VA - The OKeh Blues Story (2013) mp3@320{1337x}-kawli

OKeh stands alongside Chess Records as a major purveyors of blues music. But whereas Leonard and Phil Chess founded their eponymous label in 1950, having bought into Aristocrat Records a few years earlier, its Chicago neighbour could boast a longer history.

Like the Chess brothers, Otto Heinemann had European roots. The German-American incorporated the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation in 1916, set up both a recording studio and pressing plant in New York, and started issuing records in 1918. He chose the name OKeH (as it was originally styled) not to echo street slang but to reflect his initials.

OKeh, along with Paramount and Columbia, was one of the major companies involved in the issue of what became to be known as ‘race’ records, an all-encompassing title indicating records aimed at the black consumer. The ‘big three’ had it sewn up when it came to signing the better singers, leaving the smaller companies to scramble around looking for good second-division material.

OKeh was bought out by its rival Columbia Records, of which it became a subsidiary, in 1926. Recording continued, and selections extend to the Forties with the likes of Memphis Minnie, Bukka White and Big Bill Broonzy. All would make their mark on the postwar blues scene, along with Sonny Terry, Champion Jack Dupree and Roosevelt Sykes.

The label was inactive for periods in the Thirties and Forties before being revived in 1951. Its greatest Fifties success came with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Brook Benton, Chuck Willis, Major Lance and others. It was revived by Sony (as Columbia now were) in the Nineties as an urban label and relaunched once more as a jazz imprint in 2013, but this compilation of OKeh’s earliest successes remains and will forever remain unparalleled.

Tracklist:

CD 1
1. Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds – Crazy Blues (3:29)
2. Blind Lemon Jefferson – Black Snake Moan (3:01)
3. Sonny Terry – Blowin’ The Blues (2:53)
4. Lonnie Johnson – Wrong Woman Blues (2:55)
5. Roosevlet Sykes – 44. Blues (3:02)
6. Georgia Bill (Blind Willie Mctell) – Scarey Day Blues (3:01)
7. Champion Jack Dupree – Warehouse Man Blues (2:49)
8. Victoria Spivey – T.B. Blues (3:14)
9. Sylvester Weaver – Guitar Rag (3:00)
10. Mary Copeland – Penetrating Blues (3:23)
11. Texas Alexander – Levee Camp Moan Blues (3:04)
12. Irene Scruggs – Sorrow Valley Blues (2:44)
13. Little Hat Jones – Rolled From Side To Side Blues (3:03)
14. Eva Taylor – Irresistible Blues (3:16)
15. Snitcher Roberts – Low Moaning Blues (3:11)
16. Rosa Henderson – Everywomans Blues (2:48)
17. Uncle Bud Walker – Stand Up Suitcase Blues (3:03)
18. Alberta Hunter – Your Jelly Roll Is Good (3:11)
19. Charlie McCoy W/ Bo Carter – That Lonesome Train Took My Baby Away (3:00)
20. Sippie Wallace – Walkin’ Talkin’ Blues (2:49)
21. Peter Chatman & His Washboard Band – Miss Ora Lee Blues (3:01)
22. Papa Freddie – Muddy Water Blues (3:12)
23. Peter Cleighton – Something Going On Wrong (3:01)
24. Hambone Willie Newbern – Roll & Tumble Blues (3:02)
25. Mississippi Sheiks – Sitting On Top Of The World (3:03)

CD 2
1. Mississippi John Hurt – Stack O’ Lee Blues (2:58)
2. Big Bill Broonzy – When I Been Drinkin’ (2:52)
3. Brownie Mcghee – Double Trouble (2:35)
4. Bertha “Chippie” Hill – Pratt City Blues (2:45)
5. Mississippi Bracey – You Scolded Me And Drove Me From Your Door (3:18)
6. Blind Boy Fuller – When You Are Gone (2:46)
7. Memphis Minnie – Me And My Chauffeur Blues (2:47)
8. W.C. Handy – St. Louis Blues (3:02)
9. Birmingham Jug Band – Giving It Away (3:11)
10. Dora Clark – Cow Cow Blues (2:51)
11. Rosetta Crawford – Lonesome Woman Blues (3:02)
12. Esther Bigeou – Panama Limited Blues (3:03)
13. Stovepipe & David Crockett – A Woman Gets Tired Of One Man All The Time (3:14)
14. Blind Willie Dunn’s Gin Bottle Four – Blue Blood Blues (3:02)
15. Blues Birdhead – Mean Low Blues (3:22)
16. Sara Martin – Achin’ Hearted Blues (3:16)
17. Ed Macon & Tampa Joe – Tickle Britches (3:11)
18. Gladys Bentley – Worried Blues (2:46)
19. Bo Carter – Ants In My Pants (2:54)
20. Ada Brown – Evil Mama Blues (3:04)
21. Little Buddy Doyle & Big Walter Horton – Hard Scufflin’ Blues (2:39)
22. Carrie Edward – Fattening Frogs For Snakes (3:29)
23. Sloppy Henry – Canned Heat (2:55)
24. Margaret Johnson – If I Let You Get Away With It Once You’ll Do It All The Time (3:01)
25. Bukka White – Parchman Farm Blues (2:49)

Media Info:
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Channels: stereo
Samplerate: 44100
Encoder: FhG
MPEG-1 layer 3

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