Statesboro Blues - Collected Recordings 1927-1950

Acrobat has devoted a number of collections to the blues guitarists and singers who represent what is known as the Piedmont school of blues – artists whose roots were in the region surrounding Atlanta, Georgia, and developed a distinctive style of blues during the late 1920s and through the ‘30s, the best-known names including Blind Blake, Barbecue Bob, Curley Weaver, Josh White, Blind Boy Fuller and Buddy Moss. Blind Willie McTell was one of the most prominent of that coterie of performers, and one of the best-known in later years. He had a highly distinctive style, with a fluid fingerstyle technique, playing music that incorporated ragtime, jug band and hokum influences and chord sequences that differentiated it from pure blues more typical of the Delta. This 48-track 2-CD collection comprises a significant proportion of his releases during this era on the Victor, Okeh, Columbia, Bluebird, Vocalion, Decca, Atlantic and Regal labels. It features recordings with his sister Kate McTell and with singer Ruby Glaze, and releases under the names Blind Sammie, Georgia Bill and Barrelhouse Sammy, and with Curley Weaver as The Pig ‘n’ Whistle Band. He is also accompanied by Curley Weaver on second guitar on a number of the recordings. He was a highly individual and stylish performer, with a very extrovert and entertaining approach, and this collection is an enjoyable showcase for his very particular contribution to the Piedmont blues tradition.