The rough guide to delta blues : reborn and remastered

"Rather than merely eulogising the mythology of the blues, this compilation is all about celebrating the quality of the music captured in these recordings - treated to exemplary remastering, vintage cuts like Tommy Johnson's 1928 "Bye Bye Blues" are rendered startlingly new, with nary a snap, crackle or pop to be heard. A handful of acknowledged classics are positioned alongside artists who may be more obscure, but equally worthy of attention. Skip James' otherworldly "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" retains its power to freeze both blood and time, whilst the blues fiddle employed by The Mississippi Sheiks, as on this collection's "The World Gone Wrong", is one of the most thrillingly distinctive sounds in the genre ... There's a real art to sequencing a multi-artist compilation such as this, and Neil Record has excelled himself".