VA – Paul Oliver – Conversation With The Blues - A Documentary of Fields Recordings (1965)

"Conversation With The Blues" is a documentary selection of recordings made in the field by Paul Oliver during the summer of 1960.

In the summer of 1960 Paul Oliver came to the United States with the aid of a State Department grant and BBC field recorder with the idea, as he writes of “putting on tape the conversation and music of blues artists in the country and the cities, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. Some of the blues singers were famous, or had been, whilst others were unknown and destined to remain so. … The blues singers of the Mississippi Delta or East Texas Piney woods may have sung and played in different styles from those currently working in Chicago or Detroit but between them was a common bond of feeling and expression which lay at the root of the blues.” Oliver began his trip in the east hitting Detroit, Chicago, Memphis and St. Louis before joining forces with collector Chris Stratwichz who would found Arhoolie records, and researcher Mack McCormick. The trio, and Oliver’s wife Valerie, traveled through Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas where they record the Black Ace, Alex Moore, K.C. Douglas, Buster Pickens, Lil Son Jackson, Mance Lipscomb, Sam Chatmon and others. "Far from inhibiting the speakers the BBC field recorder excited genius interest as a piece of equipment and encouraged many a blues singer to summon his memories and address his observations with clarity and confidence." On his return to England Oliver produced BBC radio-documentaries on his experiences and compiled the conversations he had with blues singers in his groundbreaking book, Conversation with the Blues.

Tracklist:
01 So Much Good Feeling (spoken with own piano) – Boogie Woogie Red 03:11
02 A Little Different (spoken) – Willie Thomas 00:27
03 Kill That Nigger Dead – James Butch Cage & Willie Thomas 02:03
04 The Onliest Way (spoken) – Lil’ Son Jackson 00:22
05 My Father’s Style – So It Rocked On (spoken, with guitar) – J.B. Lenoir 01:01
06 Move To Kansas City – J.B. Lenoir 00:27
07 When She Come Back (spoken) – Otis Spann 01:13
08 Poor Country Boy – Otis Spann 02:55
09 Ain’t No Easy Thing (spoken) – Lightnin’ Hopkins 01:10
10 Evil Heart Blues – Mance Lipscomb 02:02
11 A Roughneck (spoken) – Blind Arvella Grey 01:26
12 West Helena Blues – Roosevelt Sykes 01:45
13 Days Of Nineteen-Hundred (spoken) – Will Shade 01:13
14 Newport News Blues – Will Shade 02:30
15 Chock House Days (spoken) – Whistling Alex Moore 01:12
16 Come And Get Me – Whistling Alex Moore 01:05
17 Move Back For What (spoken) – Brother John Sellers 00:51
18 I Been Down So Long – J.B. Lenoir 02:35
19 Santa Fe Blues – Jasper Love 00:00
20 Somewhere Down The Line (spoken) – John Lee Hooker 00:11
21 I Hope One Day My Luck WIll Change – Robert Curtis Smith 01:26
22 Only Places They Can Go (spoken) – Otis Spann 01:00
23 People Calls Me Lucky – Oits Spann 01:42
24 What Have I Committed (spoken) – Henry Townsend 00:46
25 ‘Tween Midnight And Day – James Butch Cage 03:16
26 Walking Basses (spoken) – Little Brother Montgomery 00:29
27 Dud Low Joe (piano solo) – Little Brother Montgomery 01:47
28 It’s A Barrelhouse Blues (spoken) – Little Brother Montgomery 00:37
29 Vicksburg Blues – Little Brother Montgomery 03:12
30 They Beat Me To Chicago (spoken) – Little Brother Montgomery 00:15
31 They All Called Him ‘Pork Chops’ (spoken) – Roosevelt Sykes 00:56
32 Forty-Four Blues – Roosevelt Sykes 02:07
33 Doctor Clayton And Me (spoken) – Robert Junior Lockwood & Sunnyland Slim 00:20
34 Take A Little Walk With Me – Robert Junior Lockwood & Sunnyland Slim 02:20
35 To Have The Blues Within (spoken) – Edwin Buster Pickens 00:58
36 Blues In The Bottle – Mance Lipscomb 03:00

VA – Paul Oliver – Conversation With The Blues A Documentary of Fields Recordings (1965)
(192 kbps, cover art included)