San Francisco Bay Blues: The Jesse Fuller Collection 1954-61

Jesse Fuller was an extraordinary and unique blues and folk performer, born in Georgia in 1896, who was an itinerant worker and performer until settled in Oakland, California in 1929. He was an accomplished guitarist but had never made a living as a musician, working on railroads and in shipyards and steelworks through to the 1950s. He became a highly individual street performer, equipping himself as a one-man-band by playing a harmonica and kazoo slung round his neck plus a hand-built pedal operated bass he called a ‘fotdella’, and called himself “The Lone Cat”. He made his first recordings in 1954 for the small, family-run World Song label, which included what would become his most famous composition “San Francisco Bay Blues”, which has since been performed and recorded by dozens of artists, notably Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney. This great-value 43-track 2-CD set comprises just about all of the songs he recorded and which were released during this era on the albums “Working On The Railroad” for World Song, “Frisco Bound!” on the Cavalier label, and “Jazz, Folk Songs, Spirituals & Blues” and “Sings And Plays Jazz, Folk Songs, Spirituals & Blues” for Good Time Jazz, plus a single for Good Time Jazz. It’s a marvellous showcase for his remarkable talent as a musician, songwriter performer and raconteur who proved highly influential on later luminaries both within and beyond the blues spectrum.