Blues Labels - Delmark Records

Most blues fans who have been blues fans for a while have at least one recording that came from Delmark Records.  Many significant blues artists have recorded for the label, played on a session for somebody else on the label, or have had an older release reissued by the label.  If you were to look at many blues fans' Top Ten Desert Island Discs (a subject for a future post), there is more than likely at least one recording from Delmark that will be included.

Delmark Records is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.  It is the oldest active record label that is still run by its founder, Bob Koester.  Since 1953, Koester, who turned 81 on October 30th, has recorded some of the finest electric blues, country blues, and jazz recordings.....some of which have served as major influences on modern blues and rock & roll artists, and it all started in a St. Louis record store.

Delmark founder Bob Koester

Koester attended college in St. Louis, studying business.  He had started collecting blues and jazz 78's as a teenager in his native Wichita, KS, but once in St. Louis, he became immersed in the St. Louis jazz scene, publishing a magazine and selling 78's by mail from his dorm.  In 1952, he opened the Blue Note Record Shop, and a year later, he recorded his first band, the Windy City Six, on what was then called Delmar Records (due to a trademark issue, he later renamed the label Delmark).

Soon afterward, Koester and others in the St. Louis area, began seeking out musicians from previous decades who might still live in the city.  They found artists like Speckled Red, Big Joe Williams, J.D. Short, and eventually were led to find Sleepy John Estes.  These artists made up the first blues recordings for Delmark.....Speckled Red's The Dirty Dozens, Willams' Blues on Highway 49 (with Short), and Estes' The Legend of Sleepy John Estes.  During this time, Koester was also reissuing several jazz albums purchased from other labels.

In 1958, Koester moved to Chicago and later bought Seymour's Jazz Record Mart, where he began recording several of the Windy City's jazz musicians.  The business relocated in 1963 and was renamed the Jazz Record Mart.  It was also during the early 60's that the folk music revival started and there was a renewed interest in blues, particular the electric style.

By 1965, Koester had decided to record a local Chicago blues artist, Junior Wells, and his approach in doing so set the standard for modern blues records.  Until that point, a blues artist was only able to release an album once they had accumulated enough singles for a label to generate a "greatest hits" album.  With Wells, backed by Buddy Guy on guitar, Koester decided to record the session with the intent of capturing the charismatic harmonica player as if he were on the bandstand playing a regular live set at a local club.  The session was a huge success and Hoodoo Man Blues was, and still is, Delmark's biggest seller.  It is still considered to be one of the greatest blues albums of all time.




The floodgates opened soon after, with classic recordings from Magic Sam, J.B. Hutto, Jimmy Dawkins, Luther Allison, Carey Bell, Robert Lockwood, Jr., and later albums from Wells, Otis Rush, Jimmy Johnson.  Delmark's success with their blues recordings enabled Koester to delve into the Windy City's burgeoning avant garde jazz scene, recording some of the genre's finest albums.

Delmark has also acquired masters from many jazz and blues labels that are no longer in business.  Some of the blues labels include United/States, Apollo, Parkway, and Pearl.  They also bought the rights to several 70's sessions (from artists like Magic Slim, Jimmy Johnson, Lacy Gibson, Eddie Clearwater, and Lonnie Brooks) that were recorded by Ralph Bass.  These acquisitions have rewarded listeners with the opportunity to hear excellent recordings by Robert Nighthawk (Bricks In My Pillow) and Junior Wells' Blues Hit Big Town, a great pair of Memphis Slim/Matt "Guitar" Murphy recordings, and Little Walter's first recordings as a front man.  The label has also released excellent live recordings from the 70's by Otis Rush and Junior Wells.

L to R:  Bruce Iglauer, Jerry Del Guidice, Bob Koester, Michael Frank

Some of Delmark's employees have gone on to bigger and better things over the years.....Bruce Iglauer went on to form Alligator Records, and others such as Michael Frank (Earwig Records), Amy Van Siegal (Rooster Blues Records), Chuck Nessa (Nessa Records), Don Kent (Mamlish Records), and Pete Crawford (Red Beans Records) all went on to release prominent recordings of their own, and several musicians, including Charlie Musselwhite and Mike Bloomfield, also worked there.

Delmark released few new recordings in the early 80's, at least on the blues side, but with the advent of CDs, they began reissuing their older recordings in the new format, and in the late 80's, started releasing some new recordings from Chicago acts like Professor Eddie Lusk, Dave Specter and Barkin' Bill Smith, Willie Kent, Jessie Fortune, Jimmie Lee Robinson, and Big Time Sarah through the early 90's, along with releases from soul legend Syl Johnson and the great Robert Ward.

In recent years, Delmark has issued recordings from veterans like Jimmy and Eddie Burns, Eddie Shaw, James Wheeler, Little Arthur Duncan, Tail Dragger, Detroit Jr., Willie Buck, Eddie C. Campbell, and Johnny B. Moore, and have also tapped into the Windy City's more recent blues stars like Toronzo Cannon, Mike Wheeler, Sharon Lewis, Lurrie Bell, Karen Carroll, Quintus McCormick, Linsey Alexander, and Studebaker John.

Koester still has plenty of great recordings in the works, including a November release from Magic Sam (a live set from June, 1968), the third set of live recordings by the much-missed singer/guitarist that the label has released.  There will also be a 60th Anniversary disc available in November.....one for the blues recordings and one for jazz.

So if you talk to anyone who laments the passing of independent record labels, just shake your head and point to Delmark Records as a continuing success story, even in these days of cookie-cutter music and big corporation record labels.  Without Bob Koester and Delmark, their pioneering approach to recording albums, their consistent reissuing of great music from defunct record labels, and their relentless promotion of the music they love, the world of blues recordings would be a much different place.

To check out Delmark's extensive catalog of blues and jazz recordings, go here.  To check out the Jazz Record Mart and check out their massive inventory, visit their site here.

Ten Essential Delmark Recordings:

As you glance through these, please keep in mind that these are MY essential Delmark Recordings, and that it was really hard to limit it to just ten.  I would love to hear from you about your favorite Delmark albums.

Junior Wells (with Buddy Guy):  Hoodoo Man Blues - The Gold Standard for Chicago blues recordings.  I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for this session.

Magic Sam:  Black Magic - I know a lot of people love West Side Soul, and it's tough to have to decide between the two, but I think Black Magic has a slight edge and this is my list, so.......  Sadly, it was the last chance we had to hear Magic Sam in the studio.

Various Artists:  Sweet Home Chicago - I think this is a highly underrated set that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle with the great multi-volume Chicago collections from Alligator (Living Chicago Blues) and Vanguard (Chicago!  The Blues!  Today!).  Face it.....any disc with recordings from Luther Allison, Magic Sam, Louis Myers, and Eddie Shaw deserves a spot on your music shelf.

Robert Jr. Lockwood: Steady Rollin' Man - This was Lockwood's first session as a leader and one of his best.  I probably listen to this disc as much as any in my collection.

Jimmy Johnson:  Johnson Whacks - Johnson's catalog is loaded with quality work, but this release is the cream of the crop, with a perfect mix of blues and soul.

Robert Nighthawk:  Bricks In My Pillow - Nighthawk recorded this session for United in the early 50's, so this is one of the many great reissues that Delmark has blessed blues fans with over the years.  This was my first exposure to the slide guitar master and it remains one of my favorites.

Otis Rush:  All Your Love I Miss Loving - Live at the Wise Fool's Pub, Chicago - This live date was recorded in 1976 for broadcast on a Chicago radio station to help promote Rush's Cold Day In Hell release on Delmark.  We will look deeper into this disc in the coming weeks, but this is a fantastic example of a typical 70's Rush set.

James Kinds:  Love You From The Top - Kinds was seen as the "next big thing" in the blues back in the 70's, but sort of dropped off the radar after a series of bad breaks.  This release was well received upon its release a few years ago and seemed to get Kinds back on track, but he's since battled some health issues.  Hopefully, we haven't heard the last of him.

Toronzo Cannon:  Leaving Mood - We talked with Mr. Cannon a few weeks ago and discussed this release.  Cannon is one of the many rising stars on the Chicago blues scene.  His inventive songwriting and powerful rocking guitar work are positive signs for the future of the blues.

Lurrie Bell:  Blues In My Soul - Bell's most recent release is an excellent set of Chicago blues classics reinterpreted by the talented guitarist.  Backed by a great band, Bell really tears into these songs and gives one of his finest performances.....a great listen from start to finish.

Blues For The Budget-Minded

If you're like most people, you're suffering from a condition that's all too common these days.....them No Budget Blues.  For most folks under tight financial conditions, one of the first things to go might be that spare change you used to allow to purchase the occasional blues CD.  One of the best ways around this condition for blues fans is the compilation CD.  Most blues labels put out collections of their best recordings on a regular basis, usually at a bargain price.  Not only is it an inexpensive way to get your hands on some quality blues music, but it also offers the possibility of exposing you to new artists that you might not have heard otherwise.  I have been picking up budget compilations for years and have discovered many of my favorite artists along the way.  Today, Friday Blues Fix will look at a few of the collections that opened my eyes and ears to some great music, and we'll throw a few samples your way while we're at it.

When I first started listening to the blues, MCA was reissuing a lot of the old Chess Records.  Most of these records originally done in the 50's or 60's were relatively short, about ten songs lasting about thirty minutes at most, so MCA released them at pretty low prices.  I knew a lot of the artists for Chess by name only and it was so overwhelming that I didn't know where to get started.  Fortunately for me, MCA had also reissued Chess' classic The Blues five-volume series.  These albums featured tracks from the entire line-up of Chess artists....Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Willamson, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Rogers, and countless others.  Within a few weeks, I had all five volumes and my blues vocabulary had expanded a hundredfold.  Unfortunately, these are hard to find now, but MCA (and now Universal Music) has repackaged the Chess catalog several times over the years and most of these songs are still easy to find, though not quite as low-budget as previously.  In the early 90's, Chess released a Volume 6 with nothing but rarities on it.  If you can find this series, it's a great, inexpensive place to build up your collection of Chess blues.  They can be easily found on Ebay or on Amazon in used condition for small change, and are well worth the hunt.  Here's the first song I ever heard by Buddy Guy, courtesy of The Blues, Volume 1......"First Time I Met The Blues."

Another great indispensible source of blues in a more modern vein came from Alligator Records.  Their Genuine Houserockin' Music series was an incredible introduction to the Chicago label's wide span of  artists.  I had originally picked up a couple of their albums in record stores and enjoyed them, but when I picked up Volume 1 of this set, I knew that I had to dig deeper.  About once a year for five or six years, the label released a new volume that collected recent recordings.  There were five of these, plus a Christmas edition.  These albums included cuts from Johnny Winter, Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan, Hound Dog Taylor, Fenton Robinson, Jimmy Johnson, Kenny Neal, Tinsley Ellis, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, Lonnie Brooks, and James Cotton.  Going the extra mile for their listeners, Alligator has also, since the early 90's, released an anniversary two-disc set every five years, also at budget prices, of some of their best work.  These have essentially replaced the Houserockin' series over the years and more and more of them feature previously unreleased songs.

Speaking of anniversary releases, several blues labels have turned out some great releases celebrating their years in the record business.  Delmark Records has issued anniversary sets for their blues and jazz catalog every five years since their 20th, the last couple also included DVDs.  The unsung Chicago label Earwig Records released a two-CD 20th anniversary set a few years ago that featured music from many little-heard Chicago area artists.  The German label Ruf Records released a 12th, yes....a 12th, anniversary set a couple of years ago with some of the best of the blues being played by many American (Larry Garner, Luther Allison, Omar and the Howlers, Candye Kane, Bernard Allison) and European artists (Ian Parker, Ainsley Lister, Ana Popovic).  There have been many others, and most of them offer some quality listening because the labels are putting examples of their best material on these discs.  I was able to track down some additional music from artists I'd never heard before after listening to these releases.  The great Jimmy Dawkins released an awesome disc in the early 90's from Earwig and this song, "Beetin Knockin Ringin," was on it and also the Earwig anthology.  Check it out.

Around the time I started buying CDs, Rounder Records came out with their fantastic Easydisc series.  By the mid 90's, Rounder had built a huge catalog of blues, zydeco, Cajun, New Orleans R&B, folk, country, surf, and bluegrass recordings, so they began releasing collections of recordings, usually taking on a particular theme, like Blues Guitar Greats, Zydeco Party, Blues on Fire, etc....).  In addition to their own catalog, Rounder also issued tracks from artists on Alligator and JSP on Easydisc recordings, giving them additional exposure.  Due to some of these collections, particularly Blues on Fire, I discovered the British label, JSP, and their vast catalog of seldom-recorded artists like U. P. Wilson, the Butler Twins, and many other artists that they featured on their own budget-priced collections.

JSP offered anthologies of their current releases that loaded sixteen or eightteen songs on a budget-priced disc.  They also offered two-disc sets on Chicago and Texas blues that brought out a lot of previously unheard musicians and many of them benefitted from the exposure.  Another great collection came from the Dutch label, Black Magic, and had some great tracks as well.  Somehow, someway, JSP and Black Magic collections found their way into a lot of mall music stores in Mississippi, which is where I found them.  Take a break from reading and enjoy these two tracks.....first, from the JSP anthology Chicago Blues (Volume 1), here's Phil Guy, brother of Buddy, playing "Once A Gambler"......then from the Black Magic anthology, Witchcraft: Black Magic for Beginners, here's another highly underrated Chicago artist, the late Andrew Brown, with "I Can Hear My Baby Talking."  Brown was criminally underrecorded and he passed away from cancer at a pretty young age in the late 80's, so few got to hear his soul-based blues.  We'll be discussing Andrew Brown more in a future FBF.

In the 70's, the recording business was basically dead to blues musicians.  Their best bet back then was to go to Europe and tour for the appreciative fans overseas.  While they were there, many of them recorded for various labels, like Black & Blue, Sonet, and others.  In the early 90's, Evidence Records bought the rights to many of these albums and began releasing them as budget discs, with bonus tracks added in most cases.  Most of these are still available from Evidence and offer some great music by nearly every major blues artists during that time, filling a gap in most of their recording careers for U.S. fans.

That covered most of the post-war blues for me.  There was also the outstanding collection of discs from Yazoo Records.  Yazoo collected many of the great pre-war artists of the late 20's and 30's in various collections.  It was on these recordings that I first heard Charley Patton, Sam Collins, Skip James, Kokomo Arnold, Tommy Johnson, and Frank Stokes.  Yazoo Records offered a package deal where you could buy three or four and get one free and they were fairly inexpensive to start with, so I snatched up a well-rounded collection over a short amount of time.  To many blues fans, the pre-war recordings are an acquired taste, due to rough sound in most cases, but modern technology has done wonders for these dusty old recordings.  JSP, in particular, has reissued some of these recordings in budget-priced box sets with excellent sound.  Give a listen to Charley Patton's original version of "Spoonful Blues," from Yazoo's Roots of Rock collection.

There are countless other anthology releases that are also worth seeking out, but what you have here is a good start if you're trying to expand your blues collection in a short time on a limited budget.  A bit of warning though......once you get started listening, it's hard to stop.

Broke & Hungry Records - Ten Questions With Jeff Konkel

Over the past couple of months, Friday Blues Fix has looked at a couple of important blues labels of the past.  Today, we're going to look at a present-day blues label that's doing its part to keep the blues alive, Broke & Hungry Records.

Jeff Konkel is the founder and driving force behind Broke & Hungry Records, a label that specializes in finding and recording rarely-heard (or never before-heard) Mississippi Delta Blues musicians. Konkel started the label in 2006 with a recording from Bentonia bluesman Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, a disciple of fellow Bentonia natives Skip James and Jack Owens. Since then, B&H has released six other well-received recordings, the most recent being another album by Holmes titled Ain’t It Lonesome. In 2008, the label joined forces with Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art (Roger Stolle) and Mudpuppy Productions (Kari Jones) to release M for Mississippi, the critically acclaimed documentary of the current Mississippi Delta blues scene, and its two accompanying CD soundtracks. 

In 2011, Broke and Hungry will be celebrating their fifth anniversary.  Mr. Konkel was gracious enough to sit down with Friday Blues Fix to answer a few questions about his label, past, present, and future.  We appreciate him taking the time to do so.


Wesley Jefferson and Jeff Konkel during the filming of M for Mississippi

Everyone has a story about how they were first drawn to the blues. What’s your story?

Like a lot of people, I backed my way into the blues. During high school, I was a big classic rock fan. In the spring of 1992, when I was 18, I heard about Robert Johnson and his influence on Zeppelin, Clapton and the Stones. I picked up his Complete Recordings and, frankly, it didn’t make much of an impact on first listen. I just couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I kept listening and eventually the music really hit me. From there, I began collecting music from other prewar figures like Skip James, Bukka White, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Blake, Mississippi John Hurt and others.


It wasn’t until 1997, during my first trip to the Delta that I became interested in contemporary rural blues. Once I fell for it, I fell hard.

How did the idea for Broke and Hungry Records come about?

October 2005 was not a great time for fans of Mississippi Blues. Rooster Blues Records had folded and Fat Possum Records had moved toward rock. R.L. Burnside had just died as had a couple of other artists from the region. I was at a juke joint called Po’ Monkey’s in Merigold, Mississippi, lamenting the fact that there were still great bluesmen flying under the radar with no one seemingly interested in recording them. I also knew that these artists weren’t getting younger. The beer was flowing that night, and in a moment of “clarity” (read: drunken foolishness), I declared that I was going to start a label to address this need. A couple of weeks later I formed Broke & Hungry Records, and just two weeks after that, we cut our first record.

While Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is a fairly familiar name to a lot of Mississippi blues fans, as are Terry “Big T” Williams and Wesley Jefferson, how did you happen to find out about Odell Harris and the Mississippi Marvel? Those two artists seemingly came out of nowhere.

Frankly, even Jimmy was pretty obscure when I first recorded him. He had only played outside of Yazoo County on a couple of occasions. The dedicated blues hounds knew about Jimmy’s juke joint, the Blue Front Café in Bentonia, but I don’t think many folks had a real grasp of the depths of his talent.


As for Odell Harris and the Mississippi Marvel, I was basically chasing rumors and shadows.


I knew a handful of folks who had heard Odell, and they all told me he was incredible. They also told me he was utterly unreliable and impossible to track down. My friend Lightnin’ Malcolm knows Odell pretty well and was able to find him. I realized I might not have a second shot at recording him, so I set up a session on the Gulf Coast without ever having heard him play a note of music. I guess you’ve figured out by now, I’m a pretty impulsive guy. Anyhow, the session was grueling. It kicked off at around 11 p.m. one Saturday night in August 2006. It dragged on throughout the night, but the first several hours were pretty brutal. Odell was in a sour mood and the locals in the club were in even lower spirits. At several points, I considered just shutting it down and cutting my losses, but shortly before dawn, everything came together. In just a couple of hours we had what we needed. Good thing, too, because Odell has once again vanished. I talked to him by phone shortly after the session, but I haven’t seen him again and he seems to have fallen off the map completely.


As for the Mississippi Marvel, I had heard about him for a couple of years before I met him. Since he’s chosen to stay anonymous, I can’t tell you much about the circumstances behind meeting him. What I can tell you is that when I finally did hear him, I was immediately bowled over. I called my buddy Roger Stolle and held up the phone so he could hear. At the end of that phone call I told Roger, “I guess I know who I’m recording next.” Of course, making that happen proved a little difficult. After several months of trying to talk him into recording, the man we now call the Mississippi Marvel informed me that his fellow congregants at church were not fans of blues music and he feared he would be alienated from his community if he cut a CD of secular music. Eventually we came up with the idea of issuing the CD under the pseudonym and with no photos or details that might compromise his anonymity.


I’m really proud of both of those records. They’re totally ragged and raw in the best possible way. Needless to say, it’s hard to make your money back on CDs where the artists won’t do media or play any shows, but I’d do it all again.

Any standout moments with B&H so far that you’d like to remember?

Too many to count. And the highlights greatly outnumber the lowlights.


One obvious highlight was winning the Blues Music Award for our film M For Mississippi in 2009. I’d like to say that such things don’t matter, but that would be a lie. When you put your heart and soul, not to mention your savings into a big project like that, you want people to appreciate it. It was really gratifying to know that audiences connected with the artists in the film.


But at the end of the day, it’s really the little moments that make it all worthwhile. I enjoy spending time with the artists we record, getting to know them as people, developing friendships. Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and I drove out to the East Coast for a short tour earlier this year, and while there were a few bumps along the way, I wouldn’t trade experiences like that for the world.

Jimmy "Duck" Holmes

Any moments you’d just as soon forget?

A few, but even the worst experiences usually make for a good story later. The Odell session started terribly but ended up resulting in a great record.


Looking at my bank account is usually an experience I’d just as soon forget. They don’t call us Broke & Hungry for nothing.

The M For Mississippi documentary is fantastic…..one of the best at covering its subject, blues musicians…..not as a specimen under a microscope as many of these docs do, but as living, breathing human beings. What made you guys decide to do such a film and how long did you bounce the idea around before jumping in with both feet?

Thanks. We had a blast making the movie. The week we spent on the road was amazing. Exhausting, but amazing.


The idea for the film evolved over time. Since starting Broke & Hungry Records, I’ve become great friends with Roger Stolle of Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art in Clarksdale. We’ve spent a lot of time hanging out together in jukes and in the homes of bluesmen across the region. We knew we wanted to collaborate on a major project that reflected those experiences and eventually we decided a film was the best way to do that.



We agreed right away that this couldn’t be another dry, academic treatise on the history of the blues. Those films have already been made a thousand times over. Besides, that just isn’t how we approach the music. If you’re not having fun at a juke joint or a house party, you’re doing something wrong. We wanted the film to reflect that attitude. The movie is intended to be fun and entertaining. We want people who see it to hop in their cars and head down to the Delta for a road trip of their own.


(L to R) Roger Stolle, Jeff Konkel, and Terry "Harmonica" Bean during the filming of M for Mississippi

We started talking about the project sometime in 2006, and spent the next two years mapping it out, assembling our team and raising money. We shot the film in just a week during the spring of 2008 and we released it a mere six months later. It was a pretty exhausting process, but we wanted to release the film quickly so that it could benefit the artists while they’re still alive and able to take advantage of the exposure. Sadly, that concern has proven well founded. Two of the artists in the movie – Wesley “Junebug” Jefferson and Wiley Foster, better known as “Mr. Tater the Music Maker” – have since passed.

There are a lot of memorable moments in the movie, sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious. Give us a few of your highlights from filming the documentary, some things that really stand out in your memory?

Well, the day at R.L. Boyce’s house in Como, Mississippi was a blast. The weather didn’t cooperate, but the house party was great. As you can see on the film, there was a lot happening in the house. We laughed a lot that day. Actually we laughed a lot throughout the entire filming. We really enjoyed the experience. Most of the artists in the film are guys we know well both personally and professionally, so the atmosphere was usually pretty relaxed.



Nevertheless, nonstop filming for a week is completely exhausting. By the final day – when we shot the L.C. Ulmer segment – we were basically walking zombies, but even then we managed to have some fun.

You basically started Broke and Hungry with no previous experience in the music industry. Did that help you or hurt you? Is there anything that you would have done differently if you had the chance?

From an artistic standpoint, I think my inexperience helped. I started the label as a fan, not as a seasoned producer. As a result, I’ve tended to make records that I would want to hear as a fan. These aren’t just “products” to be deposited in the marketplace. They’re true labors of love, and hopefully that shows. I don’t get hung up on what others consider the “right” way of doing things. We’re going to keep on marching to the beat of our own drum.

For a taste of the Broke & Hungry approach, check out this truly unique, atmospheric version of the Delta classic, "Catfish," courtesy of Terry "Big T" Williams and the late Wesley "Junebug" Jefferson, from their Meet Me In The Cottonfield release.....an amazing combination of the best of the past and the present of Delta blues



What can we expect from Broke and Hungry Records in the future?

In early 2011, we’ll be issuing a two-CD collection called Mistakes Were Made: Five Years of Raw Blues, Damaged Livers & Questionable Business Decisions. It pulls together some of the best music from our catalog along with a whole lot of great, never-before-heard recordings.


The set will include 30 tracks, of which a full 15 have never before been released. The unreleased tracks include contributions by Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Wesley Jefferson, Pat Thomas, Terry "Big T" Williams, Bill Abel, The Mississippi Marvel and Terry "Harmonica" Bean.

Here's a previously unreleased song (courtesy of Mr. Konkel) that will be included on the upcoming collection from Terry "Harmonica" Bean, called "Pretty Baby."





Pat Thomas

I’m also planning to reissue our debut CD, Back to Bentonia by Jimmy “Duck” Holmes next spring. This remastered version will feature new artwork, new liner notes and several unreleased cuts from the session.


Additionally, we’re hoping to finalize a project for Three Forks Music, the new cooperative organization that reunites the labels responsible for M For Mississippi: Broke & Hungry Records, Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art and Mudpuppy Recordings.

What are your top ten indispensable recordings?

Tough question. Ask me tomorrow and you’re likely to get an entirely different bunch of records, but here are some of my favorite postwar blues records (in no particular order):


- Fred McDowell – First Recordings (Rounder Records)


- Lightnin’ Hopkins – Lightnin’ And The Blues: The Herald Sessions (Buddha Records)


- Furry Lewis, Bukka White & Friends – Party! At Home (Arcola Records)


- Cedell Davis – When Lightnin’ Struck The Pine (Fast Horse Records)


- David “Honeyboy” Edwards – I’ve Been Around (Trix Records/Savoy Record)


- Various Artists – I Have To Paint My Face: Mississippi Blues – 1960 (Arhoolie Records)


- Junior Kimbrough – Most Things Haven’t Worked Out (Fat Possum Records)


- Jack Owens – It Must Have Been The Devil (Testament Records)


- Big Joe Williams – Shake Your Boogie (Arhoolie Records)


- Lonnie Pitchford – All Around Man (Rooster Blues Records)

The Broke & Hungry Records Catalog



Jimmy “Duck” Holmes – Back To Bentonia




Odell Harris – Searching for Odell Harris




Terry “Big T” Williams & Wesley “Junebug” Jefferson – Meet Me in the Cotton Field




Jimmy “Duck” Holmes – Done Got Tired of Tryin’




The Mississippi Marvel – The World Must Never Know




Pat Thomas – His Father’s Son




Jimmy “Duck” Holmes – Ain’t It Lonesome


  


M for Mississippi - A Road Trip Through The Birthplace of The Blues (DVD & 2 CDs) – a collaboration between Broke & Hungry, Cat Head, and Mudpuppy)


To see FBF's post from April on M For Mississippi (and an interview with Roger Stolle, go here.)