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Various Artists - When the Sun Goes Down Vol. 3 - That's Chicago's South Side (1942)

Track listing:
  1. That's Chicago's South Side Sam Theard 2:53
  2. Peetie Wheatstraw Pete Wheatstraw 3:18
  3. Devil's Island Gin Blues Roosevelt Sykes 3:02
  4. Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On Amos Easton 3:19
  5. Black Gal, What Makes Your Head So Hard? Joe Pullum 3:30
  6. I Lost My Baby Lil Johnson 2:52
  7. Keep Your Hands Off Her Big Bill Broonzy 2:53
  8. When the Sun Goes Down Leroy Carr 2:58
  9. Selling My Pork Chops Minnie McCoy 2:54
  10. Every Day I Have the Blues Pine Top 3:09
  11. Sweet Sixteen Walter Davis 2:51
  12. Honky Tonk Train Blues Meade Lux Lewis 3:00
  13. Trouble in Mind Richard M. Jones 2:42
  14. He Roars Like a Lion Merline Johnson 3:24
  15. Prowling Night Hawk Robert Lee McCoy 3:05
  16. Good Morning School Girl Sonny Boy Williamson 3:01
  17. You Got to Fix It Speckled Red 3:14
  18. Bucket's Got a Hole in It Washboard Sam 2:44
  19. Bottle It Up and Go Tommy McClennan 2:48
  20. Key to the Highway Jazz Gillum 2:40
  21. Don't You Lie to Me Tampa Red 2:59
  22. What Is That She Got Johnny Temple 2:56
  23. Going Down Slow St. Louis Jimmy 3:13
  24. Hobo Blues Yank Rachel 3:20
  25. He's a Jelly Roll Baker Lonnie Johnson 3:17

Notes


Recording Dates Sept 28, 1931 - Feb 13, 1942

RCA
Released Aug 20, 2002

from silver

Ask a rock & roller to discuss Chicago's contributions to the blues, and he/she is likely to talk about Chess Records and electric post-World War II greats like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, Buddy Guy, and Junior Wells. But the Windy City had a healthy blues scene long before the rise of Chess -- one that went back to the days of Al Capone and Prohibition. Spanning 1931-1942, When the Sun Goes Down, Vol. 3: That's Chicago's South Side spotlights the acoustic pre-Chess, pre-Muddy Waters era of Chicago blues -- an era that helped pave the way for Chess Records as well as rock & roll. The recordings on this excellent CD point to fact that, long before Chicago became synonymous with electric blues, the city had its own unique blues sound. Gems like Sonny Boy Williamson's "Good Morning, Schoolgirl" (1937), Roosevelt Sykes' "Devil's Island Gin Blues" (1933), and Tommy McClennan's "Bottle It Up and Go" (1939) are quite different from the blues that were coming from the Deep South in the '30s and early '40s -- these artists offer an acoustic sound, but a harder, tougher acoustic sound than the Southern country blues that were coming from Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee back then. Of course, some of the artists who blues fans associate with Chicago blues were originally from the South; Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, for example, were born in Mississippi. But when Southern bluesmen moved north and interacted with Chicago-based musicians, their music could easily take on a more urban outlook. And an urban outlook definitely prevails on this CD, which underscores the richness of Chicago's pre-Chess blues scene.