Sleepy John Estes: The Legend Of Sleepy John Estes auf CD

For this album, John has recorded several tunes from previous sessions, including his first date with Hammie Nixon in 1934: The new version of Milk Cow Blues is somewhat different from both the Victor version and the later Kokomo Arnold variant. Diving Duck, also recorded for Victor was John's first hit, it was later recorded for the Library of Congress Folksong Archives by Jelly Roll Morton. Death Valley is a variant of a tune by Big Boy Crudup. Someday Baby is known to a more recent generation through the Big Maceo and Muddy Waters versions. Drop Down Mama has also been recorded My Mama Don't Allow Me to Boogie Woogie All Night Long by Big Joe Williams and Big Boy Crudup, and Boogie Chillin' by John Lee Hooker. Stop That Thing is a pleasant romp with medicine-show overtones. Married Woman Blues sounds more modern here than its 1934 origin would indicate Who's Been Tellin' You is notable for its folk humored flavor. Down South Blues reeks of the poverty that has continued for both Black and poor Whites in the South despite changes for the better in the national economy since 1934. I'd Been Well-Warned is a comparatively recent Estes original that springs from his own experience, and the spiritual-based melody line bespeaks a neo-religious philosophy. You Got To Go disproves the theory that blues must concern themselves almost exclusively with the love / sex theme. Its patriotic but definitely anti-war lyric is peculiarly effective, lacking the histrionics of some of the "arty" anti-war tunes. Rats In My Kitchen has already touched hundreds with its laughing-just-to keep-from-crying message from poverty. It is our favorite and proves that John Estes, at 58, is still at the peak of his creative powers. (Bob Koester, 1962)