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Music CD - Son House: The Original Delta Blues
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Music CD: The Original Delta Blues
Artist: Son House
List Price: $9.98
Our Price: $6.44
Your Save: $ 3.54 ( 35% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Sony
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Tracks:
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1. Death Letter
2. Pearline
3. Louise McHee
4. John The Revelator
5. Empire State Express
6. Preachin' Blues
7. Grinnin' In Your Face
8. Sundown
9. Levee Camp Moan
10. Pony Blues
11. Downhearted Blues
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0074646551523
Label: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: 1998-06-30
Studio: Sony
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: the orignal delta blues /son house
Comment: this cd is classic delta blues i feel honored to be able to receive this quality of music john m king thanks for having such great music
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Comment: If you wanna' know where it started, if you wanna' learn to play slide, if you wanna' get chills and fee like you're on a front porch in the delta, get this one...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Early master of the blues
Comment: Son House is an early blues singer, who, along with Charlie Patton and Willie Brown, in the words of the liner notes, "helped to shape the music of three younger men who would far exceed their fame"--Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters. The musical progeny of House and his colleagues alone testifies to their significance.
The songs on this CD were recorded long after he had ceased making singing a career. He was in his 60s when these tracks were recorded in 1965. Even at that, the results speak to a master bluesman.
In "Death Letter," he shows a lively acoustic guitar style, well played. Although past his vocal prime, he sings this tune well. One nice line:
"You know it's so hard to love someone
Who don't love you."
"John the Revelator" is a song with religious themes. It is voice only, with only his clapping serving as any sort of instrumentation. The vocalizations are compelling. One recurring set of lines:
"Tell me who's that writin'?
John the Revelator
Wrote the book of the seven seals."
"Empire State Express" features Al Wilson on guitar backing House on vocals and guitar. This is a lively tune. The song focuses on his baby being on board a train, and all that goes with that. Nice blues tune!
So, here is a CD with rather few songs on it, but it is still a nice entrée to the work of Son House.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Mississipi blues by the master
Comment: When the Mississippi blues giant, Eddie 'Son' House was rediscovered in 1964 he was 62 years old and had given up music some 16 years previously. Practice soon restored much of his original mastery and he was signed up the following year by John Hammond for a Columbia Records session. The LP that emerged comprised the first nine of these tracks, and represented a powerful come-back, with stand-out numbers 'Death Letter', 'Empire State Express', and 'Levee Camp Moan', as well as the unaccompanied 'John The Revelator'.
In 1992 a double CD was released, with the original nine tracks supplemented by an additional seven unreleased titles as well as five alternate takes. But what should have been an occasion for celebration turned out to be disappointing in the extreme. The new material was a pale shadow of that previously issued, and many critics thought it would have been better left in the vaults.
The present single CD includes just five of the originally unreleased titles, and so offers some kind of compromise, with the worst of the 'new' material being omitted. Of that retained, perhaps 'Pony Blues' disappoints the most. The delivery is extremely hesitant and stumbling, in direct contrast to Son's superb 1942 recording of this classic that he learned from his old friend Charley Patton. 'Motherless Children' suffers in the same way, and Son coughs and wheezes his way through a depressing version of 'Downhearted Blues'. Only 'President Kennedy', to the same melody as his 1942 'American Defense', and 'Yonder Comes My Mother' with, presumably, the added guitar of Al Wilson, in any way compare with the quality and power of the first nine tracks which more than justify the purchase of this mid-price CD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Review of this CD by a non-Blues-fan.
Comment: I say I'm not a Blues fan because I'm not. I don't consider myself a fan of any particular style or genre of music because the overwhelming majority of artists representing the different genres are, in my opinion, totally dispensable and not at all interesting or compelling. I pick and choose like a connissuer among all of the artists the music world has and has had to offer.
With that said, I must share my thoughts on this Son House CD. For years I was waiting to hear "GREAT Blues" but never came across it until I discovered Robert Johnson's Complete Recordings and THIS SON HOUSE ALBUM, The Original Delta Blues.
I had gotten into Robert Johnson at first, and as accessible as I considered him to be (to people new to blues music like I was at the time) I think I consider Son House on this particular album to be even MORE accessible.
A little background info on the man: Son House was one of the old-time blues players from the late '20s and the '30s, and, famously, had taught the immortal (well at least more famous) Robert Johnson how to play the blues. He recorded three double-sided singles in 1930 and toured throughout the '30s. His next recordings weren't until 1941 when blues archivist Alan Lomax came by and recorded Son House with a small band on, I believe, the second story of a mom-and-pop store (providing the necessary electricity) near Lake Cormorant, Mississippi. They cut 6 songs there. Lomax returned the following year and recorded Son House -- this time solo -- playing 7 more songs and another song in two parts... And that was it for Son House until THIS ALBUM, The Original Delta Blues, was recorded in 3 days in mid-April 1965, in New York City, during the "blues revival" that was happening then.
Now, about this album: Rather than being a "past-his-prime" thing, Son House DOES sound better than ever, and I'm apparently not the only one who has this opinion.
I have the collection A Proper Introduction to Son House put out in 2004 by Proper Records, as it's the best CD to get if you want, like I wanted, virtually all of Son House's older material (the three double-sided singles from 1930, 6 songs from 1941 and 9 tracks from 1942)... I understand there may be a few more tracks from those times that were recorded, but I haven't seen them on CDs anywhere... in any case, while I am glad to have that collection, I find I still enjoy The Original Delta Blues -- featuring a much older Son House singing and playing his unique steel-stringed guitar -- a great deal more than I do the compilation of his older material. He had a stronger voice back then but, to my ears and sensibilities, it can't compare with the grief-stricken voice of old man Son House.
"Death Letter" and "Preachin' Blues", as found here especially, are certainly clasics.
"Sundown" and the musically/lyrically related "Downhearted Blues" I also like a lot.
"Pearline" and "Louise Mcghee" are more touching, sad tunes about women.
The a cappela "Grinnin' In Your Face" is another GREAT track. (Another a capella track, "John The Revelator", despite its gospel/religious implications which disagree with me, is still catchy.)
And the remaining tracks on this 11-song collection I like less but are still okay.
So that's what I think about this CD.
p.s. I have a hope that, with the help of Son House fans The White Stripes and other modern, popular acts who sing the praises of the man, more young people (especially the teenagers today) will discover Son House for themselves and hear something worth listening to... I hope that with Son House's help more kids can become more sensitive & thoughtful & sympathetic to human distress everywhere. As T.S. Eliot has written, "Youth is cruel and has no remorse / And smiles at situations it cannot see," and yet there is always room for maturity to be introduced in the hearts & minds of the hyper-modern, fast-living young people of today.
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Editorial Reviews:
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This Columbia Legacy reissue of the 1965 release is one of the few recordings available of one of the blues' founding fathers. It contains some of his best songs, which have unsurprisingly become classics of the Delta blues genre: "Death Letter," "Preachin' Blues," "Levee Camp Moan," "Pony Blues," and "Downhearted Blues" are all here. Though not as comprehensive as Father of the Delta Blues: The Complete 1965 Sessions, this CD is an excellent introduction to this seminal artist's work, revealing the creativity, passion, skillful guitar playing, and rich singing that helped form a whole new kind of music. --Genevieve Williams
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