Blues With a Message

by BLUES WITH A MESSAGE / VARIOUS

Overview

Blues With a Message isn't just about lost love and the toils of specific lives, the blues (particularly within the folk-blues traditions) spent some time dealing with sociopolitical issues on the side, primarily before the rise of electric blues. Here, Arhoolie has compiled a set of pieces related to a surprisingly large number of issues. Among them: Minstrel shows, the mechanization of cotton farming, and its related exodus to the North, sharecropping, segregation, the Korean War, the influenza epidemic, the New Deal, civil rights movements, Chicago employment opportunities -- all are given a song or two here. The music quality is roughly equivalent to many of the folk-blues recordings available, though the "big name" artists are largely absent from this one (Lightnin Hopkins does make an appearance singing about sharecropping, however). The songs are deliberately focused on the issues more than the music, but the music can still carry its soul. This one probably won't be on many highest-sales lists in the blues, but it's both historically important and musically enjoyable. ~ Adam Greenberg

Product Details

Release Date:	06/21/2005
Label:	Arhoolie
UPC:	0096297051023
Rank:	151960

Tracks

1. I Have to Paint My Face  - Sam Chatmon
2. John Henry  - John Jackson
3. Walked Down So Many Turn Rows  - Mercy Dee  - Mercy Dee Walton
4. Tom Moore's Farm  - Mance Lipscomb
5. Tom Moore Blues  - Lightnin' Hopkins
6. River Blues, Pts. 1-2  - Lowell Fulson
7. Levee Camp Blues  - Mississippi Fred McDowell
8. The 1919 Influenza Blues  -  Jenkins
9. Why I Like Roosevelt  - Willie Eason
10. Little Soldier Boy  - Doctor Ross  - Isaiah Ross
11. Prisoner's Talking Blues  - Robert Pete Williams
12. I Got to Climb a High Mountain  - Johnie Lewis
13. Depression Blues  - Herman E. Johnson
14. Stockyard Blues  - Big Walter Horton  - Johnny Young
15. What Will I Tell the Children  - Juke Boy Bonner  - Weldon Bonner
16. It's Enough  - Juke Boy Bonner
17. Things Gonna Get Better  - Bee Houston
18. Back Home Blues  - Joe Lee Williams

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Willie Eason   Primary Artist
Johnny Young   Primary Artist
Herman E. Johnson   Primary Artist
Essie Jenkins   Primary Artist
Mississippi Fred McDowell   Primary Artist
Lightnin' Hopkins   Primary Artist
Doctor Ross   Primary Artist
Mance Lipscomb   Primary Artist
Mercy Dee   Primary Artist
Juke Boy Bonner   Primary Artist
Lowell Fulson   Primary Artist
Johnie Lewis   Primary Artist
Sam Chatmon   Primary Artist
Robert Pete Williams   Primary Artist
John Jackson   Primary Artist
Sam Chatman   Primary Artist
Joe Lee Williams   Primary Artist
Bee Houston   Primary Artist
Big Walter Horton   Primary Artist
Big Joe Williams   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Paul Oliver   Compilation Producer,Liner Notes,Editing
Chris Strachwitz   Compilation Producer,Editing
Johnny Young   Composer
Herman E. Johnson   Composer
Johnie Lewis   Composer
Sam Chatmon   Composer
Robert Pete Williams   Composer
Mississippi Fred McDowell   Composer
Mance Lipscomb   Composer
Mercy Dee Walton   Composer
Joe Lee Williams   Composer
Essie Jenkins   Composer
Bee Houston   Composer
Lightnin' Hopkins   Composer
Isaiah Ross   Composer
Weldon Bonner   Composer
Willie Eason   Composer
Lowell Fulson   Composer