Complete Recordings 1929-34

The Turnip Gives Blood! (29 of 30 Found this Helpful)   October 2, 2002
JSP has always come through in the realm of remastering essential
music from the pre-war era. This fact had me champing at the bit when I saw that they were preparing a release of The Complete Charley Patton. This set contains essentially the same music as is found on the first five discs of the Revenant Set.
All songs recorded that Cholly appears on are found in this set. The BIG difference is that "The Masked Marvel"(probably John R.T. Davies or Ted Kendall) has finally done justice remastering the existing records and has succeeded in squeezing blood from the turnip that is known as Paramount Records.(infamous for manufacturing records that sounded like sandpaper when they were brand new!) At first I was very skeptical but after listening to just a few tracks my jaw dropped. None of the ear bleeding stridency of the Revenant masters and none of that blanket over the speakers masking that I heard on the Catfish Box. The music is alive and Cholly's voice is PRESENT. Obviously, there is no cure for the physical damage that is found on some of these relics but on the remaining sides there is pure enjoyment. Along with the best Patton remastering yet, you'll get to hear Son House, Louise Johnson, and Willie Brown's historic contributions to the legendary 1930 Paramount sessions at their best too. I can't stop raving. Enjoy!!!!

Blues With A Feeling (15 of 15 Found this Helpful)   February 22, 2003
Blues composer and performer, Sleepy John Estes claimed that you could hear Charley Patton's unamplified voice and guitar at a range of 500 yards. Estes may have exagerated a tad but think about the power of a voice you could hear even at the range of 100 yards. Charley Patton's recordings were made out of the cheapest available vinyl (used to make bowling balls) and were scratchy sounding even when they were released. Paramount felt that their "race records" didn't warrant high quality vinyl. One of my childhood preoccupations was listening to the Yahoo releases of Charley's material and trying to figure out what the guy was signing under the white noise buzz and pop of surface noise. Such a powerful voice and such awful recording technology. Now going on 80 years since their orginal releases, someone has finally made all of Charley's releases listenable. I could go on about Patton's widely imitated guitar playing, his dark allegorical lyrics, his consumate performing style or his carefully crafted image as a rebel, but you still will go back to that powerful voice. And now justice has been done to his awesome legacy of music... and justice has been done to the listener with the release of "The Complete Recordings" which offers this amazing 5 volume CD set at a price only slightly above the cost of a single CD. Maybe there is a Santa Claus, Virginia.

The best! (9 of 9 Found this Helpful)   February 20, 2004
The JSP label's blues box sets featuring C-H-A-R-L-I-E Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell and Big Bill Broonzy are among the best-sounding prewar blues compilations on the market, and this is without a doubt the best Patton-collection of all. Just look at the price! All of Charlie Patton's awesome recordings, as well as several sides featuring him as a sideman, and a number of recordings by Patton-associates like Willie Brown, Louise Johnson and Son House (all of House's 1930 Paramount singles are included). Patton's battered old 78s will never sound like the 30s Robert Johnson sides, they still hiss and pop a lot, but they have never sounded better than they do on this exquisitely remastered and well-annotated collection.
Charlie Patton and Son House were the two most important and certainly most influential prewar blues singers, as well as being two of the most impressive. All serious blues lovers should have this fine boxed set in their collection.

Methinks These Are The Revenant Remasters (11 of 12 Found this Helpful)   January 5, 2003
I have both the Revenant box set _Screaming and Hollerin the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton_ (an incredible package worthy of all the praise it has been given) and these JSP discs and I can tell you that the remasters seem to be the same. The three big differences between this set and the first five discs of the Revenant box set are 1) the very different prices 2) the JSP third disc does not require the listener to go backward ('rewind' if you will) behind track one to listen to two alternate pressings, and 3) the JSP fifth disc lacks the two tracks where H.C. Speir reads headlines of the day. In addition, with this set you don't get the sixth disc ("Charley's Orbit--Songs") or the historically interesting seventh disc ("Charley's Orbit--Interviews). Nor do you get the excellent liner notes and lyric transcriptions or the reprint of John Fahey's book on Patton. Moreover, you won't get those nifty 78 label stickers either but I doubt many people who have bought the Revenant box are using those anyway though they are a wonderful eccentric touch. The Revenant box set with its loving extras (the CDs are housed on little cardbord holders that are the size of 78s in Paramount record sleeves!) certainly gives the listener a feel for the period, but might hurt in the pocketbook. The JSP box gives all the music of the first five discs of the Revenant set with some sparse but good liner notes of its own. What is most interesting is how there seems to be a conscious effort to rewrite the canon of the country blues and put Charley Patton in that canon's center (read the back of the first CD tray card to see what I mean). This goal of rewriting the canon seemed to be precisely the same goal that the Revenant box set had. Hence, these two sets seem to be 'sister sets', if you will, one giving a feel for the period, the other offering the music at a reduced price. One other thing I must say, the JSP set is much more functional though less lavish. The CDs are easier to get at and to put back. For this reason especially, I'm glad I have both sets. The set I have reviewed is the less lavish, cheaper one, but by no means a low quality set. Highly recommended.

Where it all began (8 of 9 Found this Helpful)   August 31, 2004
First, if you have the money, buy the Revenant set please. As you may know, JSP is an importer who 'borrows' their material from other sources, does a little EQ and sells it without paying royalties (completely legal in Europe). Now, I prefer these remasters to the Yazoo versions available, its just too much hiss for my taste. Charley Patton is one of a handful of artists that are essential in every serious music lover collection along with Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Charlie Parker, Robert Johnson, Billie Holiday, Ellington, among others. Beware: this stuff is old, and not preety, rather scary. Its like drinking straight whiskey for the first time, so be prepared and take a few shots at this. Hopefully you'll find this is as good as the blues gets.