Various Artists, "Hear my back door slam"

/ ARTIST: Various Artists / TITLE: "Hear my back door slam" / GENRÉ: Blues / LABEL: Bakhåll / FORMAT: CD /

Before I start writing this review I must come clean, I like blues, but it's one of the many genrés of music I like that I know the least of, being a newcomer to the genré. Something which can only be blamed on the Eslöv City blues festival that has sparked an interest in the genré for me.

To me and all newcomers, this is a wonderful compilation put out by a Swedish record label called "Bakhåll" and I couldn't resist buying it, not only cos I want to support the scene in Sweden and the fact that it was ridiculously cheap, it cost me about €5, no, cos what you get here is the perfect introduction to the genré.

On this little darling, you get 20 of the best known American blues singers doing some of their best numbers. BB King, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, they're all here. Then add the fact that you get a good little brochure with facts about the performers that is highly welcomed for people like me, people who consider starting a blues record collection. The brochure is in Swedish, though, which might make it less usable for non-Swedes.

Why should one buy a compilation of blues then? You get a load of different styles of blues, some with bands and some just an acoustic guitar on them, "but doesn't all blues tunes sound the same?", my punk and skinhead mates ask me. No, they don't, they all bring the performers soul into the music which make every number stand out. Even if you're not a blues die-hard, you should respect the legacy of the genré. Most tunes on this compilation comes from the 50's and sure, not much groundbreaking has been done since then, but blues has gone on, through r&b, to influence everything from rockabilly over the mod music of the 60's to punk. There's a straight lineage of influence from that time till the present.

As I said, this record makes one want to start a collection of blues vinyl. Every tune on this album is a killer! The tunes, apart from those of the superstars of the genré that stand out are the tunes of JB Lenoir and Jimmy Reed, both of whom I'll check out more stuff by.

I really liked this compilations and it get a bloomin 96,7% in rate of satisfaction

Various Artists, "The stuff that dreams are made of"

This two disc compilation features rare collectibles in cajun, country, blues and pre-bluegrass, vinyl now made available on cd.

Lately, I've grown to appreciate old American folk tremendously. Sure, I like a lot of modern stuff too, but theese old records from the 20's and 30's have a quality to them like movies from that age shares as well. Just as laurel and Hardy still make you chuckle in a sense Adam Sandler won't in just ten years, theese skilled musicians (among them my fave, Dock Boggs) knock out quality tunes that makes you want to put on your dancing shoes.

There's a lot of blues on this compilation and I for one ain't all that keen on blues, sure, I can listen to it and enjoy it, it's just that I don't enjoy it as much as other genres of American folk.

There's a few instrumental tunes on the discs, as well as quite a few with singing to them and they all have that old record feel to them, none of the tunes have been processed with equaliser, the background, old vinyl, dust sound is all there.

Musically, the tunes are well more diverse than today's format. You get piano and trumpets on some tunes, instruments that are not too common on today's folk recordings.

Lyrically, you get a lot of innocense too. Country had, back in those days, often a humorous side to it that more modern country tunes (with perhaps the exception of Johnny Cash's Boy named Sue) lack. Wilmer Watts and the lonely eagles has a very funny tune on this one, that is Fightin' in the war with Spain.

The only things that I hold against this record is that there's not enough Cajun tunes, there's too much blues and that one of the tunes, Chicken don't roost too high, by The Georgia Pot Lickers, could be interpreted as a racist tune, which might have been acceptable in the 20's, but not now and even if it is a collectible, it shouldn't have been included on a record with musicians what own that much to African American traditions.

This means that this compilation is, in other words, not perfect, but pretty close. I give it 95,8% in level of satisfaction.