• Released on: 2005-01-31
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Import

Album Details
One of the Most Influential and Original Blues Musicians, Lonnie Johnson Virtually Created the Modern Blues Guitar Style on his Own, Sending the Music off in the Direction it Has Subsequently Taken. Combining Elements of Jazz Into his Technique Meant that He Blurred the Boundaries Between the Two Emerging Musics During the '30s, Later Slipping Out of Music Only to Return as an Elder Statesman in the 1960s. This Lavishly Presented Four CD Set Takes in all of the Recordings Made Between 1928 and 1952 that Created a Blues Legend and also Includes Comprehensive Liner Notes and a Full Discography.

Customer Reviews

The first guitar hero!
B.B King, Albert King, Clapton, Vaughn, Green and Taylor were all guitar playing heroes of our youth. Naturally, they were really great pickers, no doubt about that! But the way I see it, this man, Lonnie Johnson, was the first and the greatest guitar hero ever! For five decades he entertained and pleased people with his mellow, emotionally charged voice and his unrivalled guitar playing. From country blues to jazz - he was equally at ease with a vast variety of music. His playing was always technically impressive (sometimes nearly insurmountable), touchingly melodic and with an inexhaustible well of ideas. Some of his solo instrumentals are not really possible to redo, and his duos with Eddie Lang surely belong to the highest class of American music. If I were to take only one single item with me to a deserted island (hopefully the area would have electricity), this CD box would be the one!

A True Pioneer
This is the perfect box set. The liner notes are great, the packaging is fine, and the music contained on these discs is simply stunning. Lonnie's work with Texas Alexander doesn't sound like anything else committed to record. "Section Gang Blues" and "Levee Camp Moan" are startling in their intensity. His guitar duets with Eddie Lang will never lose their novelty, because they are music on the level of the Classical music of Europe. "Away Down in The Alley Blues" and "Hot Fingers" are mind-boggling. Lonnie's Blues lyrics are original and greatly detailed. He is the master of romantic balladry. He is a pioneer in Rhythm & Blues. He knows how to use double-entendre, and he certainly seems to have a true distrust of women!

top rate overview of Lonnie Johnson through 1952
Although to many, like myself, Lonnie Johnson's blues numbers are of primary interest--and to others his pioneering jazz instrumentals are of equal or greater interest--he also did ballads, duets, and hokum pieces.This four CD set provides examples of all of these types of music that Johnson was associated with, and how he excelled at all of them. Likewise, Johnson was an exceptional and highly influential guitarist, but also more than competent at his secondary instruments like the violin and the piano. While rightly centering on his guitar playing, this boxset also gives good examples of Johnson playing the violin, piano, and banjo. As such, it complements the comprehensive series of Document records CDs, and provides guidance to which discs from that series one might want to buy.