In His Prime (1927-1928) (CD - 1988)

A collection of Furry Lewis' earliest-known material, this disc provides an excellent overview of the young Lewis who, even at this early stage, had a distinctive vocal style. Furry Lewis contains some of the artist's most essential performances, from "Mr. Furry's Blues," to wonderful interpretations of traditional standards such as "John Henry." However, this release does seem rather puzzling and unnecessary, since Yazoo's release, In His Prime, contains most of the same recordings with far better sound. The sound quality of this disc is quite poor in places, and therefore it would be hard to recommend over Yazoo's commendable release. ~ Thomas Ward

In His Prime (1927-1928) is the best overview of Furry Lewis classic late-'20s sides, containing 14 songs from the period (though not "John Henry"), all of which are crisply remastered, showing off both his superb guitar playing and his brilliantly expressive singing (the vocal performance on "Falling Down Blues" alone is worth the price of the disc) to excellent advantage. A seminal part of any blues collection, as well as any collection of Lewis' material. ~ Bruce Eder minimize