Various Artists – …. First Came Memphis Minnie

VARIOUS ARTISTS
…. First Came Memphis Minnie
Stony Plain 
stonyplainrecords.com

Memphis Minnie (1897-1973), who began her recording career in the early-1930s, was a pioneering and influential blues artist and certainly the most prominent example of a female blues singer from that era who accompanied herself on guitar. Until Minnie came along, female blues singers – like Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Alberta Hunter and so many others – generally fronted traditional jazz bands or worked with a piano player. Minnie, though, could play guitar as well or better than any male artist and was a role model to generations of female musicians who followed in later decades.

…. First Came Memphis Minnie is a set of 13 songs from Memphis Minnie’s repertoire assembled by Maria Muldaur.

Maria, herself, is the dominant artist in the collection with eight songs taken from a couple of the terrific acoustic blues albums she’s done in recent years – two from Richland Woman Blues and six from Sweet Lovin’ Ol’ Soul – on which she’s backed by such great musicians as Del Rey, Steve James and Dave Earl. Two of the most exciting songs, “I’m Goin’ Back Home” and “She Put Me Outdoors,” are terrific duets with Alvin Youngblood Hart playing Joe McCoy to Maria’s Minnie.

The three tracks recorded just for this album are all superb. Bonnie Raitt, playing acoustic guitar, does a great job on “Ain’t Nothin’ in Ramblin’,” proving – as if there were any doubt – she is still a remarkable purveyor of acoustic blues when she wants to be. Rory Block, one of today’s greatest acoustic blues artists, does a soulful solo arrangement of “When You Love Me” with some excellent slide playing, and Ruthie Foster offers a delightfully sassy take on “Keep Your Big Mouth Closed.”

Rounding out the album are two other previously released tracks. The late Phoebe Snow, with backing from David Bromberg, is featured on an elegant version of “In My Girlish Days” from her 1976 album, It Looks Like Snow (Phoebe never did enough of this kind of material), and the late Koko Taylor finishes the album with “Black Rat Swing,” from her 2007 release, Old School, the album’s only contemporary Chicago-style electric track.

Starting with the songs from her own albums and rounding the tribute out with five offerings from other artists, Maria Muldaur has assembled a worthy tribute to one of the most important figures in blues history.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Various artists -- Things About Comin' My Way: A tribute to the music of the Mississippi Sheiks

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Things About Comin’ My Way: A tribute to the music of the Mississippi Sheiks
Black Hen
blackhenmusic.com

One of the nice things about being my age is that as a young folkie, I had opportunities to see, in some cases meet, and, in a few cases, even work with, some of the legendary first generation recording artists whose music so influenced everything that came after. One of the artists I got to work with in 1974 as an area co-ordinator (stage manager) at the Mariposa Folk Festival was Sam Chatman, who I believe was about 77 or 78 years old at the time.

Back in the 1920s and ‘30s –- in addition to being a solo blues artist –- Sam often performed and recorded as a member of the Mississippi Sheiks, one of the great African-American string bands. Their biggest hit was “Sitting On Top of the World,” a song that has since become a standard in blues, bluegrass, western swing, folk and even rock repertoires. Sam had one of the most-lined faces I’ve ever seen, but there was so much musical history etched inside each and every one of those lines.

When I met Sam Chatman, he was 35 or 40 years removed from the heyday of the Mississippi Sheiks. And, now, 35 years after that, comes this excellent tribute featuring various artists interpreting 17 of their songs in their own individualistic ways.

I like almost all of these interpretations but some of my favourite tracks include a cool version of “Honey Babe Let the Deal Go Down” by Bruce Cockburn that begins with some great fingerpicking blues patterns and builds into a Preservation Hall-style arrangement highlighted by William Carn’s trombone; Del Rey’s take on “We Are Both Feeling Good Right Now,” featuring her goodtime vocals and her ragtime guitar playing interacting with a choir of three clarinets; an arrangement of “The World is Going Wrong,” by Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks that recalls Geoff’s days in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band; and a faithful version of “Sitting On Top of the World,” by the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a great trio at the forefront of the revival in African American stringband music.

Other highlights include tracks by Madeleine Peyroux, John Hammond, the Sojourners, Kelly Joe Phelps and producer Steve Dawson.

--Mike Regenstreif