MEAN OLD WORLD: THE BLUES FROM 1940 TO 1994
(Shore Fire Media, $59.95).
From the Smithsonian Collection of Recordings, the division of Smithsonian Institution Press devoted to preserving American musical culture, comes a four-CD boxed set containing 79 post-war blues recordings. This compilation goes beyond the “greatest hits” to offer the most significant music of the period and includes recordings by such artists as Billie Holiday (“Billie’s Blues”), John Lee Hooker (“Crawlin’ Kingsnake”), Howlin’ Wolf (“How Many More Years”),Jesse Fuller (“San Francisco Bay Blues”), Sonny Boy Williamson (“Trust My Baby”), B.B. King (“Why I Sing the Blues”),Muddy Waters (“Rollin’ and Tumblin'”), and Elizabeth Cotten (“Freight Train”). Complementing the recordings is a 96-page,illustrated booklet that offers biographies of the featured performers and an overview of this peculiarly American form of music.
