Release Date: 28 January, 1997
Audio CD
Tracks
- Fool in Love - Marcia Ball
- Jump for Joy - Koko Taylor
- I Don't Want No Man - Big Time Sarah
- Wild Women (Don't Have the Blues) - Ida Cox
- If I Can't Sell It, I'll Keep Sittin' on It - Ruth Brown
- Trouble in Mind - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- I Got Myself a Workin' Man - Alberta Hunter
- No! I Ain't Gonna Let You Go - Candye Kane
- Why Young Men Go Wild - Lavelle White
- Do Your Duty
- Good Rockin' Daddy - Etta James
- Why Don't You Do Right? - Lillian "Lil" Green
- I Want My Money Back - Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women
- Dirty T.B. Blues - Victoria Spivey
- Poppa-Mama Blues - Edith Wilson
- Better Left Unsaid - Michelle Willson
- Two-Fisted Mama
- Gabbin' Blues
- Satisfy Me - Becky Barksdale
- Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Ma Rainey
- Black Snake Blues - Sippie Wallace
- Evil Gal Blues - Dinah Washington
- Hound Dog - Willie Mae Thornton
- I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl - Nina Simone
- Spirit Returns
- Crazy Blues - Mamie Smith
- One Monkey Don't Stop No Show - Francine Reed
- That's My Desire - Hadda Brooks
- Don't You Feel My Leg
- Me and My Chauffeur Blues - Memphis Minnie
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Rating 5.0
USA's Huge Musical ContributionEvery time I hear a really great blues recording, like this one, I realize anew that this is where we achieved our finest moment in making a permanent, unassailable contribution to modern music. If you hear other, more modern, and most especially WHITE singers, doing these numbers, they are NOT the ones that did it first. Black Americans are the absolute center of this music and these women, every single one of them, is the real thing, the first modern musical artists. I really liked the idea too of breaking these albums up into special sectors with this one focusing solely on the authentic blues women. The male artists in this genre are very different from the women so it really makes sense to listen to them separately. Sometimes I feel as if the UKers might be leaving us in the dust musically but not when I listen to this album and the others like it, forming the core of America's musical contribution to the best of what we hear today. I think this would make an especially great gift to a friend in another country who thinks our major contribution was Elvis Presley. In fact, it might even make a great gift for Americans who remain oblivious to this national heritage and contribution!Great RetrospectiveThis is a great CD set for the Blues afficionato as well as those just getting their feet wet. The songs cover the spectrum from classic to contemporary, and the recording sounds excellent. The closest thing I have to a complaint about it is that it might have been nice if the songs were organized more chronologically so that the musical and stylistic evolutions were more gradual and kinder to the listening ear. Still, this is by far my favorite collection, and my most listened to blues CD.Dynamite music, great fun.This is without a doubt one of the most enjoyable and fun CD sets I've heard in a long time. I am even ordering two more sets for a friend to give as gifts. It would be hard to pick favorites here, but Ruth Brown, Candye Kane, Alberta Hunter and Bessie Smith would be at the top. Anyone who likes vintage and contemporary blues would do well to buy this set. |
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