The Perfect Roots & Blues Collection

Entirely made up of tracks dubbed from Twenties, Thirties, Forties and Early Fifties 78"s - the 437 tracks across these 20 fabulous "Roots & Blues" CDs (all now in 5" card repro sleeves) represent an Americana Fest you've probably not heard before. Bluegrass, Old Timey Country, Guitar Blues, Washboard Shuffles, Church Music and Gospel, Fiddle Music, Piano Blues, Boogie Woogie, Vocal Blues, Cow Bells and Kazoos - it's all here and more - and neatly repackaged too.Originally issued in the USA between 1990 and 1996 by Columbia/Legacy as 16 individual CD compilations and one 4CD box set - the riches contained within this mid-priced European 20-disc mini box set reissue bundle are amazing. But a word about the SOUND first - we're not talking audiophile here - and you need to accept that as a given for 'every' disc. Across 20 themed-sets the audio varies wildly as you can imagine - most times alarmingly good in its clarity given the vintage and sources - but on other occasions it can be utterly atrocious (included for historical and rarity value). But I find the clicks and pops (which aren't that often really) and ghostly voices and messages from the past are part of the thrill and charm. This is grittily real stuff and very funny too in places. Go with the flow on this one...Another downside (if you could call it that) is that a 36-page booklet giving you basic track lists/credits and little else has replaced the heavily annotated booklets that accompanied the original individual CD releases. You do at least get some paragraphs on each compilation by liner notes king DEAN RUDLAND and the pictures are nice - but the songs and artists are so obscure and interesting that you long for more info on what's what. This is one of those occasions where you wish Sony would have gone a bit better on the booklet (worth pointing out). Here are the finite details...UK/Europe released January 2015 - "Roots & Blues: 20 CD Box Set" on Sony Music 88875043322 (Barcode 888750433220) breaks downs as follows:Disc 1 "The Retrospective (1925-1950) Vol.1", 25 Tracks, 76:09 minutesDisc 2 "The Retrospective (1925-1950) Vol.2", 25 Tracks, 77:52 minutesDisc 3 "The Retrospective (1925-1950) Vol.3", 29 Tracks, 77:52 minutesDisc 4 "The Retrospective (1925-1950) Vol.4", 28 Tracks, 77:07 minutesDisc 5 "Legends Of The Blues Volume One", 20 Tracks, 59:00 minutesDisc 6 "Legends Of The Blues Volume Two", 20 Tracks, 61:21 minutesDisc 7 "Great Blues Guitarists: String Dazzlers", 20 Tracks, 61:29 minutesDisc 8 "The Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives & Steel", 19 Tracks, 57:36 minutesDisc 9 "The Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives & Steel Vol. 2", 20 Tracks, 62:10 minutesDisc 10 "Lonnie Johnson: Steppin' On The Blues", 19 Tracks, 58:26 minutesDisc 11 "Preachin' The Gospel: Holy Blues", 20 Tracks, 60:23 minutesDisc 12 "Good Time Blues: Harmonicas, Kazoos, Washboards & Cow-Bells", 21 Tracks, 59:28 minutesDisc 13 "News & The Blues: Telling It Like It Is", 20 Tracks, 59:03 minutesDisc 14 "Booze & The Blues", 22 Tracks, 65:44 minutesDisc 15 "Messed Up In Love And Other Tales Of Woe", 16 tracks, 45:32 minutesDisc 16 "Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts & Lollipops", 20 Tracks, 61:31 minutesDisc 17 "Cajun Vol.1: Abbeville Breakdown 1929-1939", 22 Tracks, 61:23 minutesDisc 18 "Cajun Dance Party: Fais Do-Do", 23 Tracks, 67:58 minutesDisc 19 "White Country Blues 1926-1938: A Lighter Shade Of Blue Vol.1", 24 Tracks, 73:05 minutesDisc 20 "White Country Blues 1926-1938: A Lighter Shade Of Blue Vol.2", 24 Tracks, 66:52 minutesIt opens smartly clumping together the 4-discs of the much praised and long deleted "Retrospective: 1925-1950" 4CD Sony/Legacy Box Set first issued June 1992 in the USA (107 tracks). Highlights on Disc 1 are "Cow-Cow Blues" by Dora Carr and "Empty Bed Blues" by Elizabeth Johnson - the kind of 78" Blues you'd swear turned up in episodes of "Boardwalk Empire". Discs 2 and 3 feature names you know like Lonnie Johnson, the piano of Albert Ammons, Roosevelt Sykes, the twelve-string guitar of Blind Willie McTell, Leroy Carr, Charlie Patton, Joshua White and Big Bill Broonzy ("...leaving this morning on the C&A"). Highlights include "Good Woman Blues" where Scrapper Blackwell instructs the lady folk of the USA "...women if you got a good man, give him three meals a day..." and Joshua White worries that he'll have to travel to find love because his "good gal might be in China..." Cliff Carlisle yodels his woes about a lack of clothes, the little ones coming on and his wife eating all the time in "Onion Eating Mama".By the time you get to Disc 4 every track is really clear and a blast in its own genre right - Bluegrass, Old Timey Country, Guitar Blues, Washboard Shuffles, Church Music and Gospel, Fiddle Music, Piano Blues, Boogie Woogie - it's all here. Favourites include the saucy "You Got To See Mama Ev'ry Night (Or You Can't See Mama At All)" where our hero is getting instruction on martial bliss and "Mean Black Snake" where another dude suspects his lady is removing traps for another kind of visitor. Two huge Blues giants show up in early form - Muddy Waters and Joe Williams - with William's monster "Baby, Please Don't Go" thrilling still (how many bands have cut their Blues teeth on this song!).Of the other discs I have two personal favourites - the eerie and harrowing "News & The Blues: Telling It Like It Is" and the deliciously saucy and sexy "Raunchy Business: Hot Nuts & Lollipops". The first has Bessie Smith moaning "it's rained five days and the sky is dark at night...there's trouble in the lowlands..." while the amazing guitar of Blind Willie Johnson has "people run and pray..." as the 1912 Titanic sinks during "God Moves On The Water" (amazing solo in the centre of it). And when the singers let their hair down - the results on "Raunchy Business" are brilliant. Titles like "My Stove's In Good Condition", "Banana In Your Fruit Basket" and "My Pencil Won't Write No More" don't leave much to delicacy but will make you grin. In fact when Lucille Brogan gives us Part 2 of "Shave 'Em Dry" - the opening lyrics about nipples as big as thumbs and pulling back her mattress so Daddy can oil her springs - is shocking even now. Lillie Mae Kirkman waxes lyrical about a man she met last night in "He's Just My Size" where apparently he's a kitchen mechanic who makes her biscuits rise (lovely).Some of the Cajun and Washboard stuff is samey for sure and hard to take at times - but the "Booze" and "Messed Up" CDs have nuggets galore (The Mississippi Sheiks and Memphis Minnie to name but a few). But that's what so great about a box as full as this - the sheer variety - Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Blind Boy Fuller and so many more - you'll be digging into it for years to come. "Take It Easy Greasy" the song tells us (Lil Johnson on Disc 2) - I say buy it and jump right in and enjoy...PS: here's hoping that Sony/Columbia do the same type of box for their superb 'Legacy Rhythm and Soul' Series of CDs from the Nineties...some amazing stuff in there...Bill Withers, Cab Calloway, Isley Brothers...

Budget repackaging of legendary "Roots & Blues" series. Fantastic collection of early blues/country music with many second tier musicians. Essential for any collector of american roots music. Sadly this time around the extensive liner notes are gone. There are only basic notes on each CD, but still very informative.

Unbelievable value. Enough primitive us music for a lifetime. Extraordinary.

OK I failed history at school, this is Sony at it's corporate best putting 22 plus hours of early recordings in our hands at an enticing pricethe mixture of music here is a great big box of gems, well packaged/presented if you love blues rockabilly country hillbilly here is the beginning

Every track a diamond takes me home if you get it

Arrived on time but very old blues to old for me.I listened to half them bind apart from two.

Old time classic blues brilliant

Way back in the early 1990's, if you wanted to listen to pre-World War 2 American Roots music en masse then it was hard to find. Thus, when a neophyte such as myself then, came across all of the albums in the Columbia/Legacy Roots 'N' Blues series - boxed together here - then we would 'Shout For Joy' to use the Albert Ammons song title included here. Even now, with hundreds of Blues, Hillbilly, Cajun, Western Swing - &c. releases that I have, these albums are still an essential purchase for any lover of pre-1950's American roots music.My personal favourites are:-1) The 4CD's of the original box-set of 'Roots N' Blues: The Retrospective (1925-1950)' - this is the finest introduction to this music without doubt, and has a brilliant array of artists, from utter obscurities - even to the collector, to more familiar names.2) 'Great Blues Guitarists: String Dazzlers' - proving that the acoustic guitar has far more power in the right hands than the electric.3) Lonnie Johnson 'Steppin' On The Blues' - without doubt the finest survey of this nonpareil player that there has ever been.4) 'Preachin' The Gospel: Holy Blues' - a wide ranging showcase of the many forms of African-American Gospel, far more eclectic in 20 tracks than any other compilations.5) 'Cajun Vol. 1: Abbeville Breakdown 1929-1939' - an excellent collection showing the evolution of the music.6) 'Legends of The Blues: Volume 2' - some of the lesser known names of early blues, uniformly excellent performances though.7) 'Roots 'n' Blues: News & the Blues' - social commentary even before Woody Guthrie, some of it surprisingly biting.8) 'White Country Blues' - a 2CD set showing how irresistible blues was to a white audience, who produced their own versions of the music, no pale imitators either, fantastic music in it's own right.My only regret is that the copious and wonderful notes included with the original releases have had to be sacrificed for budgetary and space reasons. Thus, you get no track or personnel information, and only scant other information in a small booklet.Incidentally, if you are wondering who Sherman Tedder is/was, he is a complete cipher, his only known recordings are two tracks, only one of which has been released and is only available here, ironically it is simply down as 'Untitled', but is a wonderful instrumental slide guitar piece.