Roll and Tumble Blues: The Essential Recordings of Slide Guitar Blues

• Artist: Various Artists
• Rating:
• Release Date: January 30, 1996
• Total Time: 66:21
• Type: Collection (various artists)
• Genre: Blues

Review

Aside from providing America with its most basic vernacular musical form, the blues, the country bluesmen of the 1920s and '30s also managed to reinvent the guitar, as well, attacking it with all manner of knives and bottles, adding an arsenal of whooshing, sliding, moaning, whining, and shrill trilling sounds to the possibilities of the instrument. The art of slide guitar begins here, with the players assembled in this collection, and it forms a perfect introduction to this blues subgenre. From Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Jack O'Diamond Blues," with his slide cutting through the hailstorm static of a badly preserved 78, to the powerful slide punctuations of Bukka White on "Bukka's Jitterbug Swing," this anthology features some stunning and powerful performances. Check out Kokomo Arnold's lightning speed on "Old Original Kokomo Blues," or the way Blind Willie Johnson couples long sliding guitar notes with wordless moans to create one of the greatest examples of the worry and pain that is the blues in the classic "Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)." Hambone Willie Newbern's jaunty "Roll and Tumble Blues" and Tampa Red's "Denver Blues" are other standouts on an album that is full of high points, making it a perfect introduction to the fascinating world of early slide guitar. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
You Can't Keep No Brown	Bo Weavil Jackson	Bo Weavil Jackson	(3:15)
Jack O'Diamond Blues	Blind Lemon Jefferson, Traditional	Blind Lemon Jefferson	(2:47)
Guitar Rag	Sylvester Weaver, Public Domain	Sylvester Weaver	(3:01)
Falling Down Blues		Furry Lewis	(2:54)
Mama, 'Tain't Long Fo' Day	Blind Willie McTell, Gary Atkinson	Blind Willie McTell	(2:57)
Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)	Blind Willie Johnson	Blind Willie Johnson	(3:22)
So Lonesome		Ramblin' Thomas	(2:46)
Roll and Tumble Blues	Hambone Willie Newbern, Traditional	Hambone Willie Newbern	(3:04)
A Spoonful Blues	Charley Patton	Charley Patton	(3:13)
Walking Blues	Son House, Robert Johnson	Son House	(2:59)
Atlanta Moan	Hudson Whittaker	Barbecue Bob	(3:08)
Whoopee Blues		King Solomon Hill	(3:09)
Packin' Trunk Blues	Leadbelly, Alan Lomax, John A. Lomax	Leadbelly	(2:57)
Denver Blues	Tampa Red, Hudson Whittaker	Tampa Red	(2:56)
Old Original Kokomo Blues	Kokomo Arnold	Kokomo Arnold	(2:53)
Lone Wolf Blues	Oscar Woods	Oscar Woods	(3:13)
You Just as Well Let Her Go	Casey Bill Weldon	Casey Bill Weldon	(3:10)
Terraplane Blues (Lyrics)	Robert Johnson	Robert Johnson	(3:03)
Black Ace	Black Ace	Black Ace	(2:49)
I'm a Stranger Here	Blind Boy Fuller	Blind Boy Fuller	(2:58)
Bukka's Jitterbug Swing (Lyrics)	Bukka White	Bukka White	(2:42)
I Be's Troubled	McKinley Morganfield, Muddy Waters	Muddy Waters	(3:05)

Credits

Kokomo Arnold (Performer), Barbecue Bob (Performer), Blind Boy Fuller (Performer), Blind Lemon Jefferson (Performer), Blind Willie Johnson (Performer), Leadbelly (Performer), Furry Lewis (Performer), Blind Willie McTell (Performer), Charley Patton (Performer), Sylvester Weaver (Performer), Bukka White (Performer), Tampa Red (Performer), Black Ace (Performer), Hambone Willie Newbern (Performer), Ramblin' Thomas (Performer), Casey Bill Weldon (Performer), King Solomon Hill (Performer), Son House (Performer), Bo Weavil Jackson (Performer), Muddy Waters (Performer), Oscar Woods (Performer), Les Fancourt (Liner Notes), Les Fancourt (Compilation), Chris Myers (Illustrations)