Bukka White’s 1940 session for producer Lester Melrose in Chicago is regarded as one of the pinnacles of blues recording history. The 12 tracks from that two-day session, along with two songs from a 1937 session (including the influentail ‘Shake ‘Em on Down’), were all originally released as 78rpm singles on OKeh, Vocalion, or other labels, and in 1970 on this remarkable LP. In 1940 White had just been released from the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman and had prepared some songs for the session. As he recalled, when he showed up with lyrics, Melrose recognized them as songs that had already been recorded by other blues artists and said, ‘You couldn’t make a quarter. They’d sue you from the first to the end. Now, Booker, I’m going to give you a meal ticket and a room at a hotel. I’ll give you two days to come up with something of your own.’ White described Melrose’s subsequent reaction to the 12 new songs: ‘I never had a man, black or white, kiss me dead on the mouth before; but that’s what he done. He say, ‘Lord man, you done 100 percent. I’ve been on this job 35 years and I never seen a man do what you done in two days. He said, ‘Just how the hell did you get it? Where did it come from?’
Whether or not Whitewho was, in truth, prone to playful exaggeration in some of his stories–actually came up with so many masterpieces in two days, the body of work he produced was at any rate nothing short of spectacular in its depth and originality. The most memorable pieces deal with his trial, incarceration, and troubled state of mind.
Released on LP as Columbia C 30036 in 1970. Pinebluff Arkansas, Shake ‘Em On Down, Black Train Blues, Strange Place Blues, When Can I Change My Clothes, Sleepy Man Blues, Parchman Farm Blues, Good Gin Blues, High Fever Blues, District Attorney Blues, Fixin’ To Die, Aberdeen Mississippi, Bukka’s Jitterbug Swing, Special Streamline
(Bukka White quotes are from a chapter by Jack Hurley and David Evans in the book Tom Ashley, Sam McGee, Bukka White: Tennessee Traditional Singers.)
— Jim O’Neal
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