Charley Patton – Complete Recordings 1929 – 1934 -Volume 1: 14th June 1929 to late November / December 1929

Charley Patton

Complete Recorded Works 14th June 1929 – 1st February 1934

Volume 1: 14th June 1929 to late November / December 1929

Featuring the recordings of:

Charley Patton, vocal /guitar Charley Patton, vocal /guitar; Henry Sims, violin

Genres: Mississippi Blues, Mississippi Delta Blues, Country Blues, Country Blues Guitar, Bottleneck-Slide Guitar, Blues Violin, Country Blues Fiddle, Delta Blues, Blues

Abridged from the original CD’s booklet notes. Charley Patton is considered, with some justification, to be the archetypal, Mississippi Delta blues singer / guitarist. His guitar playing, including his bottleneck slide guitar technique, coupled with his gritty vocal delivery created a mixture of some of the most primitive yet sublime recordings to be made in the “pre-war blues” era. Many of his recorded performances are so powerful as to be unsurpassed within the genre. At the same time he had an overpowering presence that embodied the very essence of the Mississippi Blues. Equally, he can well be thought of as a songster, in view of his wide-ranging repertoire of blues, ballads, rags, spirituals and popular songs that he displays on his recordings which are presented on Document’s three volumes of Charley Patton’s recordings. Certainly, he was a showman and entertainer whose live performances could be somber, melancholy, intense or humorous. Yet he differs from his “songster” contemporaries like Mississippi John Hurt and Mance Lipscomb in that he used solid blues as a vehicle for an intensely personal musical expression. These three volumes present all of his issued recordings. His original 78 rpm records are extremely rare. In many cases there are only single known copies which are now the prized possessions of collectors. Volume one is full Patton classics beginning with the stunning Mississippi Boweavil Blues with Charley increasing the speed of the tempo to fever pitch, gasping at the end of his lines and playing frenetic slide guitar, lap style, hitting the notes perfectly way beyond the twelfth fret. There’?s certainly no hint of debut performance nerves here. Spoonful Blues demonstrates another remarkable slide guitar performance and there is little wonder that the song was picked up by many others such as his great admirer Howling Wolf (Chester Burnett) and 1960′?s British super group; Cream led by Eric Clapton. The ragtime showpiece Shake It and Break It is a lively affair and conjures up the image of Charley doing the “clowning” during his live performances that so appalled his friend Son House. This entailed Charley playing his guitar behind his back and between his legs. Jimi Hendrix was doing exactly the same thing forty years later, though its not known that Charlie set light to his guitar! The CD covers all of Charley’?s first session for Paramount and the first six recordings made for Paramount in late 1929.  During this session, Henry Simms accompanies Patton, on the violin.  Muddy Waters also featured Simms on his Library of Congress which were made 13 years later.  These recordings can be found on the Document CD DOCD-5146.

Bob Groom Copyright 1990 Document Records

DOCD-5009