(Blues) John Jackson - Rappahannock Blues

Styles: Country Blues
Released: 2010
Label: Smithsonian Folkways
File: mp3@320K/s
Size: 101.0 MB
Time: 44:05
Art: front

1. Rocks and Gravel - 2:52
2. Too Tight Rag - 4:03
3. Candy Man - 2:47
4. TruckinΓΓé¼Γäó Little Baby - 2:59
5. Railroad Bill - 3:36
6. NobodyΓΓé¼Γäós Business (If I Do) - 3:18
7. Don't You Want to Go Up There - 2:28
8. The Year Clayton Delaney Died - 2:39
9. John JacksonΓΓé¼Γäós Breakdown - 2:09
10. Red River Blues - 3:00
11. BrownΓΓé¼Γäós Ferry Blues - 2:14
12. Cindy - 2:24
13. You AinΓΓé¼Γäót No Woman - 2:25
14. John Henry - 3:23
15. Diddy Wah Diddy - 3:16
16. Just a Closer Walk with Thee - 2:37
17. Frankie and Johnny - 3:44
18. Don't Let Your Deal Go Down - 3:10
19. Step It Up and Go - 2:14
20. West Coast Rag - 1:45



Notes: "Getting good now, yeah!" interjects bluesman John Jackson, commenting on his live, engaging performance of Mississippi John Hurt's "Candy Man." And good as it is, it soon gets better.
The previously unreleased track, which appears on "Rappahannock Blues," a Smithsonian Folkways compilation out next week, boasts a fingerstyle guitar arrangement modeled after Hurt's alternating bass string style. But when Jackson's fretting hand leaps into a high register to execute one of Hurt's best-known breaks, it adds a percussive wallop that is fresh and spontaneous.
Jackson, who grew up in Rappahannock County, died in 2002, leaving a trove of recordings. The 20 tracks here are testimony to his taste as much as to his talent. Indeed, many of the songs underscore his affection for such guitar pickers as Hurt, Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller, and vintage country artists the Carter Family and the Delmore Brothers.
Like Hurt, Jackson radiated such a genial spirit that he could charm audiences without flexing a finger. Yet his nimble, often ragtimey agility is on full display here. Annotators Barry Lee Pearson and Jeff Place should share an Edgar Award for unraveling the origins of many of Jackson's tunes. Time and again, their research illuminates his extraordinary life and legacy. ~ Mike Joyce