Big Bill Broonzy - The Big Bill Broonzy Story (1960)

Tracklist

CD1
01. Key To The Highway
02. Dialogue
03. Mindin' My Own Business
04. Dialogue
05. Saturday Evening Blues
06. Dialogue (Disc One, Track 6)
07. South Bound Train
08. Dialogue
09. Tell Me What Kind Of Man Jesus Is
10. Dialogue
11. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
12. Dialogue
13. Joe Turner Blues
14. Dialogue
15. Joe Turner Blues
16. Dialogue
17. Plowhand Blues
18. Dialogue
19. Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad
20. Dialogue
21. Makin' My Getaway

CD2
01. Dialogue
02. Stump Blues
03. Dialogue
04. See See Rider
05. I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
06. Dialogue
07. This Train
08. Dialogue
09. Hush, Hush
10. Dialogue
11. Backwater Blues
12. Slow Blues
13. Dialogue
14. It Hurts Me Too
15. Dialogue
16. Kansas City Blues
17. Dialogue
18. In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down)
19. Dialogue (Disc Two, Track 19)

CD3
01. Dialogue
02. Worried Life Blues
03. Dialogue
04. Trouble In Mind
05. Dialogue
06. Take This Hammer
07. Dialogue
08. The Glory Of Love
09. Dialogue
10. Louise Blues
11. Dialogue
12. Willie Mae Blues
13. Dialogue
14. Alberta
15. Old Folks At Home (Swanee River)
16. Dialogue
17. Crawdad Song
18. Dialogue
19. John Henry
20. Dialogue
21. Just A Dream (On My Mind)
22. Dialogue
23. Frankie And Johnny
24. Dialogue
25. Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?
26. Dialogue
27. Hollerin' The Blues


This three-CD set (originally five LPs) was a product of three recording sessions, held on July 12 and 13, 1957, immediately before Broonzy entered the hospital for surgery on the lung cancer that would end his career and take his life just a year later. He sounds in good enough spirits, and the voice and guitar are still in excellent form as he runs through the songs that evidently mattered most to him on those two days: "Key to the Highway," "Take This Hammer," "See See Rider," "Alberta," "Frankie and Johnny," "In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and more than two dozen others. Producer Bill Randle didn't get a lot of the songs he'd hoped to record, such as "Stack O Lee" and "Night Time Is the Right Time," which Broonzy didn't want to sing, but he got enough for five LPs' worth of music out of the ten hours of recordings. (Did the rest survive, one wonders, and might there be anything that was left off that's worth hearing?) The sound is state of the art, with the singer and his solo acoustic guitar clean and close. The set is a vital and important document, as well as great listening, not only for the music but for Broonzy's between-song banter -- he was one of the great raconteurs of the blues - although it isn't quite as indispensable as one might think.

DOWNLOAD ALBUM [flac]