Upon this album's release in 1965, Bob Dylan must have felt pretty good about himself. Odetta, one of the most indelible performancers of the folk revival (and the original inspiration for Dylan's embracing of folk), turned the tables and embraced him back.

While Dylan was already the epicenter of the folk world (and was soon to leave it entirely) and there had already been a spate of Dylan covers released, ODETTA SINGS DYLAN was the first album devoted entirely to the young bard's songs. Hitched to her expressive contralto and the spry leads of Greenwich Village star guitarist, Bruce Langhorne, songs such as "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Mr. Tambourine Man" are rendered with an expansive soul and nuanced musicality rare in their original forms. In 2008, the album was reissued with bonus versions of "Blowin' In the Wind" and "Paths of Victory." From 1965, Odetta Sings Dylan was one of the first albums entirely devoted to Bob Dylan interpretations, and one of the best. In part that's because the concept was still actually fresh then; in fact, other than an obscure 1964 album by Linda Mason, it was the very first album of Dylan covers. And in part it was because, unlike most of the artists who would take a swing at the concept, Odetta was actually a major folk musician, one who had done much to inspire Dylan himself. But most of all, it was because the arrangements were excellent, featuring the guitar of Bruce Langhorne (who, of course, played on Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home and numerous 1960s folk and folk-rock recordings) and, one presumes, the bass of frequent accompanist Bill Lee (though the CD doesn't list session credits).

All of this is not to overlook Odetta's well-nuanced, bluesy vocal interpretations of the material, particularly on an extraordinary ten-minute version of "Mr. Tambourine Man." The 2000 CD reissue on Camden adds "Blowin' in the Wind" (from a 1963 album) and "Paths of Victory" (from a 1964 LP) as bonus tracks, nice additions that are stylistically consistent with the rest of the recording. ~ Richie Unterberger


  Complete Studio Recordings CD
  by Mississippi John Hurt
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THE COMPLETE STUDIO RECORDINGS contains TODAY! (1966)/THE IMMORTAL MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT (1967)/LAST SESSIONS (1966).
Solo performer: Mississippi John Hurt (vocals, guitar).
Producer: Patrick Sky.
Reissue producer: Tom Vickers.
Recorded at Manhattan Towers Hotel, New York, New York in February 1966. Includes liner notes by John Milward.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Although not as consistently magnificent as Hurt's 1928 recordings, the performances the artist recorded for Vanguard in the mid 1960's would be the zenith of many blues artist's entire careers. Songs like the opening "Payday" and "Poor Boy, Long Ways From Home" rank with any folk-blues song ever recorded.

This fantastic set collects the three albums Vanguard released in Hurt's lifetime and as such is undeniably the package to go for to acquire these later gems. ~ Thomas Ward

3 Cds


  Definitive Blind Willie Mctell CD
  by Blind Willie McTell
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. Personnel: Blind Willie McTell (vocals, guitar); Ruth Mary Willis (vocals); Curley Weaver (guitar, vocals); Buddy Moss.
Recorded in Atlanta, Georgia and New York between October 1929 and September 1933. Includes liner notes by David Evans and Lawrence Cohn.

This is part of Legacy's "ROOTS 'N' BLUES" series.
This double-CD set is a little misleading. It is definitive, but only in terms of McTell's Columbia and Okeh sides -- you won't find "Statesboro Blues" or his other earliest sides here, because they were done for Victor. But the material that is here is all worthwhile, and this is the best single source for McTell's work for those labels (done under a variety of names) from the mid-'30s, very nicely remastered and thoroughly annotated, although producer Lawrence Cohn concedes that even Sony Legacy was unable to locate sources on a handful of songs that McTell is known to have recorded. ~ Bruce Eder

Blind Willie McTell distinguished himself stylistically from other Southern bluesmen of the same era (such as Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson) by his remarkably fluid 12-string guitar style and his highly controlled, mellifluous tenor. The story of McTell's rambling life sounds itself much like a blues song, as he recorded under several names and under all manner of circumstances. With tracks culled from the numerous recordings of McTell's prolific and dramatically changeable career, THE DEFINITIVE is just that.

This two-disc set is a must for any blues enthusiast.Rolling Stone (6/30/94, p.77) -


  Lightning In A Bottle Soundtrack CD
  by Soundtrack CD
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Lightning in a Bottle is the double-disc soundtrack to the documentary film of the same title directed by Antoine Fuqua and shot at a February 7, 2003, concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Billed as a "Salute to the Blues," the show featured veteran blues musicians as well as a younger generation of players and artists either directly working in the genre or deeply influenced by it, and the running order follows the evolution of blues from Africa, up the Mississippi, and through Chicago and beyond. With a crack house band of Steve Jordan and/or Levon Helm on drums, Dr. John on piano, Willie Weeks on bass, and Danny Kortchmar on guitar, Lightning in a Bottle has quite a few high points, including Macy Gray's version of Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," Bonnie Raitt's "Coming Home," and the deep Southern gospel soul of Solomon Burke on "Turn On Your Love Light." Also impressive is David "Honeyboy" Edwards' stark and haunting solo acoustic rendering of "Gamblin' Man." Mavis Staples arguably stole the show, however, with her huge, shuffling, and ominous take on Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean."

The shifts and mutations of the blues from an acoustic music to an electric one are traced, ending in Chuck D and the Fine Art Militia's thundering rap version of John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom." The CD set lacks some of the music actually performed in the film, however, so the best way to catch this moving concert in its entirety is on DVD, which also includes backstage footage and interviews. ~ Steve Leggett

2cds. A.Kidjo/N.Cole/Keb Mo/M. Gray/India.Arie/B.Guy/BB King+Living Blues (pp.43-4) - "It was a great show, and this documentation is the next best thing to having been there."


  Down In The Alley CD
  by Alvin Youngblood Harth
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There's a lot of great, dead blues players from Memphis, Tennessee. Furry Lewis, Bukka White, Will Shade - you start making that list and you get down with the stop-time blues. Alvin Hart may never have hung in the shadow of these guys (or maybe he did), but he certainly has dug their vibe like the sharp human phonograph needle that he is. Alvin needs a tonic.

He needs a Peptikon or a Hadacol, a nice velvety bag from Seagram's or a McDonald's Big Mac. Those old school medicine show guys, they sold some tonics because they kept your attention. Didn't matter how big or small, how diverse the crowd was - medicine show greats played jack-leg as easily as they played jack-hammer, Jack. They were songsters, able to read people, divining moods and flowing through styles to keep a crowd. Alvin does that. But he's no chameleon; that's to misunderstand him completely. Alvin is a werewolf. His skin doesn't change with each song, his soul does. And that's why this record is so exciting. Though he also plays Captain Beefheart and Bob Wills with facility and commitment, he's howling Mississippi Delta blues exclusively this go round. Alvin and his guitar (especially his guitar) morph from Bukka White to Charlie Patton to Furry Lewis. But even as the great spirits of these greats parade by in their Silas Green and Rabbit Foot finery, Alvin maintains his individuality. When the moon goes down over each song, Alvin Youngblood Hart remains, exhausted as if from levitation, inspired, transported, transformed.

Living Blues (9-10/02, p.41) - "...Mesmerising...he takes the listener on a journey to the essence of the blues..." Hide Description


  An Introduction To Sonny Terry & Brownie Mcghee CD
  by Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
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This 2006 collection ably lives up to its name, providing a fine selection of recordings by the renowned blues duo of harp player Sonny Terry and guitarist Brownie McGhee. Sharing vocal duties, Terry and McGhee saunter through a set of classics here, including the laid-back "Early in the Morning Blues."

As a primer on the partnership of Terry and McGhee, you could do a lot worse than this budget-priced disc. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee made their first recording together in 1941, and became the longest-running blues duo in memory, stringing out nearly 40 years of recordings and gigs until their gradually emerging distaste for each other finally proved insurmountable and brought an end to the musical partnership. Although they recorded in a surprisingly varied number of styles, they are best remembered for their fortuitous take on traditional Piedmont blues material during the folk boom of the 1950s and early '60s, a musical revival that no doubt rescued Terry & McGhee from the scrap pile of blues history. Driven by Terry's trademark high-pitched and whooping harmonica and McGhee's solid, steady acoustic guitar playing, the pair updated their traditional blues material just enough to earn steady gigs on the college and coffeehouse circuit, and if they had a tendency to knock off most of the rough edges in the songs they did, enough of the Piedmont tradition remained to make them valuable keepers of the flame.

This generous set (clocking in at around 73 minutes) is drawn mostly from loose sessions recorded in Los Angeles on July 6 and 7, 1960, with fellow folk-blues legends Big Joe Williams and Lightnin' Hopkins..... and the unlisted 18th track, a version of "I'm a Poor Man But a Good Man.


  Free Again CD
  by Robert Pete Williams
Our Price: $14.45 CD / $9.90 MP3
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In 1959, blues singer/guitarist Robert Pete Williams was residing in Angola Prison, serving a life sentence for a murder he claimed he committed in self-defense, when he was discovered by blues researchers Harry Oster and Richard Allen. Immediately struck by the power of Williams' blues, the pair commenced the recordings that would appear on the collections Robert Pete Williams, Vol. 1 & 2 (including the stunning "Prisoner's Talking Blues").

Subsequent efforts by Oster and Allen led to Williams' release. No longer surrounded by the bars of Angola, the singer found himself trapped instead by the strict rules and regulations of his harsh parole. Thus on Free Again, the singer walks the streets like a stranger with death on his mind. "You know I walk along and talk to myself," he declares in "Death Blues," remembering his confinement. "Sometimes I have a mind to leave this place/But they say, you know you're doing time." In "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere," Williams finds himself alone on the streets of a "one horse town." Settling down for the night, he sings with a "tombstone for my pillow and the fairground for my bed." Sitting on the roadside in "Thumbing a Ride," he finds that the cars just pass him by as if he didn't exist.

Despite the constant, restless movement of Williams' guitar lines, these recordings have a stillness to them, as if the reverberation of his blunt, heavy attack might be the only sound for miles around. Intimately recorded by Oster himself, these ten solo guitar and vocal performances represent some of the finest of Williams' career and some of the best the blues has to offer. ~ Nathan Bush


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