This is a well-organized, smartly chosen 20-track compilation of some of the lesser-known early Mississippi blues artists. Garfield Akers is about the most famous, which tells you right there how obscure most of these names -- King Solomon Hill, Otto Virgial, Mattie Delaney, Joe Calicott, Blind Joe Reynolds, John D. Fox and others -- are to the general listening public. It's quality material, however, and not in a drastically different league than the most renowned classics by singers like Tommy Johnson and
Son House. The guitar playing and singing are emotional and inventive throughout, but standouts include Mattie Delaney, Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley, some of the relatively few guitar-playing Delta blueswomen who recorded; Wiley's minor-key, doomy "Last Kind Words" is particularly affecting. ~ Richie Unterberger