Big Road Blues

Show Notes:
It’s hard to keep up with glut of blues reissues mostly pumped out by European labels taking full advantage of the fifty-year copyright law. One label that deserves attention is Boulevard Vintage who for the past few years have been putting out intelligent well conceived multi CD sets of post-war down home blues. The label has zeroed in on a very specific, rich vein of blues history, roughly 1945-1955 when a whole slew of enterprising small labels were catering to an audience that still craved down home blues. Between 1944 and 1964, more than 600 record companies tried their hands at recording blues. Many failed or had limited success while others grew and became major players. As the notes say this was “the last grand hurrah of local blues recorded for, and often by, local entrepreneurs, neither folkloric nor college oriented, but music for the culture from which it grew.”

So far the label has issued five sets: Down Home Blues Classics 1943-1953 (4-CD), Down Home Blues Classics: Chicago 1946-1954 (4-CD), Down Home Blues Classics: Texas 1946-1954 (4-CD), Down Home Blues Classics: California & The West Coast 1948-1954 (2-CD), Down Home Blues Classics: Memphis & The South 1949-1954 (2-CD). Unfortunately the first box, which features music from all regions with no overlap with the other sets, is out of print and I have been unable to track down a copy. These are great sets filled with plenty of well known names but what’s nice about this series is that compilers tend to pull out the less anthologized, obscurer sides by these artists. There’s also plenty of mysterious, obscure artists who who left behind only a handful of fine sides before fading back into obscurity. Each set is rounded out by informative, well researched notes written by well respected blues scholars.

Review of Memphis & The South/California & The West Coast

Review of New York & The East Coast