Curley Weaver - Georgia Guitar Wizard (1928-1935)

Belongs in any serious blues collection. Nuff said.

320

Blind Blake - Ragtime Guitar's Foremost Fingerpicker (1926-31)

Heavenly.

allmusic.com:

Ragtime Guitar's Foremost Fingerpicker contains a total of 28 prime tracks from Blind Blake. Alternating between solo acoustic numbers and songs recorded with a string band, the set demonstrates how exceptionally gifted the guitarist was -- he's playing arrangements and rhythms that several subsequent generations were never able to completely figure out. Blind Blake was one of the finest acoustic guitarists of the '20s and '30s and this is the definitive compilation.

320

Papa Charlie Jackson - Fat Mouth (1924-27)

 

Horrendous sound quality, but its well worth it if you like pre-war blues.  This has never been issued on CD, so here's a shitty vinyl rip I found on "Rukus Juice."

allmusic:

Papa Charlie Jackson was the first bluesman to record, beginning in 1924 with the Paramount label, playing a hybrid banjo-guitar (six strings tuned like a guitar but with a banjo body that gave it a lighter resonance) and ukulele. And apart from his records and their recording dates, little else is known for sure about this pioneering blues performer, other than his probable city of birth, New Orleans; even his death in Chicago during 1938 is more probable than established fact.

Yazoo's Fat Mouth is the best overview of Papa Charlie Jackson's best recordings, offering 14 tracks he recorded between 1924 and 1927. While a few important songs didn't make it to this set, most of his very best did, and for many listeners this concise compilation is a preferable alternative to the exhaustive multi-volume Document series.

Not 320