The Postwar Recordings of Blind Willie McTell & Curley Weaver (1949-1950)

A towering figure in blues history, Blind Willie McTell dominated the Atlanta blues scene from the time of his first recordings in 1927 till his death in 1959. McTell’s facility on the twelve string guitar was unparalleled; he made playing the notoriously unwieldy and intransigent instrument sound effortless. Blind Willie McTell was a remarkable arranger and songwriter whose compositions were both technically impressive and immediately accessible, and there were few blues players in the American southeast who did not have at least one of his songs in their repertoire. This volume contains some of McTell’s most rugged and unrestrained performances, including an incendiary take on “Love Changing Blues” a hopped up, almost boogie inflected performance of “East St. Louis Blues,” and a number of convincingly inebriated sounding drinking tunes like “Keep On Drinking” and “Can’t Get That Stuff No More.” This album also includes a few solo numbers from Curley Weaver, most notably the excellent “Ticket Agent,” essentially a cover of McTell’s classic “Talking To Myself.”