Alabama Black Complete Recorded 2 CD

Alabama: Black Country Dance Bands (1924-1949) collects the recorded work of Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe, Bogus Blind Ben Covington, and the Mobile Strugglers, together constituting a mixed bag of primarily vaudeville and dance-oriented pieces. Daddy Stovepipe's eight sides with wife Mississippi Sarah are among the best jug band breakdowns on record, encompassing themes from the Bible to the Depression in consistently magnificent style. In "Burleskin' Blues" and the glorious "The Spasm," Sarah and Stovepipe are at their liveliest, funniest, and raunchiest, swapping insults and threats, Stovepipe rapping his rhymes against the pounding rhythm of his wife's jug, and Sarah wailing her blues to her husband's screaming harmonica. Bogus Blind Ben Covington ("Bogus" because he wasn't actually blind) was probably a pseudonym for Ben Curry, a banjo player and medicine show entertainer whose repertoire consisted of such comic pieces as "I Heard the Voice of a Pork Chop." His performances are typically less captivating than those of Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe but are at times very amusing and always valuable as provocative glimpses into the songster tradition. The two tracks by the Mobile Strugglers, recorded over ten years after the last pieces by either Covington or Stovepipe, conclude the collection with an unusually gritty string-band style. The duets by Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe, along with the six minutes of the Mobile Strugglers, represent some of the most thrilling sounds to come out of the period, or out of the state, whose contributions to early blues and country music are generally overlooked. Recommended, with high spots including the lead vocal and mandolin/violin backup on the Strugglers' "Fattenin' Frogs" and Mississippi Sarah's spoken protest that "I've got too many men to have any sense".

1. Daddy Stovepipe (Johnny Watson) - Sundown Blues 2. Daddy Stovepipe (Johnny Watson) - Stove Pipe Blues 3. Whistlin' Pete and Daddy Stovepipe - Black Snake Blues 4. Whistlin' Pete and Daddy Stovepipe - Tuxedo Blues 5. Bogus Ben Covington (Prob. Ben Curry) - Adam and Eve in the Garden 6. Bogus Ben Covington (Prob. Ben Curry) - I Heard the Voice of a Pork Chop 7. Bogus Ben Covington (Prob. Ben Curry) - Boodle-De-Bum Blues 8. Bogus Ben Covington (Prob. Ben Curry) - It's a Fight Like That 9. Ben Curry - Boodle de Bum Bum 10. Ben Curry - the New Dirty Dozen 11. Ben Curry - Fat Mouth Blues 12. Ben Curry - You Rascal You 13. Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe - Burleskin' Blues 14. Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe - Greenville Strut 15. Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe - Read You're A.B.C's 16. Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe - Do You Love Him? 17. Daddy Stovepipe and Mississippi Sarah - Strewin' It Out 18. Daddy Stovepipe and Mississippi Sarah - the Spasm 19. Daddy Stovepipe and Mississippi Sarah - 35 Depression 20. Daddy Stovepipe and Mississippi Sarah - If You Want Me, Baby 21. Mobile Strugglers - Memphis Blues 22. Mobile Strugglers - Fattenin' Frogs