Fretplay.com Blind Blake CD reviews Blind Blake guitar tabs Blind Blake CD reviews Blind Blake tabs The Best of Blind Blake


Blind Blake - The Best of Blind Blake Audio CD

A fair review of the Blind Blake "The Best of Blind Blake" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Blind Blake reviews here, or go back to the Blind Blake tabs.

Blind Blake Band: Blind Blake
Title: The Best of Blind Blake
Rating:
Release Date: 2000-10-24
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Southern Rag 2: Georgia Bound 3: Blind Arthur's Breakdown 4: Too Tight Blues, No. 2 5: Dry Bone Shuffle 6: Rope Stretching Blues, Pt. 1 7: Panther Squall Blues 8: Skeedle Loo Doo Blues 9: You Gonna Quit Me Blues 10: Seaboard Stomp 11: No Dough Blues 12: West Coast Blues 13: Depression's Gone from Me Blues 14: Come on Boys, Let's Do That Messin' Around 15: Wabash Rag 16: He's in the Jailhouse Now 17: Diddie Wa Diddie, No. 2 18: Blake's Worried Blues 19: Ice Man Blues 20: Doggin' Me Mama Blues 21: Chump Man Blues 22: Guitar Chimes 23: Early Morning Blues

The Best of the Blues from 20's and 30's
The first is that so little is known about his life, even though his work was of great importance. There are two tradegies concerning Blind Blake. There is only one known photograph of him. Both his birth and date of death are unknown for certain. He recorded around 80 tracks for Paramount Records and his records sold well. In spite of that, even his real name is in question. It might have been Arthur Phelps, although most biographers maintain that it was Arthur Blake and he was known for quite some time as Blind Arthur Blake. The second tradegy is we don't have better quality recordings of his work. The ones on this album aren't terrible; they are listenable. It probably was the best available. Given the technology of the time, it's probably remarkable that we have recordings as good as this that were recorded 80 to 90 years ago. Unfortunately there is a lot of noise, worse on some tracks than others. Still it seems that the quality is better than what I have heard on some of the Blind Lemon Jefferson recordings. Lemon Jefferson was, of course, another important blind black artist of the same era. Sometimes "historically important" music such as this is just not that enjoyable to listen to, but that's not the case here. This is very enjoyable and listenable, even if you aren't a big blues fan. Buy it before it disappears forever. It's worth having in anyone's collection. 5 stars for the music; 3 for the sound quality.


Splendid
It is certainly easier to listen to than the old vinyl release. Blind Blake's guitar style has been very influencial in the history of the blues and this album has many of his best tracks on it. I guess that noise reduction stuff works to some extent. I know that the master recordings were lost long ago and this was taken from production 78's. So with that in mind, the sound quality is probably as good as it's going to get. The music is just simply fabulous!.


You can see a complete list of all Blind Blake discography, or go back to the Blind Blake tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

Search guitar tabs

#ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
[ Search tabs | Guitar tabs | Bass tabs |
Easy guitar tabs | Guitar solo tabs |
Acoustic guitar tabs | Guitar chords |
How to read guitar tabs ]
Forum topics
Music forums
- Bands and artists - Songwriting and lyrics - Tablature talk - Promote your band
Instrument forums
- Guitar basics - Gear & accessories - Bass guitar
Community
- The pit - Site Feedback - Reviews
[ User survey | About us | Privacy statement ]