Album Reviews

If there’s to be a second blues revival after the first one in the early ‘60s that led to the “rediscovery” of neglected artists like Son House and even Robert Johnson, the first great analog revival occurring right now will lead the way.

It’s difficult to believe now, but by the end of the 1950’s artists like Johnson, Son House, and even Muddy Waters had been all but abandoned by American Negroes and had never had much exposure at all among white, suburban baby booming teenagers.

It took British kids and artists like The Rolling Stones to bring urban black blues to white Americans, and American fans like

Bob Dylan and Canned Heat’s Al Wilson to champion both urban and rural blues artists like John Lee Hooker and Son House to the new, young, racially open white audiences.

Actually, the LP era helped lead the way back to these roots by permitting compilations of 78rpm singles to be issued on single discs. Thus did Columbia issue two iconic Robert Johnson LPs back then, which were studied and absorbed by thirsty teens on both sides of the Atlantic.

Young people switching from singles to albums also made possible projects like this one, which brought Son House back from obscurity after he’d recorded some sides for Paramount in 1930 (nine, according to the liner notes, only four of which have ever been located), kicked around thereafter playing and doing menial jobs, and finally gave up playing in 1948.

1930 sounds like ancient history but when this album was recorded in April of 1965 at Columbia’s NYC studios, the same amount of time had passed, as between 1971 and now. Chew on that for a while as you listen to some classic rock issued that year or before!

Can just an old guy and a guitar keep you enthralled over two sides of an album plus a second album of outtakes and unreleased material? When the original single LP was issued in 1965 (CS 9217) it caused a sensation among blues fans and rockers taking up the cause because Eddie J. “Son” House, who’d recorded those sides for Paramount, plus a few others for, among others, Alan Lomax in 1942, had simply disappeared.

Wilson “discovered” him in Rochester, NY in 1965 where he’d moved in 1943 to work for The New York Central Railroad, and convinced him to return to “active duty,” which included appearing at the Newport Folk Festival and recording this album for Columbia.

If you pony up and buy this double set you will not be disappointed by the time Son House spends in your listening room spinning his timeless tales told in an authentic style long gone and you won’t be disappointed by the intimate, high quality sound.

House’s singing is controlled, powerful and evocative and his Nation Steel Reso-phonic guitar playing bends time and space. He manages to pull an orchestra’s worth of colors, a drum kit full of percussion and a pile driver’s dynamic range. Apparently the sides cut for Paramount are even more astounding but I haven’t heard them and you can bet they aren’t as well recorded. Disc two is an added bonus that won’t disappoint.

When you hear what House does on guitar, you’ll hear from where Robert Johnson and those that followed got the staccato repeated phrases, the hard rhythms and sudden slides, and you’ll hear the connection House forged between the country blues and what happened later in Chicago.

The reissue’s sound is very close to the original, though it’s not quite as transparent and ethereal but taken on its own, it’s transportively good.

An easy to recommend, outstanding reissue from Pure Pleasure.