Josh White had a long and varied career, beginning as a session guitarist in the 1920s, then had his own run of stellar blues 78s for Paramount and Columbia in the 1930s, becoming a cabaret bluesman in New York in the 1940s, only to be blacklisted as the McCarthy era dawned, which led to his association with
Jac Holzman's fledgling Elektra label in 1955.
White recorded seven well-conceived LPs for
Holzman between 1955 and 1962, and they restarted his career once again.
The Elektra Years collects some of the highlights of that run in a two-disc set, including "You Don't Know My Mind" (a remake of a
Virginia Liston 78 from 1923), "Silicosis Blues" (which
White first recorded back in 1936), "Jim Crow Train," "Jelly Jelly" (complete with the sound of
White gargling vodka at the onset), the jailhouse gospel of "Trouble," and "Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed," which
White first tracked in 1934 and was more or less his signature song. The collection ends with a striking 1933 version of "Lay Some Flowers On My Grave," which
White recorded in 1933 for ARC Records when he was only 19 years old. Many hardcore Delta blues aficionados found
White's version of the blues to be a little too refined to be authentic, and these days he is seldom placed in the company of his rediscovered contemporaries like
Mississippi John Hurt,
Son House,
Bukka White, or
Skip James, which is a shame. It's true that
White had much more of a political and cultural agenda than any of those players, and if he pandered at times to stereotypical notions, it was always in the interest of educating his audiences. In addition,
White was an astounding acoustic guitarist, and his laser-guided guitar runs were always tonally perfect. As a guitarist alone, he is due for a reassessment, and these Elektra recordings from Rhino Handmade are the perfect place to start, since he was never recorded in a more favorable sonic setting. ~ Steve Leggett