A collection of field recordings from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky made between 1924 and 1939, this disc has a sort of odds and ends feel, since nearly half the tracks are by unknown blues singers, and it's a shame that the archivists who made these recordings didn't preserve the names of the performers. There are styles other than blues here, though, including three stomping (but poorly recorded) gospel pieces by South Carolina's Hannah Bessillion, a group of Georgia field hands singing "Mary Don't You Weep" backed by a lone banjo, and a delightfully archaic claw hammer banjo version of "Little Old Cabin In the Lane" by Uncle John Scruggs of Virginia. Belton Reese of South Carolina also plays some nifty banjo on his two tracks, "Bile 'Em Cabbages Down" and "The McKenzie Case," which includes percussion by Thaddeus Goodson. As with all the entries in Document Records' field recordings series, the sound takes some getting used to, but the historical importance of the material makes it worth the effort. ~ Steve Leggett
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