Blind Willie Johnson - American Epic: The Best Of Blind Willie Johnson (2017) [Official Digital Download 24-bit/96kHz]

"American Epic" compilation series is a collection of releases of music associated with the film series "The American Epic", a historical documentaries are a journey back in time to the "Big Bang" of modern popular music.

In the 1920s, as radio took over the pop music business, record companies were forced to leave their studios in major cities in search of new styles and markets. Ranging the mountains, prairies, rural villages, and urban ghettos of America, they discovered a wealth of unexpected talent. The recordings they made of all the ethnic groups of America democratized the nation and gave a voice to everyone. Country singers in the Appalachians, Blues guitarists in the Mississippi Delta, Gospel preachers across the south, Cajun fiddlers in Louisiana, Tejano groups from the Texas Mexico border, Native American drummers in Arizona, and Hawaiian musicians were all recorded. For the first time, a woman picking cotton in Mississippi, a coalminer in Virginia or a tobacco farmer in Tennessee could have their thoughts and feelings heard on records played in living rooms across the country. It was the first time America heard itself.

This is not "remastering", in the normal sense, but something closer to fine art restoration. The intent is not for people to marvel at the antiquity of these discs, but rather to experience them as vital, immediate performances that speak to us as directly as they did on the day they were recorded—not simply great art for their time, but great art for all times. Engineer Nicholas Bergh has reassembled this recording system from original parts and it is now the only one left in the world. The system consists of a single microphone, a towering six-foot amplifier rack, and a live record-cutting lathe, powered by a weight-driven pulley system of clockwork gears. The musicians have roughly three minutes to record their song direct to disc before the weight hits the floor. In the 1920s, they called this "catching lightning in a bottle".

Texas slide guitarist and gospel bluesman Blind Willie Johnson recorded only 30 songs over the course of his life as a preacher and street performer. Even so, the savvy combination of his gritty and powerful "chest voice" singing style coupled with his mastery of slide guitar (some report he regularly used a knife as a slide) has given him a notably influential legacy, specifically with later bluesmen Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson. His tune "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" was selected for Carl Sagan's Voyager probe Golden Record, the Library of Congress as well as the National Recording Registry. Single LP with single pocket tip-on jacket with soft touch finish.

Tracklist:

01 - John the Revelator
02 - It's Nobody's Fault but Mine
03 - If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down
04 - God Moves On the Water
05 - The Soul of a Man
06 - I Know His Blood Can Make Me Whole
07 - Church, I'm Fully Saved Today
08 - Let Your Light Shine on Me
09 - Mother's Children Have a Hard Time
10 - Lord I Can't Just Keep from Crying
11 - Trouble Will Soon Be Over
12 - Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed
13 - Bye and Bye I'm Goin' to See the King
14 - Praise God I'm Satisfied
15 - Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
16 - Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground


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