VA - Need A Shot - The Essential Recordings Of Urban Blues

Featuring two-dozen tracks drawn from commercially released 78s of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, "Need a Shot" is primarily a piano-based selection, although there is a fair amount of guitar and harmonica tossed in, and on occasion even drums, saxes, and clarinets.

Labeled urban blues, these sides are only a little removed from their country blues roots, and pieces like Peetie Wheatstraw's "Working Man (Doing the Best I Can)" (the melody line, a common one in the early blues, was used by Bob Dylan for his "Pledging My Time"), Roosevelt Sykes´ "Night Time Is the Right Time," and Washboard Sam's funky and ragged "Back Door" played just as well in the rural jukes of the Deep South as they did in the bars up north.

In spite of the subtitle, these 24 selections don't exactly add up to an essential survey of the early urban blues, but there's plenty of foot-stomping fun going on here and it's hard to have a serious problem with that.

Tracklist:

01. Bumble Bee Slim - Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On
02. Kokomo Arnold - Policy Wheel Blues
03. Georgia White - Trouble In Mind [1936 05 12-Chicago]
04. Harlem Hamfats - Bad Luck Man [1936 10 22-Chicago]
05. Johnnie Temple - Louise Louise Blues [1936 11 12-Chicago]
06. Peetie Wheatstraw - Working Man (Doing The Best I Can)
07. Walter Davis - Think You Need A Shot [1936 04 03-Chicago]
08. Bill Gaither - New Little Pretty Mama
09. Roosevelt Sykes - Night Time Is The Right Time [1937 04 29-Chicago]
10. Curtis Jones - Lonesome Bedroom Blues [1937 09 28-Chicago]
11. Washboard Sam - Back Door [1938 12 16-Aurora IL]
12. Casey Bill Weldon - Way Down In Louisiana [1939 12 07-Chicago]
13. Merline Johnson - Want To Woogie Some More [1938 10 04-Chicago]
14. Big Bill Broonzy - What Is That She Got?
15. Memphis Minnie - Lonesome Shack Blues [1940 06 27-Chicago]
16. Tampa Red - Baby, Take A Chance With Me [1940 05 10-Chicago]
17. Bill "Jazz" Gillum - Key To The Highway
18. Memphis Slim - Beer Drinking Woman [1940 10 30-Chicago]
19. Big Maceo - County Jail Blues [1941 06 24-Chicago]
20. St. Louis Jimmy - Goin' Down Slow [1941 11 11-Chicago]
21. Lonnie Johnson - He's A Jelly-Roll Baker
22. Doctor Clayton - Ain't No Business We Can Do [1942 03 27-Chicago]
23. Champion Jack Dupree - Big Time Mama
24. Sonny Boy Williamson - New Early In The Morning

VA - Need A Shot - The Essential Recording Of Urban Blues
(256 kbps, cover art included)