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Released March 06, 2001

Blind Willie McTell is unique among country bluesmen in having a 30-year recording career while remaining essentially an itinerant musician, and during his lifetime he was a familiar sight on the streets of Atlanta and other Southern cities as he performed his varied repertoire of blues, rags, and vaudeville pieces on his 12-string guitar. This two-disc collection assembles nearly 40 of his early 78s, including his signature tune, the magnificent "Statesboro Blues." Whether McTell actually wrote a lot of these songs (or merely adapted them) is unclear, but there is a sharp writer's eye at work here, as evidenced by lines like "Mother died and left me reckless/Daddy died and left me wild" (from "Statesboro Blues") or "I got the blues so bad/I can feel them in the dark" (from "Dark Night Blues"), and songs like "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" (which is based on elements from "Streets of Laredo" and "St. James Infirmary") are thoroughly modern compositions in a cut-and-paste narrative style. These recordings feature the early McTell, when his voice was a high and expressive tenor. Toward the end of his life, McTell's voice deepened and grew rougher, the songs slowed down and became more world-weary, and since he recorded his standards several times over, it is interesting to compare early and later versions of songs like "Broke Down Engine Blues." The Essential is a fine introduction to this unique bluesman, but you'll want one of the later recordings as well in order to get the full balance of his work. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

TRACKS

1. Three Women Blues
2. Boll Weevil
3. Don't Forget It
4. My Baby's Gone
5. Atlanta Strut
6. I Got to Cross the River Jordan
7. Teasing Brown
8. Stomp Down Rider
9. Stole Rider Blues
10. Chainey
11. Mama, 'Tain't Long fo' Day
12. Painful Blues
13. B & O Blues, No. 2
14. Amazing Grace
15. Honey It Must Be Love
16. Statesboro Blues
17. God Don't Like It
18. Murderer's Home Blues
19. Mr. McTell Got the Blues

DISC 2

20. Hide Me in Thy Bosom
21. Broke Down Engine Blues
22. Good Little Thing
23. It's Your Time to Worry
24. Dying Crapshooter's Blues
25. Low Rider's Blues
26. This Is Not the Stove to Brown Your Bread
27. Dark Night Blues
28. I Got Religion, I'm So Glad
29. Georgia Rag
30. You Was Born to Die
31. Cold Winter Day
32. Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around
33. Delia
34. Talkin' to You, Mama
35. East St. Louis Blues
36. Drive Away Blues

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