The ABC Of The Blues Recap

This is late due to a small amount of trouble with my house taking up the whole last weekend, and a good chunk of last two weeks. So - an overview of the ABC Of The Blues...

A 52 CD box set covering almost every aspect of the blues from the early days through the sixties, it stops just short of the blues-revival of the early 80s.

Most of the songs are taken from other compilations, being a European release, some of the Copyright laws are a little different, most of the very early stuff is no longer under Copy Control there. I would guess around 50% or so of the songs are actually from WWII or earlier, to varying degrees of quality from excellent to moderately decent. Nothing is outright poor.

For the most part each disc was split into two artists with 10 songs each. There are a number of exceptions, with several discs containing only one artists, and a smaller few splitting between three artists. The artists getting their own disc are usually ones that are very popular, and whose recordings are easy to find and are continuously in print.

Not a lot of the songs here are hard to find, especially for a blues enthusiast who already knows everyone. For a beginner this box set is probably the best way to find a lot of names both big and small and gain a decent start to a collection to work from.

We do get a good cross section from early folk blues, country blues, going almost back to ragtime styles all the way to modern electric blues, funk, early R&B and even some cross into jazz. Below is a full list of artists in the box set, because I haven't seen many places provide one (and you won't have to go back through my blog if you don't want to), in the order they appear in the box set.

Kokomo Arnold
Billy Boy Arnold
Richard Berry
Barbecue Bob
Bobby "Blue" Bland
Charles Brown
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
Blue Lu Barker
Big Bill Broonzy
Scrapper Blackwell
Blind Blake
Champion Jack Dupree
Cousin Joe
Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell
Pee Wee Crayton
Bo Diddley
Willie Dixon
Floyd Dixon
Snooks Eaglin'
Sleepy John Estes
Lowell Fulson
The Four Blazers
Buddy Guy
Arthur Gunter
Slim Gaillard
John Lee Hooker
Wynonie Harris
Earl Hooker
Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Lightnin' Hopkins
Howlin' Wolf
Alberta Hunter
Ivory Joe Hunter
Robert Johnson
Elmore James
Lonnie Johnson
Blind Willie Johnson
Tommy Johnson
Skip James
B.B. King
Little Walter
Lightnin' Slim
J.B. Lenoir
Leadbelly
Little Willie John
Smiley Lewis
Furry Lewis
Robert Lockwood
Magic Sam
Jimmy McCracklin
Percy Mayfield
Johnny Moore's Three Blazers
Memphis Minnie
Big Maybelle
Roy Milton
Amos Milburn
Big Maceo
Blind Willie McTell
Memphis Slim
Tommy McClennan
Robert Nighthawk
Johnny Otis
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Mississippi John Hurt
Charlie Patton
Snooky Pryor
Professor Longhair
Junior Parker
Jimmy Reed
Otis Rush
Jimmy Rushing
Tampa Red
Bessie Smith
Huey "Piano" Smith
Frankie Lee Sims
Roosevelt Sykes
Son House
Sunnyland Slim
Johnny Shines
Big Mama Thornton
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Sonny Terry
Eddie Taylor
Big Joe Turner
Eddie Cleanhead Vinson
T. Bone Walker
Jimmy Whitherspoon
Muddy Waters
Junior Wells
Sippie Wallace
Peetie Wheatstraw
Johnny "Guitar" Watson
Big Joe Williams
Sonny Boy Williamson (John Lee)
Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller)
Bukka White
Josh White
Jimmy Yancey

An extensive, if not exhaustive, list of blues greats and highly influential artists in the scene.

The box set also comes with a small Puck harmonica, should any fans be inclined to give their hand at the genre. Which is a nice bit of included extra. The booklet included is sadly, mediocre at best. Barely there biographies, and nothing on the music itself - recordings, when and where, or anything of that nature. It's the one part that a budding blues enthusiast would need, or want, the most.

Next Week... I'm keeping with the Sunday Blues theme, but scaling back to just single albums for now. If I ever pick up another box set I'll likely split it up again. I picked up a Keb' Mo' album I'll be giving a spin.