Pony Blues: His 23 Greatest Songs (CD - 1999)

You could make a valid case that anything recorded by Charley Patton is seminal to the history of blues. These, however, are the secular pieces (in his final 1934 session he also recorded some religious titles) on which his reputation stands, and upon listening it's easy to understand why. He sang and played with total conviction, and so much of his repertoire has become standard over the years. Listen to "Pony Blues," for example, from his first session in 1929, and you can not only hear his haunting voice, but some superb guitar work, utterly individual and far ahead of anything else that was being record at the time. This was the real blues, earthy, rich, and resonant of the South (Patton's experiences around Dockery's Plantation), performed with a power no one else could equal until Robert Johnson. That first session, which yielded 14 sides, was perhaps his best, and eight of the titles here are drawn from it, including "Peavine Blues," which has become a Delta blues classic. But maybe the high point came from his second session in late 1929 and "High Water Everywhere," Patton's song about the 1927 Mississippi floods that decimated the Delta region. It's a masterpiece of tension and storytelling that says as much now as when it was originally recorded. The last five titles on the disc come from the final session Patton recorded in New York in 1934. He was ailing by then, soon to die, and the difference five years made is easy to tell. He sounds tired and weary of the world. But that didn't stop him from performing a classic "High Sheriff Blues," another indispensable piece of Patton blues. Even if the blues didn't start with Patton, he was certainly one of the first truly great recorded blues singer/guitarists -- and the finest from the early days of the Delta blues. The sound quality might not be perfect, by any means, but the music stands. As an introduction to Charley Patton, this is unbeatable. ~ Chris Nickson

The story of Delta blues starts with Charley Patton's slashing slide style, hoarse and gruff vocals, and unerring ability to personalize even the most mundane blues lyric. Patton's 78s have been collected in several fine packages, including the JSP box called Complete Recordings, Catfish's three-disc budget box called Definitive Charley Patton, and the last word in all this, the impressive (and expensive) seven-disc Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues from Revenant Records. This single-disc selection from Proper works as an inexpensive single-disc introduction to Patton, and it contains his best-known songs like "Pony Blues," the two-part "High Water Everywhere," "Down the Dirt Road Blues," "High Sheriff Blues," and "Revenue Man Blues." Since Patton's rhythms and overall approach can be repetitive at times, casual listeners wondering what all the fuss is about might be better served with a single disc like this one that hones things down a bit, but Patton's work is both the Big Bang and the epicenter of country blues, so going a little deeper and springing for one of the box sets is well worth the time and expense. ~ Steve Leggett minimize