Track Listings
1. Levee Camp Blues - McDowell, Mississippi Fred
2. Casey Jones - Hurt, Mississippi John
3. Death Letter - House, Son
4. Baby Please Don't Go - Williams, Big Joe
5. Screamin' and Hollerin' Blues - Patton, Charley
6. That's All Right Mama - Crudup, Arthur "Big Boy"
7. Steady Rollin' Man - Williamson, Sonny Boy
8. Canned Heat Blues - Johnson, Tommy
9. Pony Blues - Nelson, Sonny Boy
10. Take Your Hand Out of My Pocket - Williamson, Sonny
Boy
11. Stop the Train Conductor - Pryor, Snooky
12. Mississippi Blues - Bailey, Kid
About the Delta Blues
The Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues
music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region
of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee
in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, the
Mississippi River on the west to the Yazoo River on the
east. The Mississippi Delta area is famous both for its
fertile soil and its extreme poverty. Guitar and harmonica
are the dominant instruments used.
The vocal styles range from introspective and soulful to
passionate and fiery.
Delta blues music was first recorded in the late 1920s.
The early recordings consist mostly of one person singing
and playing an instrument, though the use of a band was
more common during live performances. The recording of early
Delta blues (as well as other genres) owes much to John
Lomax, who criss-crossed the Southern US recording music
played and sung by ordinary people. His recordings number
in the thousands, and now reside in the Smithsonian Institution.
"Delta blues" is a style as much as a geographical
appellation: Skip James and Elmore James, who were not born
in the Delta, were considered Delta blues musicians. Performers
traveled throughout the Mississippi Delta Arkansas, Louisiana,
Texas, and Tennessee. Eventually, Delta blues spread out
across the country, giving rise to a host of regional variations,
including Chicago and Detroit blues.
Scholars disagree as to whether there is a substantial,
musicological difference between blues that originated in
this region and in other parts of the country. The defining
characteristic of Delta blues would seem to be instrumentation
and an emphasis on rhythm and "bottleneck" slide;
the basic harmonic structure is not substantially different
from that of blues performed elsewhere.
Because the Mississippi Delta was essentially "feudal"
in the 1920s and earlier, and the plantation system was
oppressive, there existed a subculture of blues artists
who were refugees from that system.
The Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman Farm was
an important influence on several blues musicians who were
imprisoned there, and was referenced in songs such as Bukka
White's 'Parchman Farm Blues' and the folk song 'Midnight
Special'. Thus Delta blues can refer to one of the first
pop-music subcultures as well as to a performing style.
