Presented by the Yazoo label as an "in-depth documentary" of the great blues singer. The effect of this compilation of single sides on the imagination proves this accurate: very similar to reading Xenophon or Homer; while we visualise how radically different the world of the author may have been, we are struck with the overwhelming human immediacy of the works, which baffle us with ascendant simplicity, truth and pain ("the blues ain't nothin' but a good woman on your mind"). Jefferson's cousin said of him: "They were rough. Men were hustling women and selling bootleg and Lemon was singing for them all night... he'd start singing about eight and go on until four in the morning... mostly it would be just him sitting there and playing and singing all night." Jefferson would serenade criminals, bootleggers, hard drinking, near down-and-out men. The powerful dread of these songs is combined with the feeling of living life in spite of these circumstances: pain shared is some antidote to pain felt, and from death ("See That My Grave is Kept Clean"), to heartbreak ("Easy Rider Blues"), to alcoholism ("Broke and Hungry"), there is pain a-plenty on show here.
1. That Crawlin' Baby Blues
2. Bad Luck Blues
3. Matchbox Blues
4. Hot Dogs
5. One Dime Blues
6. Shuckin' Sugar
7. Rabbit Foot Blues
8. Corrina Blues
9. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
10. Easy Rider Blues
11. Broke And Hungry
12. Black Horse Blues
13. Lonesome House Blues
14. Oil Well Blues
15. He Arose From The Dead
16. Beggin' Back
17. Prison Cell Blues
18. Rambler Blues
19. Gone Dead On You Blues
20. Wartime Blues
21. Booger Rooger Blues
22. Right Of Way Blues
23. Big Night Blues
mp3/320kbps
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