Recording Details

SFW40196
Classic Piano Blues from Smithsonian Folkways
Various Artists


Notes - Storyville nightclubs, Beale Street juke joints, gambling houses, barrelhouse bars in the lumber and turpentine camps of East Texas—these were the places African American piano bluesmen called home. Born of ragtime and hard times, the piano blues migrated with its players from the deep South to the urban North. Classic Piano Blues revisits raucous boogie-woogie and blues legends Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Champion Jack Dupree, Speckled Red, Meade "Lux" Lewis, Lead Belly, Little Brother Montgomery, Roosevelt Sykes, James P. Johnson, and more, in 20 tracks drawn from the well of the Folkways Collections. Extensive notes, 32-page booklet, 64 minutes.

Year of Release - 2008

Record Label - Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Source Archive - Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Credits - Compiled by Richard James Burgess ; Compiled by Jeff Place ; Liner Notes by Jeff Place ; Mastered by Pete Reiniger ; Design by Communication Visual




Tracks -
101 Dedication to Pete Johnson
Memphis Slim
Duration:3:12




102 Early in the Morning
Booker T. Laury
Duration:3:06




103 How Long Blues
Speckled Red
Duration:3:20




104 Yellow Dog Blues
James P. Johnson and Katherine Handy Lewis
Duration:2:56




105 Key to the Highway
Jazz Gillum, Memphis Slim
Duration:2:54




106 Medium Blues
Meade "Lux" Lewis
Duration:2:51




107 Black Wolf Blues
Champion Jack Dupree
Duration:2:57




108 Dices Blues
Big Chief Ellis
Duration:4:54




109 Big Fat Woman
Lead Belly
Duration:1:10




110 Harlem Parlor Blues
Sammy Price
Duration:2:51




111 Little Drops of Water
Henry Brown w/ Edith North Johnson
Duration:3:03




112 Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
Little Brother Montgomery
Duration:4:08




113 Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
Speckled Red
Duration:3:26




114 Wish Me Well
Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon
Duration:2:14




115 All My Money's Gone
Henry Townsend
Duration:2:53




116 You're My Man
Victoria Spivey
Duration:4:33




117 On My Way to See Moe Asch
Champion Jack Dupree
Duration:4:21




118 Sweet Old Chicago
Roosevelt Sykes
Duration:2:56




119 No Special Rider Blues
Little Brother Montgomery
Duration:3:29




120 Hesitation Blues
James P. Johnson
Duration:3:05