Early Blues
 

Let's talk about early blues.
I really love the raw pre-WWII stuff, with these musicians whose lives are often shrouded in mystery, with only a handful of recordings left for us to appreciate.

Of course Robert Johnson is the most famous of them, his guitar playing being years ahead of his time.


And then there's Tommy Johnson (no relation ;) with his awesome singing.


The wonderful Skip James. We're lucky enough to have quite a lot of recordings by him done later in his life with superior sound quality, but this is one of the old ones.


I'll be posting more stuff later on. Hope some other members enjoy this music.

Thanks for posting this! This is definitely a genre I'd like to delve into more. Just listened to the first one and will be returning later when I get the chance.

*subscribed*

^I love this one!



This one is a bit of cheating, since it was recorded in 1967. But screw that, it's still Skip James and this video is pure magic.

Barbecue Bob Hicks - He was dead and gone before he had lived 30 years, but I dig what he gave us in his short time here.


Blind Willie McTell - As someone that lives ~hour away from Statesboro McTell and particularly this song have always been of particular interest for me.

A few more while I'm still on a blues binge...



Drinking, drugging, sex, infidelity, incarceration, bad luck, death. I think that just about covers everything. :D

Thanks so much TA & PF!
Some awesome musicians there, most of them unknown to me.

Some early blues guys who probably snickered at Robert Johnson's mainstream sound.


Here's a classic, and the dude's blind so that makes the music better by some blues rule I haven't figured out yet.