Paramount Blues: Lock and Key Blues

by PARAMOUNT BLUES: LOCK & KEY BLU

Overview

The Paramount record label of the 1920s and '30s started out as an a side venture of the Paramount Furniture Company in Grafton, WI, a way to sell the company's line of phonograph players by featuring a line of cheaply made 78s to play on them. Luckily, the Southern blues musicians the company recorded at the time just happened to be pretty vital, and such country-blues legends as Charley Patton, Skip James, Blind Blake, and Blind Lemon Jefferson all recorded classic sides for Paramount, as did dozens of lesser known and obscure figures, many of whose recordings are collected here on this 20-track compilation. There aren't any big country-blues names here, but there are plenty of little gems, including Geeshie Wiley's stark and haunting "Last Kind Words Blues" from 1930, Ramblin' Thomas' poignant "So Lonesome" from 1928, Walter "Buddy Boy" Hawkins' "Shaggy Dog Blues" from 1927, and Freddie Spruell's "Tom Cat Blues" from 1928. Wiley's "Last Kind Words Blues" aside, none of these sides is absolutely essential to any blues collection, but they won't diminish one, either. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	06/17/2008
Label:	Black Swan Records
UPC:	0762247303725
Rank:	133610

Tracks

1. Showers of Rain Blues  - Edward Thompson
2. Seven Sisters Blues  - Edward Thompson
3. Mamlish Blues
4. Last Kind Words Blues  - Geeshie Wiley
5. Skinny Leg Blues  - Geeshie Wiley
6. Touch Me Light Mama
7. So Lonesome  - Ramblin' Thomas
8. Lock and Key Blues  - Ramblin' Thomas
9. Barbershop Rag  - William Moore
10. Raggin' the Blues  - William Moore
11. Mississippi Jail House Groan  - Rubin Lacy
12. Jailhouse Fire Blues
13. Shaggy Dog Blues
14. Tired of Being Mistreated, Pt. 1
15. Eagles on a Half  - Geeshie Wiley
16. Pick Poor Robin Clean  - Geeshie Wiley
17. Pistol Blues  - Bo Weavil Jackson
18. Why Do You Moan?  - Bo Weavil Jackson
19. Tom Cat Blues
20. Woman Woman Blues  - Ishman Bracey

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Reverend Rubin Lacy   Primary Artist
Ishman Bracey   Primary Artist
Geeshie Wiley   Primary Artist
William Moore   Primary Artist
Bo Weavil Jackson   Primary Artist
Edward Thompson   Primary Artist
Ramblin' Thomas   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Lars Edegran   Liner Notes,Production Coordination
John Tefteller   Photo Courtesy,Memorabilia
Richard Bird   Digital Transfers
George H. Buck, Jr.   Producer
Kenneth Pape   Graphic Design