Charley Patton Voice Of The Delta: The Complete Paramount Recordings CD

The story of Delta blues starts with Charley Patton. His slashing slide style, hoarse and gruff vocals, and unerring ability to personalize even the most mundane blues lyric provides the template that eventually led to electric Chicago blues and beyond. Patton's 78s have been collected in several fine packages, including the JSP box called Complete Recordings, Catfish's three-disc budget box called Definitive Charley Patton, and the last word in all this, the impressive (and expensive) seven-disc Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues from Revenant Records. This attractive double-disc set from Black Swan dispenses with any ephemera and simply presents Patton's Paramount 78s, and as such contains his best-known songs like "Pony Blues," the two-part "High Water Everywhere," "Mississippi Boweavil Blues," "Down the Dirt Road Blues," and "High Sheriff Blues." Since Patton's rhythms and overall approach can be repetitive at times, casual listeners wondering what all the fuss is about might be better served with a single disc that hones things down a bit, but Patton's work is both the Big Bang and the epicenter of country blues, and picking up a set like this one and going a little deeper is well worth the time. ~ Steve Leggett

all 42 sides released by Paramount, 2 CD setUncut (p.159) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]his 76-track set offers a more accessible introduction to the man who really deserves the title 'King of the Delta Blues Singers'."