When the Sun Goes Down 1: Walk Right In
The first volume of this superb four-disc series, subtitledThe Secret History of Rock & Roll, expands on the conventional formula that blues plus country equals rock & roll. Drawing from the RCA Victor-Bluebird vaults, it offers 25 recordings (many of them seminal, all of them choice) that predate the urban blues explosion and inform the rock music that followed. The disc-opening "Catfish Blues" by Robert Petway became "Rolling Stone" onceMuddy Waterselectrified it, while "Baby, Please Don't Go"--initially recorded byBig Joe Williamswith only washboard and one-string fiddle for support--is a blues-rock staple. Other highlights extend fromLeadbelly's chain-gang chant "Ham an' Eggs" and folk standard "The Midnight Special" to the formative country of theCarter Family's "Worried Man Blues." Also noteworthy are an exquisite "Beale Street Blues," withAlberta Hunterbacked only byFats Walleron organ, and the operatic majesty ofPaul Robeson's "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." The sound quality is as superior as the selection, with digital technology eliminating the hisses and crackles so common in archival reissues, without any loss of fidelity.--Don McLeese