Putumayo Presents: Mississippi Blues

1	Part Time Love / Luther Allison 2:44
2	Come on in This House / Junior Wells 5:53
3	Mean Ol' Frisco / Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup 2:34
4	The More You Lie to Me / Artie "Blues Boy" White 3:36
5	3 O'Clock in the Morning Blues / Ike & Tina Turner 2:39
6	St. James Infirmary / Bobby "Blue" Bland 2:23
7	Make Me a Pallet on the Floor / Mississippi John Hurt 4:32
8	Come on in My Kitchen / Chris Thomas King 4:23
9	Baby Don't Do Me Wrong / John Lee Hooker 5:02
10	I Got to Make a Change Blues / Memphis Minnie 2:56
11	Stewball / Memphis Slim 3:34

Barnes & Noble

Winding from Memphis through the Delta down to New Orleans, Mississippi Blues catches John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, Bobby Blue Bland, and a school of other big blues fish in their prime. The compilation of 11 artists is better than a primer, because the tunes aren’t signature songs. Wells uses his sultry harmonica and falsetto vocals to seduce his woman with “Come On in This House,” Bland bemoans life in the “St. James Infirmary,” and Tina Turner delivers a lowdown version of “3 O’Clock in the Morning Blues.” In the folk vein are Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “Mean Ol’ Frisco,” Memphis Minnie’s “Stewball,” and Mississippi John Hurt’s “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor.” The Hooker contribution is a mesmerizing “Baby Don’t Do Me Wrong.” Drawn from the younger generation of blues players are Chris Thomas King’s “Come On in My Kitchen” and soul blues singer Artie White’s “The More You Lie to Me.” Stretching from the ‘60s through the ‘90s, Mississippi Blues is a cruise through one of America’s most vibrant cultural landscapes. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

More than Chicago, its electric home, or Detroit and Memphis, where it morphed into modern soul, Mississippi is the blues. But, like every musical form, the blues have evolved since the days Charley Patton lived on Dockery's Plantation and played house dances and juke joints around Clarksdale. And that very evolution is going to make any collection called Mississippi Blues problematic. To many, Mississippi is associated with the acoustic Delta blues. To a younger generation, it's the raw electric artists of Mississippi hill country who appear on the Fat Possum label (and who are essentially unrepresented here). To be fair, the compilers do their best in a thankless job. From the early generation, listeners get Memphis Minnie, Memphis Slim, and Mississippi John Hurt (notably a cut from his '60s rediscovery). Slightly later come Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup -- one of Elvis Presley's inspirations, with his big, laid-back voice -- some relatively early Ike & Tina Turner, John Lee Hooker (an odd choice; although his roots were in Clarksdale, his work didn't begin until he was up north in Detroit), and the wonderful Bobby "Blue" Bland, with a take on the classic "St. James Infirmary." There is one young inclusion, happily, in the rising Chris Thomas King. But where's Muddy Waters, whose first work was recorded down in the Delta in the early '40s? Where are Robert Johnson and Charley Patton, whose styles epitomize and define early blues? Where's Junior Kimbrough or R.L. Burnside? This is a fair collection which tries to bill itself as "a musical journey down the Mississippi River," but with just 11 tracks, it can't touch on nearly enough. Chris Nickson

Blues Revue

"Like many of the label's collections, this one serves as an excellent genre introduction."