Elmore James – King Of The Slide Guitar – Capricorn 9 42006-2

No one embodied the electric blues slide guitar style like Elmore James.  Presented here on two astounding CDs comprised of 50 classic cuts capturing the totality of the wild emotionality of that timeless slide guitar and vocal storytelling is blues art of the highest order.  A nerve-twisting cadence and messaging define scores of these selections, though certain of them reduce the pace and strain with utter misery and desire at every turn.  James’ vocals can be declamatory, but in equal measure, be tenderly yearning, both in a fashion that begs inquiries as to whether there is any additional emphatic concern James can exhibit, no matter a particular song’s storyline.  His slide guitar efforts oftentimes reiterate his vocals, exploiting the call-and-response flair of early rural blues to a maximum urban advantage.  Frenzied, uproarious, and poignant at the same time, James surged the demonstrative eminencies of the blues to new heights. 

Below are the running track orders of the CDs.

Song Titles

CD #1

• The Sky Is Crying
• Baby Please Set A Date
• Held My Baby Last Night
• Dust My Broom
• Bobby’s Rock
• Rollin’ And Tumblin’
• Done Somebody Wrong
• Something Inside Me
• I’m Worried
• Fine Little Mama
• I Need You
• Early One Morning
• I Can’t Stop Loving You
• Strange Angel
• She Done Moved
• My Baby’s Gone
• Anna Lee
• (My Bleeding Heart)
• Standing At The Crossroads
• One Way Out
• My Kind Of Woman
• Person To Person
• Find My Kind Of Woman (previously unreleased)
• Find My Kind Of Woman
• So Unkind

CD #2

• Got To Move
• Shake Your Moneymaker
• Look On Yonders Wall
• Sunnyland Train
• Mean Mistreatin’ Mama
• Go Back Home Again
• You Know You’re Wrong
• You Know You Done Me Wrong
• I’ve Got A Right To Love My Baby
• Everyday I Have The Blues
• Dust My Broom
• It Hurts Me Too
• Talk To Me Baby
• Can’t Stop Lovin’ My Baby
• She’s Got To Go
• Hand In Hand
• Pickin’ The Blues
• Twelve Year Old Boy
• I Believe
• I Gotta Go Now
• Up Jumped Elmore
• Make My Dreams Come True
• Back In Mississippi
• Blacksnake Blues

Essential indeed!