Country Blues

In the early 20th century, when blues was a rural Southern phenomenon, it was an acoustic development, the genre's groundbreakers making do with unamplified guitars, pianos, and harmonicas to entertain at local functions and on their recordings. Charlie Patton, Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Robert Johnson were among the country blues vanguard, and their astonishing recordings are here for you to enjoy.

Each region of the southern U.S. had its own identifiable blues sound during the pre-war era. Mississippi Delta blues was quite distinct from Piedmont blues or Texas blues, and the more urban blues artists absorbed jazz and pop influences, forging unique hybrids of their own.

Despite the ravaging effects of the Great Depression on the fledgling record industry, the few labels then extant captured a great many bone-chilling country-blues performers on wax — a prescient move, indeed, as we continue to enjoy their work all these years later.

Country blues is the birth of the blues. The music — with its dark poetry, moaning vocals, and virtuosic guitar work — of artists like Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell hasn't lost any of its haunting power. Fact is, it still resonates through almost every form of contemporary music. These 75 recordings give a sense of the stark beauty and timeless fascination of the primal blues sound.