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Notes: Album from Saga Blues Collection, Vol. 34
Josh White and Blind Blake were the fathers and pioneers of Piedmont blues. The ten first songs included on the CD show this excellent musician on his most bluesy side, only playing his own guitar or backed by Al Hall, Jack Fallon, Sonny Greer or Phil Seamen, all them reputed musicians at that particular time. The other ten songs that that complete the CD, give us White’s most religious aspect he used to combine with folk singer skills in songs like “John Henry”, “Saint James Infirmary” or “The House Of The Rising Sun”, all them recorded between 1933 and 1956. GREAT Dusty Blues CD review
Josh White was a key figure in the evolution of the folk and blues music revivals, a brilliant guitarist and dashingly sexy cabaret star who for three decades was the world's most popular acoustic blues performer. After a childhood leading blind street singers through the South, Josh was a popular recording artist in the 1930s golden age of acoustic blues; then in the 1940s he became the first bluesman to capture a large mainstream audience. Though his smooth, polished style is quite unlike the harder-edged approach that many people now consider basic to blues, his unique, lyrical guitar work and soulful singing made him a formative influence on the international folk scene.
Born in South Carolina, White spent his childhood as a "lead boy" for traveling blind bluesmen. In the early '30s he moved to New York and became a popular blues star, then introduced folk-blues to a mass white audience in the 1940s. He was famed both for his strong Civil Rights songs, which made him a favorite of the Roosevelts, and for his sexy stage persona. The king of Café Society-also home to Billie Holiday--he was the one bluesman to consistently pack the New York nightspots, and the first black singer-guitarist to act in Hollywood films and star on Broadway. In the 1950s, White's bitter compromise with the blacklisters left him with few friends on either end of the political spectrum. He spent much of the decade in Europe, then came back strong in the 1960s folk revival. By 1963, he was voted one of America's top three male folk stars, but his health was failing and he did not survive the decade.