This labor of true love was spearheaded by label cofounder/guitar great John Fahey, though tragically he didn’t live long enough to see it completed. It’s easily one of the most beautiful collections of recorded music ever assembled. Exquisitely designed, this 78-album-inspired, seven-CD package contains a wealth of information and music. The set of seven CDs features every song Charley Patton recorded newly re-mastered; every song his friends Willie Brown, Son House, and Louise Johnson recorded on their 1930 road trip with Patton to Grafton; Patton songs recorded by others including Howlin’ Wolf, Tommy Johnson, and the Mississippi Sheiks; and, one full CD with Howlin’ Wolf, H.C. Speir, Booker Miller, and Pops Staples talking about Patton. Every Patton song is transcribed lyrically and musically. The package includes Fahey’s biographical book about Patton, over 50 pages of essays by David Evans, Edward Komara, Gayle Dean Wardlow, Dick Spottswood, and Fahey.
— (Blues Foundation press release, 2006.0