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Blind Willie McTell
Atlanta Strut

Compil. UK 2008 on Rockwell Records label
Blues (East Coast Blues)

Intelligent. Erudite. A folk hero and an inspiration to many. Blind Willie McTell was a long way removed for the tortured, troubled bluesmen of the Delta scene. Yet by helping define the East Coast style with his precise, distinctive twelve-string guitar playing and his clear, melodic voice, his role in the development of the Blues was no less important. Like so many of his contemporaries, McTell's origins are ill defined. Born on or around 5 May 1898 near Thomson, Georgia, and practically blind for birth (what little sight he had barely lasted through infancy), his original name is believed to have been McTear or McTier. Music ran strong in his family, with both his teenage mother and absentee father proficient guitar players. Moving to Statesboro in 1907 with his mother, he gradually learned to live with his affliction, and by adulthood the ease with which he overcame his disability became the stuff of local legend. Returning to Thomson following the death of his mother in 1910, he soon began to travel extensively, learning and playing six-string guitar, accordion, and harmonica in a series of touring shows across the state. Although apparently putting music to one side for a period in the early 1920s, time he spent improving his education in blind schools along the East Coast, he soon returned to Georgia, settling in Atlanta and taking up the twelve-string guitar so favored by the city's bluesmen. Rapidly mastering the instrument, he made it a trademark of his sound, rarely returning to the six string and developing a style of playing with the larger instrument which defined his career. McTell made his first foray into a recording studio in 1927, laying down five tracks for the Victor label at an Atlanta studio in 18 October. Twenty-nine years old and already a seasoned performer, these earliest recordings already feature the most distinctive elements of his unique sound, the clarity and precision of his singing and playing. The four tracks featured here from this session (the fifth being an alternate take on 'Mr McTell Got the Blues') represent an early landmark in the establishment of the East Coast style. Notwithstanding the unmistakable high quality of these first recordings, sales of the two 78s issued by Victor from the session were limited, as were those of the two discs emanating from his second session almost exactly a year later. Despite inclusion of one of his signature pieces, the haunting 'Statesboro Blues', none of them ignited the public's imagination. McTell, far from prolific at this stage of his career, next recording in October 1929, for rival label Columbia under the name of 'Blind Sammie', a favoured pseudonym derived from his middle name of Samuel, and one of a number he would choose over the years, frequently to avoid contract disputes between the various labels. Six new tracks emerged from this session, the majority in a lighter, more populist style than his previous releases. This is notably evident on the seminal 'Travelin' Blues'; a wry, humorous talking blues that remains one of his standards. For all this, however, commercial success continued to elude him. McTell's final recordings of the decade were again for Victor; eight racks laid down in November 1929 during a four-day session in which he also provided instrumental accompaniment to the vocal duo of Alfoney and Bethenea Harris. Only two takes from this session survive today, the tracks 'Drive Away Blues' and 'Love Changing Blues'. Released as a 78 before the end of the year, they came no nearer to providing McTell with commercial recognition. Within weeks, the Great Depression hit Atlanta hard. McTell's career would suffer temporarily, but then, continue even stronger in the middle years of the 1930s. Though he continued to recording until the 1950s, the recordings contained in this collection are the firm foundation upon which both his long career and his great reputation are based.

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Blind Willie McTell voc, g, 1901-1959 US album by

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