Post Description

Robert Pete Williams, who died on December 31, 1980, in Rosedale, Louisiana, was one of the South's great deep bluesmen. This Fat Possum reissue of field recordings -- the crowing chicken and passing train in the background testify to the literalness of that phrase -- is more than a welcome reminder of the power and passion Williams brought to his music. It is also the finest recording, artistically and acoustically, released under his name. Though the titles are largely familiar from the folk-blues canon -- "Farm Blues," "Matchbox Blues," "Railroad Blues" -- they have little in common with the songs ordinarily associated with those names. Backed only by acoustic or electric guitar, sometimes with slide, Williams improvises original lyrics and incorporates traditional ones into a distinctly personal, roughhewn storytelling style. There is not, it must be said, a lot of melodic variation here, but Williams's intense, no-prisoners approach overwhelms and moves the listener. It's hard to imagine a more wrenching, touching tribute to another bluesman than "Goodbye, Slim Harpo." One of the most compelling blues recordings I've ever heard, it elevates Williams into the ranks of such seminal deep-blues figures as Howlin' Wolf and Mississippi Fred McDowell. One complaint, however: the liner notes are barely more than useless. Dated February 1971, they leave the impression that Williams is still with us, and worse, they tell us little, failing even to note the remarkable parallels between Williams's life as murderer-freed-to-sing and that of another towering figure in Louisiana folk music, Lead Belly.


   1. Farm Blues  
   2. Goodbye Slim Harpo  
   3. Rub Me Until My Love Comes Down 
   4. Freight Train Blues   
   5. Got Me Way Down Here  
   6. Matchbox Blues  
   7. Railroad Blues   
   8. Tombstone Blues  
   9. Sweep My Floor   
 10. You Used To Be A Sweet Cover Shaker But You Ain't No More  
 11. Vietnam Blues

heel veel luister plezier ermee.