Wienerworld records is releasing a series of recordings entitled “Down Home Blues Series” that aim to compile the origin of blues. They have published six boxes so far “Detroit. Detroit Special” (3 CDS), “Chicago Volume One. Fine Boogie” (5 CD box set), “New York & The North Eastern States. Tough Enough” (4 CDS), “Chicago Volume Two. Sweet Home Chicago” (5 CDS), “Miami, Atlanta & The South Eastern States” (3 CDS) and this last one entitled “Chicago Volume 3. Down Home Blues. The Special Stuff” (4 CDS). As you can easily imagine, this is an impressive collection that gathers not only hard-to-find recordings, but also has a priceless historical value.

This last volume focuses in the history of the pioneers who forged Chicago blues sound. Besides the four CDs, this box set also includes an impressing extensive booklet that explains how Chicago came to become the mecca of the blues. The city was founded in 1779 and by 1900 it already had a population of 1.700.000 people, although only 2% were Afro-American. It wasn’t until 1910, the year of the so-called “Great Migration”, when many southern black people migrated to the north looking for new opportunities, that Chicago started to be a welcoming city not only for black people trying to escape from the miserable conditions they were suffering in the south, but also for many European immigrants. Cities like Chicago, New York or Detroit received lots of working people who also introduced their music in those big cities. Different factors also contributed to make Chicago a blues city, like the emergence of a good number of record companies like Okeh Records or the popularity of phonographs (record players) one could easily get in Chicago, as many of them were manufactured in the city.

Although the first published recordings were originally jazz music, the blues soon took its own path and, from 1926, Chicago started to welcome blues artists like Blind Lemon Jefferson or Pinetop Smith who went to record in its flourishing studios like was Paramount.

The Great Depression hit hard phonographic industry, but Chicago soon recovered, thanks to entrepreneur Lester Franklin Melrose who founded Bluebird Records, as well as a record store in Chicago’s southside. There Melrose met many Afro-American blues artists like Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim or Tampa Red, becoming their manager and promoter, getting excellent sales and recognition for all his artists.

By the end of the Second World War Melrose’s influence had considerably waned, because musical tastes had changed a lot. Audiences no longer wanted to listen to acoustic blues. Instead, they preferred the new electrified instruments they listened in most city clubs, they also wanted to take home in records. There also appeared a good number of small independent companies like Rhumboogie Records, which owned the Rhumboogie Club on Chicago’s East Side, which recorded T-Bone Walker, or Mercury Records, founded in 1945 by Irvin Green and three partners, which recorded countless blues musicians who were playing all over the city.

It was in 1941 when some of the songs included at the beginning of this collection were recorded. At that time, blues in Chicago was a major commercial and cultural success. Countless clubs had opened their doors both in the Southside and the West Side, where their owners brought to play all those artists who filled the streets city with blues. These four albums reflect that golden and bright era of blues that, for twenty-five years, made Chicago the one and only blues city and, undoubtedly, will be enjoyed by all lovers of the genre.

Coming now to the music gathered in these four albums, it is important to point out that some names are well-known by fans, others are not so much popular and there are also some very dark ones. Among the well-known names mention Robert Lockwood Jr, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Eddie Taylor, Sunnyland Slim, Magic Sam, Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry or Big Joe Williams among others. About the lesser-known ones you will find Johnny Temple, Big Maceo, Jody Williams, Floyd Jones or Jazz Gillum… and some of the darkest ones are names like J.T. Brown, Morris Pejoe, Little Hudson, Lucky Carmichael, Grover Pruitt, Alfred Wallace, Minnie Thomas or Mata Roy… to complete more than thirty artists who give shape to these four albums. Blues lovers will also find in the well documented booklet all the recording details, as well as record labels, recording dates and the backing musicians who played in each session, as well as a complete biography of every selected bluesman.

Four impressive CDS to discover, learn and enjoy, that deserves an outstanding place in your record collection as a valuable jewel. Almost 320 minutes of blues gathered in this fantastic superb box. ESSENTIAL.