Not Now

Hooker John Lee: Anthology [3 CD]

The use of slide guitar techniques within blues music is usually taken as a given, although the genesis of the form is not the easiest to trace. It is widely agreed that the roots of slide guitar<br/>playing lie in Africa. There was also another probable route via the Hawaiian Islands, they developed their 'slack key' playing style and began to add the use of metal held along the fretboard. However the story is complicated by the famed composer W.C. Handy who reported witnessing a blues player at a train station using a knife blade along the strings as early as 1903. It's quite likely that all these scenarios fed into the mix, and by the later 1920s blues players were often using the style. Our collection covers a wide period of time from the late 1920s onwards, and features many well known names and highly influential songs.

Ma Rainey: Ma Rainey's black bottom 1924-29 [Digipack / 2 CD]

Best of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues [Digipack / 2 CD]

Many artists who began in the fifties are claimed to be amongst the most influential on those who followed them, and there can be little doubt that Odetta is predominant in the folk music field. Her case is made clearly by two music legends: Bob Dylan told Playboy: "The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers, Odetta Sings Ballads & Blues in a record store... Right then and there I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustic guitar, a flat-top Gibson. That album was something vital and personal. I learned all the songs on that record." Joan Baez put it more succinctly in a 1983 Rolling Stone interview, "Odetta was a goddess. Her passion moved me. I learned everything she sang."