American Primitive, Vol. II: Pre-War Revenants (1897-1939)

here is the NFO file from Indietorrents

Lend a hand, leave your BitTorrent downloads open as long as possible, even after it is complete. It will help everyone’s downloads go faster and give you a good ratio. Thank you!

Interested in indie music? Join us at #indie.torrents on EFnet (IRC).

#indie.torrents tracker: http://www.indietorrents.com

Please support indie artists and labels. Buy this release or see a live performance if you enjoy it.

*—#indie.torrents release—*

Artist: Various

Album: American Primitive, Vol. II: Pre-War Revenants (1897-1939)

Label: Revenant

Year: 1926

Genre: Blues/Folk

RIAA Radar Status: safe

Encoder: iTunes

Codec: iTunes mp3

Avg Bit Rate: 192 kbps

Posted by: bearbitch

Description / Review:

————————

from pitchfork (rating 8.6):

American Primitive Vol. II covers two discs, and its 50 songs are united only by the fact that these songs are so obscure even maniacal folk compilers like Harry Smith or Alan Lomax (one exception: 78 collector and Fonotone founder Joe Bussard) missed them the first time through. The relic quality comes through in the static crackles and transfer hiss that blanket songs cut into literal wax, stamped on shellac, neglected for years, and finally brought to CD: There is, ultimately, a lot of noise to cut through before the ghosts and the haunted end up in the same room.

Released on John Fahey’s Revenant label (his final work as a curator), it’s easy to see how fully this was his project: Bayless Rose, an artist with only four vinyl sides to show for his existence, is as post- as he is pre-Fahey’s ragged precision ramble. At the same time, the pathos that went subliminal in many of Fahey’s later requia often finds an earlier vocalization in these tracks. Henry Spaulding, another guitar guy, puts it on “Cairo Blues” like this– “Women will treat you kind and sweet/ Kick and knife you, beat you and cut you, too.” Though the mournful stuff punches guts (Mattie May Thomas’ “Workhouse Blues” begins: “A made up song, just about being in prison, alone”), it’s equally weird and complicated– particularly in the figure of the Nugrape Twins. Of their two songs, one’s a tired hymn (“Let the Jesus gently guide me”), the other a hymnal ad for “Ice Cold Nugrape”, a pop jingle 80 years old. Don’t get too certain yet; not with kazoo-led free hick-jazz combo the Salty Dog Four playing spoiler.

American Primitive breathes today though because of its New Year’s resolution music, a bottomless and vengeful recounting of bloody mistakes and never-agains. Two deep-reaching hollerers run this game: The unfathomably sad Elvie Thomas and the incredibly violent Geeshie Wiley. While Elvie’s “Motherless Child Blues” obsesses on the past like “My mother told me just before she died/ O daughter daughter please don’t be like me/ To fall in love with every man you see,” Geeshie’s in the middle of making her mistakes: “I’m gonna cut your throat baby, I’ll look down in your face/ Gonna let some lonesome graveyard be your resting place.” American Primitive’s best songs are simply dangerous, in matters of faith (Homer Quincy Smith’s “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me”) and fucking around (Wiley and Thomas: “Ashes to ashes, sand to sand/ Every married woman got a backdoor man”); murder, too. Righting wrongs is just another kind of confession.

Track Listing

—————-

1/50] I Want Jesus To Talk With Me (Homer Qunicy Smith) (2:51)

2/50] Deal Rag (Walter Taylor) (2:51)

3/50] Motherless Child Blues (Elvie Thomas) (3:21)

4/50] Big Bed Bug (Bed Bug Blues) (Tommy Settlers And His Blues Moaner) (2:37)

5/50] I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape (Nugrape Twins) (2:55)

6/50] Molly Man ((Red Hot) Old Mose) (3:08)

7/50] Black Dog Blues (Bayless Rose) (3:09)

8/50] Workhouse Blues (Mattie May Thomas) (2:00)

9/50] Bo-Lita (Kid Brown And His Blues Band) (2:42)

10/50] My Mama Always Talked To Me (John Hammond) (2:30)

11/50] Ballin’ The Jack (The Salty Dog Four) (3:06)

12/50] Friday Moan Blues (Alfred Lewis) (3:15)

13/50] Pick Poor Robin Clean (Geeshie Wiley) (3:14)

14/50] It’s Cold In China Blues (The Mississippi Moaner) (2:50)

15/50] Black Sheep Blues (Pigmeat Terry) (3:08)

16/50] Old Hen Cackle (Two Poor Boys) (2:43)

17/50] Frisco Blues (Bayless Rose) (3:08)

18/50] Hot Time Blues (William Harris) (2:56)

19/50] Take A Look At That Baby (Two Poor Boys) (3:17)

20/50] Skinny Leg Blues (Geeshie Wiley) (3:13)

21/50] Little Birdie (John Hammond) (2:47)

22/50] Little Girl In Rome (Otto Virgial) (2:37)

23/50] Dangerous Blues (Mattie May Thomas) (1:35)

24/50] Mean Low Blues (Blues Birdhead) (3:14)

25/50] Be My Kid Blues (Elizabeth Johnson) (3:02)

1/50] Last Kind Word Blues (Geeshie Wiley) (3:02)

2/50] Poor Mourner (Cousins & DeMoss) (1:59)

3/50] Jamestown Exhibition (Bayless Rose) (2:48)

4/50] There’s A City Built Of Mansions (Nugrape Twins) (2:58)

5/50] Cairo Blues (Henry Spaulding) (2:40)

6/50] Two White Horses In A Line (Two Poor Boys) (2:51)

7/50] Shrimp Man ((Red Hot) Old Mose) (2:54)

8/50] Don’t Mistreat Your Good Boyfriend (The Bubbling Over Five) (3:17)

9/50] Bull Frog Blues (William Harris) (3:10)

10/50] Purty Polly (John Hammond) (3:08)

11/50] Go Down Moses (Homer Quincy Smith) (3:05)

12/50] Over To My House (Wiley And Thomas) (3:28)

13/50] Shaking Weed Blues (Tommy Settlers And His Blues Moaner) (2:42)

14/50] Big Mac From Macamere (Mattie May Thomas) (2:38)

15/50] Moaning The Blues (Pigmeat Terry) (2:50)

16/50] Original Blues (Bayless Rose) (2:46)

17/50] John Henry Blues (Take 3) (Two Poor Boys) (2:46)

18/50] Sobbin’ Woman Blues (Elizabeth Johnson) (3:18)

19/50] Bad Notion Blues (Otto Virgial) (2:43)

20/50] Eagles On A Half (Geeshie Wiley) (3:04)

21/50] Mississippi Swamp Moan (Alfred Lewis) (3:17)

22/50] Red Cross The Disciple Of Christ Today (Moses Mason) (3:10)

23/50] Kansas City Blues (William Harris) (3:03)

24/50] As Free As A Bird Can Be (John Hammond) (2:32)

25/50] No Mo’ Freedom (Mattie May Thomas) (0:51)

Total number of files: 50

Total playing time: 2:23:09

Generated: Friday, December 13, 2013 at 7:12:49 PM