Various Artists-The Blues Project (1964)

 

Artist: Various Artists: Dave Ray, Eric Von Schmidt, John Koerner, Geoff Muldaur, Dave Van Ronk, Ian Buchanan, Danny Kalb, Mark Spoelstra

Title: The Blues Project

Label: Elektra

Format: LP

Cat #: EKS-7264

Year of Release:  1964

Country and Year of Edition Issue: 1966 Repress, Gold & Tan large 'E'

Sold Price: $14.99

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 11/2/20

Discogs Last Sold: 6/26/18 $10.00 VG/VG

Low: $7.00

Median: $10.53

High: $40.00 M/M sealed

Current low price: $2.89 VG/G+, $4.00 VG+/VG+ cutout in corner of sleeve

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 9

Have/Want: 37/5

Where Sold: Leonard, MI

Time it took to sell: 5 years

Where and When Bought: mail order aughts 

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go?: Yes

The dated liner notes blow ones mind, using a quote saying by 1970 the only Blues worth hearing will be by white artists, since the blues medium is fraught with too much unpleasant past for Black artists.  The cut off point for any Black blues worth a damn is 1953, Chess, etc. be damned.  Paul Nelson, the 1964 editor of The Little Sandy Review in New York wholeheartedly agrees that only the white man can consider blues solely from an artistic point of view.  In Nelsons eyes Blues meant Folk, and Urban meant City: White & Collegiate.   He might hem and haw if he was still alive, but that is how 1964 reads in 2020.  Some might read other things, but academic justification and "serious" analysis of current culture is always a bit of a sham and often dates poorly, no matter the point of view, or the era.   

Horseshit annotation notwithstanding, these 60's white folk artists on this album are shitkicker players and it's folk played with passion and authority, pre-rock and apart from rock 'n roll--no Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones in this alternate universe where Muddy Waters & B.B. King are irrelevant, maybe don't even exist, as Paul Nelson clearly implied.   However, BOB is here under a pseudonym "Bob Landy, " playing harmonica for Geoff Muldaur.

I had this album passed down to me when I was three.  I stacked several chairs to get at a stack of folk records my mom put out of reach in a closet top shelf, and fearing I'd kill myself, gave me a nice stack of Dylan and lesser known lights on Vanguard and such.  My copy of this disappeared and I mail ordered this copy 15-20 years ago to replace it.

In my early childhood my favorite track was Dave Van Ronk "Don't Leave Me Here" which I would flog my 3 year old body off my parents bed in reckless abandon because kids jump on beds and the gruff voice and percussive time slapped on the guitar face made me go mental.  This is a weird record to hear now.  My childhood spins are brain awakened by most of the tracks on side 2, but Spoelstra's "France Blues" that closes side 1 also was jarred from the deep recesses of my mind upon replay.

Hey lawdy mama mama, hey lawdy papa papa....

I dare you to forget it.

I won't.