Track Listing

1. We Live a Long Time to Get Old - Jimmy Murphy
2. Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson
3. When I'm Gone - Joe Hill Louis
4. Death Valley Is Just Half Way to My Home - Lonnie Johnson
5. Whoop 'Em Up, Cindy - Uncle Dave Macon
6. Statesboro Blues - Blind Willie McTell
7. It Won't Be Long - Charley Patton
8. Death Letter Blues - Son House
9. Hard Time Blues - Lane Hardin
10. Indian War Whoop - Hoyt Ming and His Pep Steppers
11. Paddlin' Madeline Blues - Gitfiddle Jim
12. Mandolin Blues - Tennessee Mess Arounders
13. Coo-Coo Bird - Clarence Ashley
14. John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man - The Carter Family
15. Lost Child - The Stripling Brothers
16. Bugle Call Rag - Billy Banks & His Orchestra,
17. Sail Away Lady - Uncle Bunt Stephens
18. Original Stack O' Lee Blues - Papa Harvey Hull, Long "Cleve" Reed,
19. Dark Was the Night - Cold Was the Ground - Blind Willie Johnson

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84734 in Music
• Released on: 2006-12-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Album Description
This CD features 19 prime cuts from Joe Bussard's shelves of 25,000 78s.

Everett True, Planb, March 2007
This is an incredible collection, put together by obsessive collector (Joe) Bussard. It includes the record that won Uncle Bunt Stephen the Henry Ford Fiddling Contest, 'Sail Away Lady', Clarence Ashley with his claw hammer banjo, and possible the rarest record in the world, Cleve Reed and Harvey Hull's 'Original Stack 'O Lee Blues.

From the Artist
Collectors and musicians come to see and hear first-hand what is considered to be the most vital, historically important privately owned collection of early-20th-century American music. Although other formidable private record collections exist, what makes Bussard such an undeniable force in old-time music circles isn't simply his collection but what he has done with it over the years. It is a fusion of obsessive, almost pathological hoarding and an equally strong impulse for rampant dissemination. He has got to own the record, yes, but he wants the whole world to hear it, too.

Customer Reviews

Perfect companion to "Down in the Basement"
This soundtrack from the documentary film about record collector Joe Bussard, which was also entitled "Desperate Man Blues", is a terrific addition to the CD collection "Down In The Basement: Joe Bussard's Treasure Trove of Vintage 78s 1926-1937" (featuring the likes of Uncle Dave Macon, Rev. Gary Davis, Big Bill Broonzy, and the Stripling Brothers). If you are even a thousandth as interested in classic country, blues, and folk music recordings as that notorious old curmudgeon Bussard, you will delight in these songs from the 20s through the 50s (after which, of course, no music worth recording has ever been produced, at least according to Bussard, the old coot). Macon and the Striplings also make an appearance on this album, along with Robert, Lonnie, and Willie Johnson, as well as Charlie Patton, Son House, the Carter Family, and many other more obscure artists. Bussard is heard making parenthetical (and typically irascible) comments between songs, and his opinionated remarks also serve as liner notes.