Product Description

Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. was originally legendary in blues circles for a small collection of live field recordings made by folklorist Alan Lomax in 1941 and 1942--and for having taught some important licks to both Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. But much of his present blues immortality rests on 21 tracks recorded in 1965, after his "rediscovery" on the college blues circuit. Son House showed worshipful youngsters how his modal acoustic blues and stabbing style of bottleneck slide guitar, heard to best advantage on tracks like the chilling "Death Letter", earned him the title "Father of the Delta Blues".
The first nine tracks on THE ORIGINAL DELTA BLUES were issued in 1965 as THE LEGENDARY SON HOUSE, which has been repackaged endlessly under various titles. Theremaining two inclusions are outtakes from those sessions that previously appeared on the 1992's FATHER OF THE DELTA BLUES compilation.

Track Listing

1. Death Letter
2. Pearline
3. Louise Mcghee
4. John The Revelator
5. Empire State Express
6. Preachin' Blues
7. Grinnin' In Your Face
8. Sundown
9. Levee Camp Moan
10. Pony Blues
11. Downhearted Blues
12. Motherless Children
13. President Kennedy
14. Yonder Comes My Mother

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33038 in Music
• Released on: 1998-07-20
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

clumsy parody
The release of these 1965 recordings of Son House seems now even sadder, listening forty years on. His technique all shot to pieces, the voice is all that's left, raw and charged-up. Even the best thing on here, his famously raw version of John the Revelator, is a clumsy parody of the much-circulated classic 1928 take by Blind Willie Johnson and his wife. By the mid-1960s, the white-boy audience condescendingly wanted their black bluesmen raw and emotive. What was lost sight of was how formidably accomplished, varied and interested in technique the earlier generations of black blues players had been, an immeasurably richer field of skills and playing. I feel they would've been embarassed to hear the recordings on this CD. No wonder that serious, young black musicians in the 1960s largely turned away from playing blues.

Mississippi blues by the master
When the Mississippi blues giant, Eddie 'Son' House was rediscovered in 1964 he was 62 years old and had given up music some 16 years previously. Practice soon restored much of his original mastery and he was signed up the following year by John Hammond for a Columbia Records session. The LP that emerged comprised the first nine of these tracks, and represented a powerful come-back, with stand-out numbers 'Death Letter', 'Empire State Express', and 'Levee Camp Moan', as well as the unaccompanied 'John The Revelator'.

In 1992 a double CD was released, with the original nine tracks supplemented by an additional seven unreleased titles as well as five alternate takes. But what should have been an occasion for celebration turned out to be disappointing in the extreme. The new material was a pale shadow of that previously issued, and many critics thought it would have been better left in the vaults.

The present single CD includes just five of the originally unreleased titles, and so offers some kind of compromise, with the worst of the 'new' material being omitted. Of that retained, perhaps 'Pony Blues' disappoints the most. The delivery is extremely hesitant and stumbling, in direct contrast to Son's superb 1942 recording of this classic that he learned from his old friend Charley Patton. 'Motherless Children' suffers in the same way, and Son coughs and wheezes his way through a depressing version of 'Downhearted Blues'. Only 'President Kennedy', to the same melody as his 1942 'American Defense', and 'Yonder Comes My Mother' with, presumably, the added guitar of Al Wilson, in any way compare with the quality and power of the first nine tracks which more than justify the purchase of this mid-price CD.

The real stuff
Son House - the true founder of the Delta Blues and Robert Johnson's mentor. This album is from 1965, after his "rediscovery" by white folk fans, but his powers are as awesome as ever. The material is of variable quality, but the a capella versions of "John the Revelator" and "Grinnin' in Your Face" are effective in their starkness, and the opening track, "Death Letter Blues", is one of the most emotionally charged blues recordings of all time. House was not the greatest guitarist ever, but with this power it hardly matters. If you want to know why Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil, this is the place to go. "The Original Delta Blues", all right - it doesn't get any more real than this.