This Week in the Shack

This week's program features country blues, bluegrass, jug band music, hokum blues, western swing, gospel, and the places where two or more of those overlap. A couple of things converged to inspire this set: I've discovered and been listening to a lot of the new generation of bluegrass/americana musicians this year, including Sarah Jarosz, Crooked Still, The Duhks, The Lovell Sisters, and The Carolina Chocolate Drops - all of which are found in the set (and as an aside, if you like this stuff, eMusic has a very nice selection to start building a collection). For the last week, I've also been reading Larry Nager's history of Memphis music, Memphis Beat: The Lives and Times of America's Musical Crossroads, and have particularly enjoyed the chapters on the first great era of the blues and on the link between Memphis' Beale Street and Nashville's Grand Ole Opry. On top of that, of course, is that in general this is music from the twenties, thirties, and forties, and everything about the period from the end of the Civil War to the end of the Second World War interests me, and very little more than the music from the last half of that era, whether it's the styles represented here, jazz, or the composers of the Great American Songbook. Of course, living in Austin, I'm not alone in this interest, as can be seen by the number of modern artists from Texas represented in the set: The Asylum Street Spankers, Guy Forsyth, Hot Club of Cowtown, The Boxcar Preachers, Sarah Jarosz, Asleep at the Wheel, The White Ghost Shivers, Clandestine, Willie Nelson, and Steve Earle all hail from the Lone Star State.

It took a bit longer than usual to put this set together, but I'm quite pleased with it. As always, I hope you dig it.

1. Asylum Street Spankers - Asylum Street Blues (5:15)
2. Old Crow Medicine Show - Cocaine Habit (2:42)
3. Robinella and the CC Stringband - Tennessee Saturday Nite (2:57)
4. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Walk On (3:29)
5. Rory Block - Maggie Campbell Blues (3:06)
6. Carolina Chocolate Drops - Cornbread And Butterbeans (3:09)
7. The Hot Club Of Cowtown - Ida Red (3:06)
8. Nickel Creek - Smoothie Song (3:20)
9. Sarah Jarosz - Song Up In Her Head (2:42)
10. Ollabelle - Soul of a Man (3:59)
11. Clandestine - A World Turned Upside Down (2:31)
12. Eric Bibb - No More Cane On The Brazos (5:01)
13. J.B. Lenoir - Slow Down Woman-1 (3:24)
14. Boxcar Preachers - Influenza (4:31)
15. Guy Forsyth - God Moves on the Water (3:37)
16. Patty Griffin Featuring Regina McCrary And Ann McCrary - If I Had My Way (3:24)
17. Asylum Street Spankers - Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (2:42)
18. The Lovell Sisters - In My Time Of Dyin' (3:31)
19. Buddy Guy, Jimmie Lee Robinson, Fred Below - First Time I Met The Blues (4:32)
20. Taj Mahal - Going Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue (3:34)
21. Brownie McGhee - Preachin' the Blues (2:33)
22. Cephas & Wiggins - Last Fair Deal Gone Down (3:46)
23. Gus Cannon - Minglewood Blues (3:47)
24. White Ghost Shivers - Tell It to Me (2:54)
25. Guy Forsyth - Jerry The Junker (3:38)
26. Crooked Still - Ain't No Grave (3:21)
27. The Duhks - Mists Of Down Below (4:23)
28. Levon Helm Band - Deep Elem Blues (6:38)
29. Derwood Brown & His Musical Brownies - Bring It on Down to My House (2:50)
30. Hot Club of Cowtown - Pray for the Lights to Go Out (3:27)
31. Memphis Jug Band - Gator Wobble (2:48)
32. Son House - Empire State Express (3:41)
33. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Rock Island Line (3:18)
34. Jake Leg Stompers - Hand Me Down My Walking Cane (2:44)
35. Old Crow Medicine Show - Hard to Tell (3:15)
36. Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys - Clinch Mountain Backstep (2:23)
37. The Lovell Sisters, Bearfoot & The New Generation Jam - Darling Corey (3:32)
38. Steve Earle - White Freightliner Blues (3:27)
39. The Sojourners - He Calls That Religion (4:00)
40. Harlem Hamfats - Hallelujah Joe Ain't Preachin' No More (3:06)
41. Willie Nelson/Asleep at the Wheel - Hesitation Blues (2:47)
42. Precious Bryant - Morning Train (3:00)
43. Luther Dickinson/The Sons of Mudboy - Back Back Train (4:35)
44. Robert Johnson - Hellhound On My Trail (2:40)
45. Rory Block - Preachin' Blues (3:32)
46. Ian Siegal - Mary Don't You Weep (Live) (3:55)
47. Taj Mahal - Sweet Home Chicago (3:15)
48. Etta James - St. Louis Blues (4:32)
49. Leadbelly - Midnight Special (3:07)
50. Muddy Waters - You Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone (3:22)
51. Skip James - Devil Got My Woman (6:19)

(blues 33)