Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Delta Blues

Some people when they hear the words ‘Rough Guide’ perhaps think of travelogues. In addition to books, however, the company also produces and distributes sonic tour guides. Working with the World Music Network recording label, that is, Rough Guide’s CD division compiles collections of songs that are particular to a specific geographical region, to introduce travelers to the types of music they’ll find when they reach their destination spots. One of the latest releases in this series, The Rough Guide to Delta Blues, narrows in on the agrarian Deep South and its most important musical legacy.

Encompassing parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi, the Delta is a stretch of land that runs along both sides of the Mississippi River and it begins, as William Faulkner once said, “in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg.” Whenever the river floods, it enriches the Delta’s soil with silt, a phenomena that has made this area the home of ‘King Cotton’ for centuries. Lore has it that before Emancipation, the region’s slaves distracted themselves from the injustice and monotony of their situation by singing work songs and spirituals. Despite the Confederacy’s defeat in 1865, however, many remained bound to the land. Obliged to work long hours for miniscule pay, the need for distraction continued, and thus the custom of singing simple, chorus-heavy songs persevered, as well. In the late 19th century, however, innovative performers like Leadbelly and W.C. Handy added dance rhythms to the music and secularized its lyrics. This new style, which spread throughout the region quickly, eventually came to be known as ‘blues’, in part because of the exposure the word received when the sheet music for W.C. Handy’s hit “Memphis Blues” was published in 1912.

Traditionally, a lone player singing over an acoustic guitar characterizes Delta blues. Most of the music collected for this album, accordingly, showcases this technique, offering up songs performed by legendary ‘country’ bluesmen like Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Skip James and Son House. Arguably the most stunning example in the compilation is Mississippi John Hurt’s “Stack O’Lee Blues”. (This title, incidentally, might be a misspelling. The song is usually referred to as “Stagolee”, a derivation of “Stagger Lee”, the name belonging to a famous New Orleans murderer.) After an opening series of plucked notes, Hurt’s wistful voice materializes and he purrs, “Police officer, how can it be / You can arrest everybody / But cruel Stagolee?” The stanzas that follow describe the killer’s misdeeds, the misery he brings to people and eventually his execution. But as violent as these lyrics are, the music stays calm and elegiac; and this pairing of murder and tenderness — strange as it may seem — surrounds the ‘Stag’ character with tragic dignity.

Mississippi blues, though, utilizes instruments other than acoustic guitar. In the mid-’50s, for instance, the influence of Les Paul and Memphis rock ‘n’ roll led to the electric guitar’s introduction into the Delta sound. Around this time, as well, lots of blues clubs, or juke joints, were opening in the region’s towns and hamlets. These joints gave the performers regular audiences, as well as amplifiers and speakers, and within a decade, the popularity of electrified ‘gutbucket’ blues had been established. Unfortunately, only two of the 24 tracks on this album spotlight this technique: Junior Kimbrough’s “Meet Me in the City” and Asie Payton’s “Goin’ Back to the Bridge”. Both of these songs, by the way, as new as they sound in contrast to the ones that appear before and after them, borrow the plucking styles of their forbears. The notes in these fast-moving sequences, however, tend to reverberate and imbue each track with a harmonic richness the earlier forms lack.

The album includes other ‘sub-styles’, as well. Alfred Lewis’ manic “Mississippi Swamp Moan”, for example, is a harmonica piece. And on “On the Wall”, while singer Louise Johnson sends out loaded lines like “You can snap it / You can bang it / On the wall”, a melancholy rag pours out of a pumping piano. There’s also an early ‘string band’ number, the Mississippi Sheiks’ “Sitting on top of the World”. Featuring a fiddle, a bass and a guitar, the song creeps along like a dirge as the singer ironically explains his key to happiness: “Now when I’m dead and in my grave / Then no more women will I crave / ‘Cause I’ll be gone / You needn’t worry / I’m still on top of the world”.

With informative liner notes, fairly clean mixes and outstanding selections, The Rough Guide to Delta Blues manages to cover a century’s worth of music without sounding rushed or incomplete. And because of the producers’ decisions to include the famous and the forgotten, the well-known and the obscure, this fine compilation should delight newcomers, long-time devotees and, of course, the album’s original target audience, those curious travelers who want to learn as much as they can about the blues before they hit the road and head down south for Dixie.