Big Bill Broonzy was one of the few country blues musicians of the '20s and '30s to find success when the music evolved into an electric, urbanized form. From his initial sides with Paramount in 1928, he followed the music's development closely. Switching to electric guitar and adding drums to his music in the late 1930s, he helped pave the way for the Chicago bluesmen that followed him. Even though his music continued to contain echoes of his rural background, Broonzy's reversion to a {\folk-bl   [ read more ]

CD $17.08

Black, Brown and White includes live tracks recorded in Belgium in March 1952 (three featuring pianist Blind John Davis) and December 1955 during Europe's discovery of Big Bill Broonzy. The highlight of the disc is the laid-back atmosphere in the living room setting recorded at Broonzy biographer Yannick Bruyoghes' house in Brussels. Several Broonzy classics are revisited, along with traditional blues standards "Nobody's Business," "Alberta," and "Careless Love." ~ Al Campbell,   [ read more ]

CD $11.38

Here are two giants of the great '30s Chicago piano-and-guitar blues scene. Besides making superb records under his own name, singer/guitarist Tampa Red backed all sorts of vocalists in all sorts of styles. Much of the time he worked with pianist Georgia Tom, later a major gospel composer. You get some of both kinds here, including lots of the non-blues music. This is a simply ravishing set, deep and true and varied. There's only one solo cut. The rest are hardcore early blues band. ~ John Storm Rober   [ read more ]

CD $13.28

Often ranked with such blues greats as Robert Johnson, Son House, and Elmore James, Big Bill Broonzy was for many years the last surviving practitioner of the "Delta" style of blues. This record, cut for Smithsonian Folkways in 1956, captures Broonzy late in his career but still during the peak of his power. Indeed, a more magisterial performance could not be imagined. While born and raised on the Mississippi, Broonzy takes this opportunity to demonstrate the range of musical i   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

If you're going to sweat a Big Bill Broonzy collection down to only one disc, this is the one to keep in the collection. It's really his most representative work, highlighting most of the best-known numbers from his extensive repertoire and the highlights (including a hilarious "When I've Been Drinkin'," in which he supposedly downs several shots on microphone during the take) are numerous. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide

CD $18.03

This a marvelous little companion piece to Young Big Bill Broonzy (1928-35) on Yazoo. Broonzy's ragtime guitar picking is textbook in its scope, and his vocals are as warm as can be. Dubbed from old 78s, the ultra high quality of the music on Do That Guitar Rag (1928-1935) make any audiophile nitpicking a moot point indeed. Broonzy is at his youngest and full of pep. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide

CD $17.08

By early 1932, the point at which this second volume in Document's series begins, Big Bill Broonzy was well established on the Chicago music scene; although his music was beginning to take on an urbanized flavor, his fortT was still country-blues, and the opening tracks here -- "Mr. Conductor Man," "Too-Too Train Blues" and "Bull Cow Blues" among them -- are among his finest examples of the form. Of equal interest are the sides he subsequently recorded with his Jug Busters, a rather mysterious grou   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

This three-CD set (originally five LPs) was a product of three recording sessions, held on July 12 and 13, 1957, immediately before Broonzy entered the hospital for surgery on the lung cancer that would end his career and take his life just a year later. He sounds in good enough spirits, and the voice and guitar are still in excellent form as he runs through the songs that evidently mattered most to him on those two days: "Key to the Highway," "Take This Hammer," "See See Rider," "Alberta," {   [ read more ]

CD $34.18

CD $15.18

Swing might have been king by 1935-36, but Big Bill Broonzy was a different type of royalty, one of the major bluesmen in Chicago. Always a technically skilled guitarist, Broonzy's vocalizing had grown in maturity and depth during the first half of the 30s. On the fourth of 11 Document CDs that contain all of Big Bill's prewar recordings as a leader (and many as a sideman), Broonzy is heard on two religious numbers with the Chicago Sanctified Singers, one tune ("Keep Your Mind On It") with   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

Big Bill Broonzy recorded a great deal in Chicago during the 1930s, and fortunately, every one of the selections (except for a few that cannot be located) have been reissued on CD by the Austrian Document label in this "complete" series. In addition to selections with a trio (which includes pianist Black Bob and bassist Bill Settles), Broonzy is heard on this fifth volume with the Hokum Boys (on "Nancy Jane"), the Midnight Ramblers (which include Washboard Sam) and {$the Chicago Black S   [ read more ]

CD $16.13

1937 was a busy year for Big Bill Broonzy, who was turning 44. A greatly in-demand blues guitarist in Chicago, Broonzy was also an underrated singer and a major solo artist. This CD from the Austrian Document label (the sixth of 11 that trace his entire prewar recording career) includes 26 selections with plenty of alternate takes and nine previously unreleased performances. Broonzy is joined by either Black Bob, Leeford or Aletha Robinson or Joshua Altheimer on piano ({$Blind John Davi   [ read more ]

CD $16.13