Alabama Blues: 1927-1930

Alabama Blues: 1927-1930 compiles the complete known recorded output of six obscure rural blues acts: George "Bullet" Williams, Clifford Gibson, Ollis Martin, Bertha Ross, Jaybird Coleman and Frank Palmes (which may actually be merely a pseudonym of Coleman's). As the liner notes point out, it's interesting to note that almost all of the artists featured here play the harmonica, an instrument whose relatively low cost made it the ideal accompaniment for the era's bluesmen, especially those from such an economically depressed area as rural Alabama; there's a clear regional sensibility linking their music, its primitive power and emotional intensity reflections of the blues at its purest.