Subject: RE: Review: Wllie McTell lps - which one to buy?
From:
12-stringer
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 01:47 PM
Don't know if it ever actually came out, but a "complete" set was advertised a few years ago -- but at something like $150. The only thing it had that is not otherwise available were the unissued tracks from the "Last Session" of 1956. I think there were 13 tracks on the Prestige LP, but there were about 18 tracks in all on the original tapes.
"Complete Blues" label's "King of the Georgia Blues Singers," from the UK, is otherwise the most comprehensive collection on CD. I can't address the quality because I don't have one yet, but you can find this for approximately $12 plus shipping from associated sellers at a*az*n. It has all of McTell's solo material from 1927-1940, plus all of the sides on which he is accompanist*; the 1940 LOC session, and the McTell material from the 1949 Regal session.
http://www.amazon.com/Georgia-Blues-Blind-Willie-Mctell/dp/B000QXDHHE/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1291961893&sr=1-8
*Exception is that it does not have the "Merciful Blues/Talkin' to You Wimmen 'Bout the Blues" coupling by Ruth Willis from 1931, of which no copy had ever been found until quite recently. McTell is accompanist here, occasionally talking (he even sings the first verse of "Talkin'"). It does have the two sides by Alphonsy and Bethenea Harris, plus the Curley Weaver tracks from 1933 and 1935 that also feature McTell (my recollection is that he talks a little, but doesn't play, on a couple of other tracks with Weaver and/or Buddy Moss from the 1933 ARC session, and these aren't included).
Missing are the "Last Session," as well as the 1949 Atlantic recordings, which are under copyright in the UK where this collection originates. (Though the Atlantic coupling of "Broke Down Engine/Kill It Kid," released on 78rpm in 1949 or 1950, probably is public domain under UK law, I don't think it's on the "Complete Blues" set. The rest of the session was not released until abt 1970, on LP, while "Last Session" was issued around 1963.)
The JSP collection is very comparable but does not include the 1949 Regal material nor quite all of the McTell-accompanied tracks on the "Complete Blues" set. Otherwise, it contains all of the 1927-1940 issued (and some unissued tests) and the LOC recordings. A*az*n sellers generally price this around $18.
Either of those sets, then, plus "Atlanta 12-String" (the wonderful 1949 Atlantic recordings) and the valedictory "Last Session," will give you a virtually complete catalog of McTell in front of the mike, and not at all expensively. He's more than worth having all of.
McTell is uniformly first-rate.
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sj
