Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. I Want Jesus to Talk with Me - Homer Quincy Smith
2. Deal Rag - Walter Taylor
3. Motherless Child Blues - Elvie Thomas
4. Big Bed Bug (Bed Bug Blues) - Tommy Settlers,
5. I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape - Nugrape Twins
6. Molly Man - Mose "Red Hot / Ole Mose" Mason
7. Black Dog Blues - Bayless Rose
8. Workhouse Blues - Mattie May Thomas
9. Bo-Lita - Kid Brown & His Blues Band
10. My Mama Always Talked to Me - John Hammond, Jr.
11. Ballin' the Jack - Salty Dog Four
12. Friday Moan Blues - Alfred Lewis
13. Pick Poor Robin Clean - Geeshie Wiley
14. It's Cold in China Blues - The Mississippi Moaner
15. Black Sheep Blues - Pigmeat Terry
16. Old Hen Cackle - 2 Poor Boys
17. Frisco Blues - Bayless Rose
18. Hot Time Blues - William Harris
19. Take a Look at That Baby - 2 Poor Boys
20. Skinny Leg Blues - Geeshie Wiley
21. Little Birdie - John Hammond, Jr.
22. Little Girl in Rome - Otto Virgial
23. Dangerous Blues - Mattie May Thomas
24. Mean Low Blues - Blues Birdhead
25. Be My Kid Blues - Elizabeth Johnson

Disc 2:

1. Last Kind Words Blues - Geeshie Wiley
2. Poor Mourner - The Cousins, Virginia DeMoss
3. Jamestown Exhibition - Bayless Rose
4. There's a City Built of Mansions - Nugrape Twins
5. Cairo Blues - Henry Spaulding
6. Two White Horses in a Line - 2 Poor Boys
7. Shrimp Man - Mose "Red Hot / Ole Mose" Mason
8. Don't Mistreat Your Good Boyfriend - Bubbling Over Five
9. Bull Frog Blues - William Harris
10. Purty Polly - John Hammond, Jr.
11. Go Down Moses - Homer Quincy Smith
12. Over to My House - Elvie Thomas, Geeshie Wiley
13. Shaking Weed Blues - Tommy Settlers,
14. Big Mac from Macamere - Mattie May Thomas
15. Moaning the Blues - Pigmeat Terry
16. Original Blues - Bayless Rose
17. John Henry Blues [Take 3] - 2 Poor Boys
18. Sobbin' Woman Blues - Elizabeth Johnson
19. Bad Notion Blues - Otto Virgil
20. Eagles on a Half - Geeshie Wiley
21. Mississippi Swamp Moan - Alfred Lewis
22. Red Cross the Disciple of Christ Today - Rev. Moses Mason
23. Kansas City Blues - William Harris
24. As Free a Little Bird as Can Be - John Hammond, Jr.
25. No Mo' Freedom - Mattie May Thomas

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11366 in Music
• Released on: 2005-10-04
• Number of discs: 2

Album Description
American Primitive, Vol. 2

Customer Reviews

Despite Some Recycling, A Transcendant Anthology
To be honest, I almost passed on buying this set. A great deal of the material here is available elsewhere -- in several other places. Buyers of Yazoo's ambitious three-disc "Before The Blues" discs of 1997, or anyone half-familiar with other CDs by Document and Yazoo, will recognize a good half of the 50 tracks here.
As well, Revenant Records is devoted to replicating the experience of listening to one of these original, battered shellac discs. They're the polar opposite of John Davies and JSP Records. I think that, were it possible, Revenant would import MORE pops, scrapes and thunks into the music.
The surface damage adds something divine to the listening experience. This set, which spotlights performers and performances that defy the conventions of professionalism and "good taste," bare the cold, windy soul of American life in the 1920s and '30s. These night-soaked, doom-ridden performances pack quite a punch. Some of them are actually quite funny and light-hearted, but the Grim Reaper is still peering over the listener's shoulders on each and every selection here.
The Nugrape Twins are the most haunting, moving performers here. It's hard to imagine where they were coming from, exactly, but their music has the perfect blend of the creepy and the divine.
Homer Quincy Smith's two spirituals, from 1926, are perhaps the eeriest, even most frightening recordings I've ever heard. With an organ to his accompaniment, Smith bares his soul via two minor-keyed, chill-making religious songs. To paraphrase the set's liner notes, these two songs are a private, highly personal dialogue with The Creator, from a mortal voice who seems to doubt his faith while clinging desperately to its tenets.
The scary mood of many of the performances here probably wasn't intended by the artists. It just comes oozing out of their musical pores. In high contrast to the white music of the Jazz Age, these recordings suggest what a threatening, unfulfilling and grim place 1920s America must have been, especially to the disenfranchised and downtrodden who created and purchased these records.
Some other endearing-haunting performers/songs are Elizabeth Johnson's two entries, "Be My Kid Blues" and "Sobbin' Woman Blues," with their cartoon woodblock percussion and muted fiesta cornet. The style of these two tracks does not exist anywhere else in recorded music. It barely hangs together, and its flirtation with failure makes the performances moving and even troubling.
Pigmeat Terry's curious off-key, wordless emanations, sounding like a mistreated alto sax, make her two pieces delights. And new to my ears is the sublime "Ballin' The Jack" by The Salty Dog Four. The set's thick liner-note booklet describes this music as "scorched-earth freek jazz." I can add nothing more to that perfect description.
Old-time music fans know all about Geeshie Wiley, The Two Poor Boys, Blues Birdhead, John Hammond, Moses Mason and Bayless Rose, to name some oft-anthologized performers represented here. As said earlier, the inclusion of so many tracks long-familiar to me almost persuaded me against the purchase of this set. The miracle of this collection is that, by its careful jutxaposition of moods and themes in the music, it makes these workhorses fresh once again.
If you are fortunate to be new to some or all of this music, do not hesitate to purchase "American Primitive, Vol. 2." And even if, like me, you're not new to most of it, it will give you a new perspective on many of these done-to-death staples of P.D. old time music comps.

Manic hillbilly jam sessions... drunken ragtime jamborees... backcountry kazoo virtuosos... droning banjo ragas...
I feel like I should clarify a few things right away here...
1. I haven't heard American Primitive Vol. I
2. I am far from an expert or even really a fan of Americana / roots / blues / folk / old-timey jazz / etc.
3. There are many things I'd rather do than listen to a bunch of digitally remastered scratchy old 78rpm records
4. I love this album...

Billed as "John Fahey's final curated work for Revenant," American Primitive Vol. II inspires a very rare and exciting sense of wonder and discovery in each of its 50 tracks. You feel as if you've been granted exclusive access to a secret, forgotten, and neglected library of old recordings that have been buried in dusty attics and rickety storage sheds for decades. Of course, Revenant Records seems to specialize in sonic revelation, previously lavishing upon us two of the greatest CD box sets of all time -- Charlie Patton: Screamin' and Hollerin the Blues and Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost.

It would be pointless to attempt a track-by-track description of this two disc set -- just dive in head first and enjoy the ride... You'll hear spooky gospel dirges... manic hillbilly jam sessions... yelping bluesmen... drunken ragtime jamborees... freewheeling Appalachian shape note singing... backcountry kazoo virtuosos... droning banjo ragas... barely coherent harmonica solos... barroom jazz-folk-blues ballads... scary sung/spoken fire-and-brimstone sermons... For a few precious minutes, each track transports you to some kind of strange yet very vivid alternative early American universe.

The sound quality is surprisingly clear and clean throughout, especially considering the age (and likely condition) of some of the source recordings... in fact, some of this music sounds so "modern" (or "post-modern?") that you almost wonder if it's all some kind of elaborate Fahey-esque prank (some of the liner notes make you wonder too...) Perhaps my jaded ears can hardly believe that there was once a time when a recording could be so raw, sincere, unpretentious, unproduced, and defiantly "unmarketable." While these records were all apparently "professionally" recorded and produced in one way or another, they have more of the unaffected sound and spirit of "amateur" home recordings.

John Fahey and Revenant should be saluted as American heroes for preserving and sharing these forgotten treasures for all of us to hear. American Primitive Vol. II is evidence of an American musical past far more varied, eccentric, exciting, and just plain fun than you've ever imagined.

As an added bonus (just as you'd expect from this label), the artwork, packaging, and extensive liner notes are a total class act. Vol. I, here I come...

Ghost Music
This is a truly great collection that,in many ways, surpasses Volume 1. I love pre-WWII music,but I hadn't heard of many of the artists in this collection, which was it's big appeal to me. As I delved into the booklet I was made aware of why that is: most of these artists cut maybe four sides of recorded material and were never heard from again.

There is a ghostly, other-worldly feel that overtakes you from the first track,a spiritual by Homer Quincy Smith who plays the organ like a crazed genuis (Hello Garth Hudson!). Other highlights include the wildly disparate tracks of the Two Poor Boys,The Nugrape Twins transcendent soda-pop jingle 'I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape', Geeshie Wiley who rivals the toughness of Memphis Minnie, and the imaginative combination of instruments wielded by The Bubbling Over Five. Those are just tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Given that the collection was put together by the good folk at Revenant you know the packaging is worth the price of admission.
Beautiful artwork and an insightful booklet with comprehensive artist biographies (well as comprehensive as you could get with such unheralded artists) make this a great collection that any old-time music lover will enjoy.