The rough guide to the blues songsters : reborn and remastered

"This fine compilation certainly emphasises its content's bearing on blues, but does so to attract new listeners and to invite audiences to explore a little farther back. The 24 tracks, recorded between 1926 and 1935 (...), include several which became standards of the 1960s folk revival repertoire including Lead Belly's "Midnight Special", Mississippi John Hurt's "Frankie" and Furry Lewis' "John Henry" ... The cover strapline "reborn and remastered" is no idle boast, (...) the improvement in audio clarity is profound. Freed from their dusty scratch-and-crackle, these recordings sound, once again, like the works of living, breathing musicians ... Those who purchased last years Smithsonian Folkways "Classic African American Songsters" collection should note that there's no duplication of material between the two".

"Here's an outstanding compilation of remarkably clean-sounding 78s by two-dozen black or white songsters of the 1920s".