Various Artists-Mojo Presents The Roots of Bob Dylan (2006)

Artist: Various Artists (Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Julia Lee, Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters, Karen Dalton, Richie Havens, Josh White, Hank Williams, The Country Gentlemen, Cisco Houston, Charlie Poole with The North, Carolina Ramblers, The Staple Singers, The Highway Q.C.'s, Big Bill Broonzy, Thelonious Monk)

Title: Mojo Presents The Roots of Bob Dylan

1	Sonny Terry And Brownie McGhee–	You'd Better Mind Written-By – McGhee, Terry Written-By – McGhee*, Terry*	2:07
2	Julia Lee–	Mama Don't Allow It Written-By – 'Cow Cow' Davenport Written-By – 'Cow Cow' Davenport*	2:53
3	Lightnin' Hopkins–	Baby Please Don't Go Written-By – Williams Written-By – Williams*	2:48
4	Muddy Waters–	Rollin' Stone Written-By – McKinley Morganfield Written-By – McKinley Morganfield	3:04
5	Karen Dalton–	How Did The Feeling Feel To You Written-By – Tim Hardin Written-By – Tim Hardin	2:50
6	Richie Havens–	High Flying Bird Written-By – Billy Ed Wheeler Written-By – Billy Ed Wheeler*	3:33
7	Josh White–	Good Morning Blues Arranged By – White Written-By – Traditional Arranged By – White* Written-By – Traditional	4:24
8	Hank Williams–	Lost Highway Written-By – Leon Payne Written-By – Leon Payne	2:40
9	The Country Gentlemen–	House Of The Rising Sun Written-By – Traditional Written-By – Traditional	3:22
10	Cisco Houston–	Dark As A Dungeon Written-By – Merle Travis Written-By – Merle Travis	2:50
11	Charlie Poole With The North Carolina Ramblers–	White House Blues Written-By – Charlie Poole Written-By – Charlie Poole	3:25
12	The Staple Singers–	Uncloudy Day Written-By – Staples Written-By – Staples*	2:57
13	The Highway Q.C.'s–	Working On The Building Written-By – Traditional Written-By – Traditional	2:23
14	Big Bill Broonzy–	When The Sun Goes Down/Going Down This Road Feeling Bad Written-By – Broonzy, Carr Written-By – Broonzy*, Carr*	7:24
15	Thelonious Monk–	Ruby, My Dear Written-By – Thelonius Monk Written-By – Thelonius Monk*	7:44

Label: Mojo Magazine

Format: CD

Catalog Number: September, 2006

Year of Release: 2006

Country and Year of Edition: UK issued with September 2006 Mojo Magazine

Sell Price: $2.84

Sell Date: 4/27/24

Condition: VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold  1/9/24 VG+/generic $101.00

Low: $0.31

Median: $1.50

Average: $1.72

High: $3.98

Current low price: $0.44

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 78

Have/Want:  929/33

Where Sold: Akron, OH

Time It Took To Sell:  9 years

Where and When Bought: new with magazine

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go: No

Occasionally, one of the CD's issued with Mojo Magazine taking up a couple shelves on my shelves in storage sells.  While Mojo's compilations are always thematically solid and uniformly excellent, they always seem to fall into two categories: one where the shrink wrap comes off and one where the shrink wrap was taken off and the CD possibly played.  This one the shrink wrap came off.  Mojo now puts them in cardboard slipcases without shrink so now you have some rubber glue to pick off the cover while lazily contemplating the music.

With this type of material, I'm often more inclined just to buy an album by one of the artists and listen to it start to finish.  But now, I'm trying to get into the spirit of the sampler and judge it as it's own compilation.  Since the artist being influenced is now 82, all of these acts are long gone.  I did manage to see one of the more contemporary ones when I was a teen in Worcester free in Institute Park: Richie Havens.  I also remember my mother wanting to get a Josh White album in the 70's but the one that was in the local chain book store wasn't Good Morning Blues from which the title track is featured.  I'm pretty sure she saw him at the Newport Folk Festival.

Of course I've had exposure to Muddy and Lightnin' and Hank and Monk and the standards of Big Bill Broonzy and Lightnin' Hopkins.  "Dark As A Dungeon" Bob himself covered on the Rolling Thunder Review.  The Charlie Poole cut was also on the volume of Folkways' Anthology of American Folk Music I had.    Other names stand out in long running Dylan folklore like Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee or The Staple Singers.  You probably have an inkling of what they sound like even if you never heard 'em and their tracks here prove that to some extent.  That reminds me, I saw Mavis Staples play on a Bob tour kind of recently also so that's someone active on this track roster.

If the CD was trying to get me into the "Brain of Bob" it kind of fell flat.  This isn't a dig on Mojo. Bob's Chronicles book from 2004, only a couple years prior to this, did it a little better.  I tore through that in a couple days but for some reason after reading 50 pages or so of the new Bob book, I decided since it reminded me of an extension of Theme Time Radio Hour.  I wanted to make a project out of reading The Philosophy of Modern Song and listen to the songs before reading the chapter whether I knew the song cold or not.  A project procrastinated since 2022, much like trying to write this blog on a daily basis.   I haven't even gotten around to listening to the posted playlists of the book that other people made projects of.   There are only so many hours in the day and sometimes you gotta sweep the floor and take out the garbage first. I'll get around to it someday.  I swear!

I always liked a free CD glued to a magazine the same way I liked to rip out and play a flexi that would come in my Dad's Guitar Player magazine as a kid.   You can either sit back and enjoy it or think too much about it.  I used to like random shuffle quite a bit when I had one of those 100-CD carousel jobs, but the electronic era of too much information made for too much of a good thing in the Ipod shuffle era.  Information overload makes me want to pare things down into artists singular work.   Not forcing "best ofs" or an idea of what some applied aesthetician commercial or otherwise imparts.   Like having a good radio show in the background, if you aren't careful, compiled disparate works can BECOME background no matter how great the person they influenced or expert the compiler.  Turns out the track I liked the best here was the artist I knew the least, Julia Lee.  I never see her name anywhere.

"Mama Don't Allow It" after all.