Riveting 1965 review of his own staggering classics like Death Letter and John The Revelator, rinsed by everyone from Captain Beefheart to Jack White.

Awesome, rugged, hypnotic, spiritualised blues music, monumental and unmissable. Everything he did prior to his 1960s re-emergence, properly re-mastered from the 78s, with excellent notes.

‘The most avant- garde blues performer ever recorded. No punk rock band has ever matched the jagged acerbic fury of the riffs Williams played 35 years ago. No rapper has approached his ability to evoke the torment of life in prison or bend language to cast an eerie spell over a chance encounter with a seductive woman’ (New York Times).
‘It’s difficult to approve the banalities of most blues singers after listening to Robert Pete Williams’ (Peter Guralnick, Feel Like Going Home).

The ten tracks of the classic Louisana Blues album recorded in July 1966 in Berkeley under the supervision of John Fahey for his Takoma imprint… plus scarce or previously unreleased studio and live recordings made in France and Italy in 1977-78.

A limited-edition CD.

1928-35 recordings by the Memphis bluesman (with Cherokee Indian close by in his family tree) — including That’s No Way To Get Along, later covered by the Rolling Stones as Prodigal Son.

Stokes, Memphis Minnie, Furry Lewis, Gus Cannon and co. 180g, well-pressed.

‘The trance blues stylings of Otha Turner and his Rising Star Fife And Drum Band should be a music classification unto itself, a whole new primitive take on drum and bass. This music is the oldest still-practiced post-colonial American music, and Turner was one of its greatest artists of the 20th century. Blowing the cane fife with a band of drummers as back up, The Rising Star Fife And Drum band was legendary in the hills of Tate County, Mississippi, where they would perform during the yearly goat picnics on Turner’s farm. These tracks were recorded by Luther Dickinson during such picnics and released when Turner was ninety years old. Everybody Hollerin’ Goat shows firsthand the hypnotic and rhythmic style of fife and drum music at its best — raw and beautiful. It is every bit as essential a document of America’s folk-music heritage as anything Harry Smith or Alan Lomax ever offered up for posterity. This first ever vinyl release of Everybody Hollerin’ Goat contains a whole side of unreleased recordings from one night of the picnic and is intended to bring the experience of hollerin’ for goat in Senatobia, Mississippi to the living room. Dancing around the plants is recommended (but don’t eat the pickled eggs).’

The greatest gospel bluesman; one of the very greatest bottle-neck guitarists.
Almost overwhelmingly intense and gripping.

45s and LPs spanning the period 1964-1973, including his long-lost album debut. The original material here trumps the folk chestnuts. Alasdair Roberts does Lord Randall a lot better, has to be said.