1. Match Box Blues
    2. That Crawlin' Baby Blue...
    3. Hot Dogs
    4. Corinna Blues
    5. Rambler Blues
    6. Rabbit Foot Blues
    7. Dry Southern Blues
    8. 'Lectric Chair Blues
    9. One Dime Blues
    10. Got the Blues
    11. See That My Grave Is Ke...
    12. He Arose from the Dead
    13. Black Horse Blues
    14. Prison Cell Blues
    15. Booster Blues
    16. Bed Springs Blues
    17. Jack O'Diamond Blues
    18. Beggin Back
    19. Wartime Blues
    20. Easy Rider Blues		play
    21. How Long			play
    22. Long Lonesome Blues
    23. I Want to Be Like Jesus...

Blind Lemon Jefferson (vocals, guitar); 
George Perkins (piano).

Though KING OF THE COUNTRY BLUES is the definitive Blind Lemon Jefferson collection, THE BEST OF still packs 23 tracks of some of the best country blues ever put to tape. There is some crossover between the two discs, including Jefferson classics like "Rabbit Foot Blues" and "See That My Grave's Kept Clean" (complete with Jefferson's simulation of church bells on guitar). But BEST OF contains several essential tracks not on KING OF, including the provocative "Bed Spring Blues," "Jack O' Diamond Blues" with its dreamy, free-floating tempo, and the rag-like "Dry Southern Blues." The wrenching "'Lectric Chair Blues," and the spiritual "I Want to be Like Jesus in My Heart"--neither of which are on KING OF--are here as well.

The sources for these recordings were original 78s--most of which were quite rare and in poor repair. Despite meticulous remastering, then, the sound quality is quite patchy, with a great deal of hiss and crackle. Nevertheless, Jefferson's plaintive, deeply soulful tenor and dazzling six-string technique (in which folk figures, blazing embellishments, boogie patterns, and funky ostinatos are blended together in a seamless, intoxicating style) can be heard and appreciated. This is utterly essential, classic country blues of the first order.

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1. Jack O'Diamond Blues - 2:43
2. Chock House Blues - 2:37
3. Stocking Feet Blues - 3:04
4. Black Snake Moan - 2:57			play
5. Shuckin' Sugar Blues - 2:59
6. Rabbit Foot Blues - 2:51
7. Bad Luck Blues - 2:47
8. Broke and Hungry - 2:57
9. Easy Rider Blues - 2:53
10. Match Box Blues - 3:07			play
11. Rising High Water Blues - 2:26
12. Teddy Bear Blues- 2:30
13. Lonesome House Blues - 2:22
14. Sunshine Special - 2:40
15. Change My Luck Blues - 2:22
16. Prison Cell Blues - 2:45
17. Blind Lemon's Penitentiary Blues - 2:38
18. Lock Step Blues - 3:07
19. Hangman's Blues - 3:01
20. Mosquito Moan - 2:58
21. Southern Woman Blues - 3:02
22. Bakershop Blues - 3:04
23. Pneumonia Blues - 3:15
24. Long Distance Moan - 3:18
25. That Growling Baby Blues - 2:38

Blind Lemon Jefferson - Guitar, Vocal

Jefferson is considered to be the father of Texas blues, and with good reason. Unlike many early blues legends that lived and died in relative obscurity, Lemon was highly popular during his lifetime. Not only did he influence other bluesmen, but he also left quite an impression on country music father Jimmie Rodgers and western swing pioneers Bob Wills and Milton Brown. As a guitarist, Jefferson had few peers. His capability to throw off unexpected and complex phrases was legendary. Lemon's playing was accompanied by a high and lonesome voice that complemented his formidable songwriting skills. This CD is a reissue of a '70s double vinyl disc set, and it contains most of his best work including his only slide piece "Jack O' Diamonds," one of his many versions of "Matchbox Blues," and the amazing "Rabbit Foot Blues." One would be hard-pressed to find a bluesman of greater depth and skill than Mr. Jefferson. ---Lars Gandil

Milestone's Blind Lemon Jefferson-collection gathers 25 of the seminal Texas bluesman's best songs, including the eerie "Black Snake Moan", the macabre "Hangman's Blues", and the classic "Jack O' Diamonds Blues", and the sound is surprisingly good. (Yes, I wish it had been better, too, but the original masters are long lost, and compared to other Blind Lemon-compilations, this one is actually very impressive.) The only downside is that the song selection is not as good as it could have been...several of Lemon's best songs are missing, including "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and "'Lectric Chair Blues". But the sound? Really good. ---Docendo Discimus

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Disc: 1
1. I Want To Be Like Jesus In My Heart
2. All I Want Is That Pure Religion
3. Got The Blues
4. Long Lonesome Blues
5. Booster Blues
6. Dry Southern Blues
7. Black Horse Blues
8. Corinna Blues
9. Got The Blues
10. Long Lonesome Blues
11. Jack O' Diamond Blues         play
12. Jack O' Diamond Blues
13. Chock House Blues
14. Beggin Back
15. Old Rounders Blues
16. Stocking Feet Blues
17. That Black Snake Moan
18. Wartime Blues
19. Broke And Hungry
20. Shuckin' Sugar Blues
21. Booger Rooger Blues           play
22. Rabbit Foot Blues
23. Bad Luck Blues 

Disc: 2
1. Black Snake Moan
2. Match Box Blues
3. Easy Rider Blues
4. Match Box Blues
5. Match Box Blues
6. Rising High Water Blues        play
7. Weary Dogs Blues
8. Right Of Way Blues
9. Teddy Bear Blues
10. Teddy Bear Blues
11. Black Snake Dream Blues       play
12. Hot Dogs
13. He Arose From The Dead
14. Struck Sorrow Blues
15. Rambler Blues
16. Chinch Bug Blues
17. Deceitful Brownskin Blues
18. Sunshine Special
19. Gone Dead On You Blues
20. Where Shall I Be?
21. See That My Grave's Kept Clean
22. One Dime Blues
23. Lonesome House Blues

Disc: 3
1. Blind Lemon's Penitentiary Blues
2. 'Lectric Chair Blues
3. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
4. Lemon's Worried Blues
5. Mean Jumper Blues
6. Balky Mule Blues
7. Change My Luck Blues
8. Prison Cell Blues
9. Lemon's Cannon Ball Moan
10. Long Lastin' Love
11. Piney Wood's Money Mama
12. Low Down Mojo Blues
13. Competition Bed Blues
14. Lock Step Blues
15. Hangman's Blues
16. Sad News Blues
17. How Long How Long
18. Lockstep Blues
19. Hangman's Blues
20. Christmas Eve Blues
21. Happy New Year Blues
22. Maltese Cat Blues
23. D B Blues

Disc: 4
1. Eagle Eyed Mama
2. Dynamite Blues
3. Disgusted Blues
4. Competition Bed Blues        play
5. Sad News Blues               play    
6. Oil Well Blues
7. Tin Cup Blues
8. Big Night Blues
9. Bed Spring Blues
10. Saturday Night Spendor Blues
11. That Black Snake Moan No. 2
12. Peach Orchard Mama
13. Big Night Blues
14. Bed Spring Blues
15. Yo Yo Blues                 play
16. Mosquito Man
17. Southern Woman Blues
18. Bakershop Blues
19. Pneumonia Blues
20. Long Distance Moan
21. That Crawlin' Baby Blues    play
22. Fence Breakin' Yellin' Blues
23. Cat Man Blues
24. The Cheaters Spell
25. Bootin' Me 'Bout

This is an awe-inspiring four-CD set in a world that has no shortage of brilliant artists represented in their entirety. Listeners wishing to appreciate the spellbinding, primal sound of Blind Lemon Jefferson can start here, except they may never want to finish; 70-some years since his death, and nearly 80 years since his first record, Jefferson's voice and guitar effortlessly cut through the decades. Starting with his earliest sides (from December 1925 -- the same year that electrical recording debuted), "I Want to Be Like Jesus in My Heart" and "All I Want Is That Pure Religion," a pair of gospel songs originally credited to "Deacon L.J. Bates," the combination of the powerful, achingly expressive singing and playing makes them a dazzling listening experience -- and this isn't even the kind of music for which Jefferson was known.

Even with the surface noise typical of pre-World War II 78s, the delicacy and intricacy of the playing comes through. On the next tracks, however, when he shifts gears to the blues, that's when his fingers and his voice take flight from one song to another. On "Got the Blues," "Long Lonesome Blues," "Booster Blues," "Dry Southern Blues," "Black Horse Blues," and others, he lofts himself like an eagle soaring across a landscape (and that was exactly how this came off in a recording world populated by distinctly lesser men). By the time of his fourth group of sessions, Jefferson's records had acquired all of the attributes that made him a legend; even on a track like "Old Rounders Blues," which is very nearly more surface noise than music, the sudden yet graceful trills and arpeggios in Jefferson's playing come through, and when coupled with the voice -- which is seldom muted by the surface imperfections in the sources -- the results are spellbinding; later on, he does even more with less overt virtuosity and surprises listeners even more. Toward the end of his life (in 1929), he was pioneering what could be called the Count Basie approach to virtuosity, reducing his flourishes to figures of just two or three notes.

And his voice comes through well enough to make it live up to its title, even on tracks such as the first version of "That Black Snake Moan," despite some considerable surface noise in the source. Because of its inclusiveness, there's no chance that this set can match the sonic workmanship on, say, Yazoo Records' The Best of Blind Lemon Jefferson, which is generally able to achieve a uniformly high standard. Still, modern remastering has allowed the producers to salvage some useful sound even on some of the roughest-condition masters, such as the 1928 vintage "'Lectric Chair Blues" from 1928, which is as much hiss and surface noise as it is music but still reveals an amazing amount of the performance. Each of the four discs covers a year's worth of recorded output in Jefferson's life, from 1925/1926 to 1929; there's no rhyme or reason to the quality of each cut, the producers limited by the condition of the few surviving 78s so that the dazzlingly clear "That Crawling Baby Blues" is followed by "Fence Breakin' Yellin' Blues," the latter filled with surface noise but easily salvaged.>

These are all several cuts above the quality of work Document Records released in the late '80s and early '90s, and comes at a much lower price, as well. It's not for the casual fan -- though it could be absorbed, say, 12 songs or so at a time each week (which would make this a month's listening). The annotation, such as it is -- little hard information could be found on Jefferson in the 1950s and 1960s, when people who worked with him were still in abundance to be interviewed -- is extensive. ---Bruce Eder, allmusic.com

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1. That Crawlin' Baby Blues
2. Bad Luck Blues
3. Matchbox Blues
4. Hot Dogs
5. One Dime Blues
6. Shuckin' Sugar
7. Rabbit Foot Blues
8. Corrina Blues              play
9. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
10. Easy Rider Blues          play
11. Broke And Hungry
12. Black Horse Blues
13. Lonesome House Blues
14. Oil Well Blues
15. He Rose From The Dead
16. Beggin' Back
17. Prison Cell Blues
18. Rambler Blues             play
19. Gone Dead On You Blues
20. Wartime Blues
21. Booger Rooger Blues
22. Right Of Way Blues
23. Big Night Blues

Blind Lemon Jefferson - guitar, vocals

"Blind" Lemon Jefferson (September 24, 1893 – December, 1929) was a blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues”. Unlike many artists who were "discovered" and recorded in their normal venues, in December 1925 or January 1926, he was taken to Chicago, Illinois, to record his first tracks. He recorded about 100 tracks between 1926 and 1929; 43 records were issued, all but one for Paramount Records. Jefferson died in Chicago in December 1929; neither the exact cause of death nor the exact date are known. Jefferson was among the inaugural class of blues musicians inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

"Blind" Lemon Jefferson (1884 - 1929) – amerykański niewidomy muzyk bluesowy, wokalista i gitarzysta związany z Teksasem. Jeden z najpopularniejszych gitarzystów i wokalistów bluesowych lat 20. XX wieku. Znany także jako Deacon L.J. Bates i Elder J.C. Brown. O jego życiu wiadomo niewiele; zachowało się wprawdzie wiele anegdot o nim, ale często są one sprzeczne i brak im jakiejś solidniejszej dokumentacji.

W 1925 r. Jefferson został zaproszony przez firmę Paramount Records do dokonania nagrań. Stało się to dzięki poleceniu go przez Sama Price'a, bluesowego i jazzowego pianisty, który słyszał Lemona wielokrotnie w Dallas. Lata 1926–1928, to okres jego największych sukcesów; nagrał około stu utworów i stał się najbardziej znanym bluesmanem w całych Stanach Zjednoczonych. Żaden z wykonawców bluesa wiejskiego nie dorównywał mu popularnością. Podróżował wówczas często pomiędzy Dallas a Chicago, gdzie dokonywał nagrań. Zmarł w Chicago, w swoim samochodzie, w niejasnych okolicznościach.

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