Bukka White & Other Memphis Swamp Jam (LP)

(Cool Cult Records) 12 tracks

Memphis has a long and rich history of blues music. Its strategic location made it a longtime center for the blending of rural and urban blues styles, a fitting place for the 1969 Memphis Blues Festival that spawned this incredible double live album. Most of the tracks feature Memphis artists such as country blues giant Bukka White, Crying Blues legend Sleepy John Estes, barrelhouse pianist Memphis Piano Red, electric banjo specialist Nathan Beauregard, country blues giant Mississippi Fred Mc Dowell (shown here with harmonica player Johnny Woods), singer and Fife player Napoleon Strickland and Delta bluesman Furry Lewis; under the unlikely pseudonyms RL Watson and Josiah Jones, experimental folk pioneer John Fahey and steel guitarist Bill Barth.