Charley Patton
(Revenant Records)
Charley Patton is the root of Mississippi Delta
blues. He taught Son House (who taught Robert Johnson
and Muddy Waters). He taught Howlin’ Wolf and Pops
Staples. And he has inspired blues players and fans for generations.
Patton’s life is as mysterious as his music is powerful.
He was born in 1887 and died in 1933. He was a songster
in his day, traveling widely and playing in a range of
styles. The blues was then nascent, the elements from which
it would be created swirling about the Delta like a storm
about to form. Patton played them all from the
Scots-Irish reels and jigs to the Hawaiian-style slide guitar. Patton
himself was the tornado that would be called the blues.
I’ve owned several Patton collections, but none has
been as listenable, as sonically accessible, as these. For the
first time, you can hear Patton without the hissing sound
of previous transfers but with the bass-y bottom punch of
a 78. Untrained ears will have little trouble adjusting to
the sound.
Five of the CDs on this massive collection feature
Patton’s music, including false starts, outtakes, and sessions on
which Patton was a sideman. The sixth disc, Charley’s
Orbit, demonstrates the range of his influence, with tracks by
Bukka White, Son House, Ma Rainey, Furry Lewis, Howlin’
Wolf, and several others. It’s a great compilation disc itself;
that each track can be traced to Patton makes it all the
more powerful. Disc seven features four interviews with
people who knew Patton. The Wolf snippet is incredible, and
the H.C. Speir interview is a fascinating oral history.
As important as this collection is musically, it’s also
an astounding feat of packaging. I had as much fun
opening this box set as I’ve had unwrapping any gift since I was
a child. The package is a recreation of an old 10-inch 78
RPM “album” (several 78s packaged together, like oldies at
the thrift stores). Within, there are seven CDs, a paperback
book on Patton by the late John Fahey (founder of the
reissue label behind this treat), a reproduction of liner notes to
a previous Patton reissue, 128 pages of intense liner
notes from national authorities (including the University of
Memphis’ Dr. David Evans), several reproductions of period
advertisements, and more. It’s expensive (about $175),
but for the blues fan who has everything or the designer
who’s seen it all, it’s well worth the cost.
Robert Gordon
Grade: A+
