Anthology of the Blues, Vol. 5: Arkansas Blues

• Artist: Various Artists
• Release Date: October 29, 2002
• Type: Collection (various artists)
• Genre: Blues

Review

Joe Bihari of Modern Records made several trips into the Deep South in the mid-'50s to gather field recordings of living, breathing juke joint blues players, and the recordings he brought back weren't quaint, archaic folk pieces but raw, raucous slices of electric blues. Bihari's guide in all of this was a young Ike Turner, who frequently dove in on piano at the sessions, and the resulting material is loose as a goose on moonshine, delightfully rough and ragged, and it hits like pure dynamite. Kent Records released a 12-volume LP series of the Bihari recordings in 1969 and 1970, and this volume, Arkansas Blues, was the fifth of those LPs, reissued here by Japan's P-Vine Records. Featured are juke veterans Baby Face Turner, Driftin' Slim, Sunny Blair, James "Peek" Curtis, Junior Brooks, and Robert "Dudlow" Taylor, none of whom is exactly a household name, even in the blues community, which is a shame, because these sides burn with absolute vitality. The recordings aren't technically the greatest (it sounds like just a single room microphone was used in most cases), but what they lack in sonic sophistication they more than make up for in sheer raucous energy, and even though this is the blues, it sounds down right joyous. Everyone delivers here, from the loping and loose "Blue Serenade" by Baby Face Turner (which opens the set) to Junior Brooks' haunting "Lone Town Blues" (which closes it). Sloppy, unhinged, and howling with electricity, these cuts are the real deal. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi

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