Fat Possum Records To Release Worried Blues – 10 Album Series Of Historic Rarities From Skip James, Furry Lewis, Mississippi John Hurt + More – Out July 21st

On July 21, Fat Possum Records will release Worried Blues – a series of 10 albums featuring rare and previously out-of-print recordings developed in collaboration with Amazon Originals. The historic series of albums will be available on Amazon Music—with one song from each album available now to stream, in advance of the full release date, on Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music. Fans can also purchase each album in CD and vinyl, or download in MP3 format on Amazon Music. Worried Blues features rare, lost, and out-of-print recordings from 10 towering figures of 20th Century delta blues, including R.L. Burnside, Reverend Gary Davis, Honeyboy Edwards, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Furry Lewis, Little Brother Montgomery, Houston Stackhouse, Bukka White, and Reverend Robert Wilkins. There is one full album devoted to each artist.

Billboard spoke with Fat Possum founder Matthew Johnson and Amazon’s Alex Luke, Global Head of Programming & Content Strategy, about how this vital treasure trove of American music was brought to light on Amazon Music after being out of print for decades. Read that interview here and listen to a 10-track sampler with one song from each album here.

The bulk of Worried Blues was recorded from 1963-1972 by Gene Rosenthal, blues scholar and founder of Adelphi Records, along with contributions from acclaimed musicologist and one of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, John Fahey. The 10 albums provide a rich and varied catalog of artists who were scattered across the Mississippi Delta, largely inactive until a new generation sought them out.

Rosenthal and Fahey came upon these artists through word-of-mouth tips, hopeful searches, and cosmic kismet. For Skip James, these recordings would be the first since his initial rise during the Great Depression some 30 years prior. In the case of Bukka White, a nondescript letter from Fahey sent to “Booker T. Washington White (Old Blues Singer)” with no address, miraculously made its way into the right hands. These recordings sat untouched for over two decades before seeing a limited CD release in the early 1990s on Adelphi. Worried Blues represents the music’s first widespread release, and first time on LP.

These recordings have long been highly treasured, primarily for their striking variety. Despite nine out of the ten artists hailing from central and northern Mississippi, no two styles are alike. From the ragtime folk-tinged blues of Mississippi John Hurt, to the ebullient signature slide guitar of Furry Lewis, which would later earn him an opening slot on tour with the Rolling Stones, Worried Blues preserves an exceptionally rich moment in our cultural history. In his notes on the series, Grammy-winning music historian Elijah Wald explains, “the richness of Mississippi blues derived from the combination of isolated, majority-black regions populated largely by young newcomers from other areas as the Delta swamps were drained at the turn of the 20th Century, and these players created quirky, individual styles by mixing older sounds with what they were hearing from neighbors, records, minstrel and vaudeville troupes, and whatever other influences came their way.”

 

Full track lists are below.

 

Worried Blues – Bukka White (Recorded 1963)

1. Streamline Special

2. Drunken Leroy Blues

3. Fixin' To Die

4. Midnight Twister

5. Aberdeen Blues

6. Vaseline Head Woman*

7. Jump

8. Jack O'Diamonds 

9. Chi Chi Boogie

10. 1963 Isn't 1962 Blues

11. Boogie 'Til Dubuque

12. Driftin' and Driftin'

13. Corinna, Corinna 

 

Worried Blues – Mississippi John Hurt (Recorded 1964)

1. Slidin' Delta

2. Louis Collins

3. Staggerlee

4. Monday Mornin' Blues

5. Comin' Home

6. A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight

7. Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor*

8. You Can't Come In

9. Joe Turner

10. Lonesome Am I 

11. Trouble Blues

12. Lovin' Spoonful 

13. Richland Woman Blues

14. Nobody's Dirty Business

15. Worried Blues

16. Avalon Blues

 

Worried Blues – Honeyboy Edwards (Recorded 1969 - 1971)

1. Myrtle Mae

2. Bull Cow Blues #2

3. Hot Springs (Arkansas) Blues

4. Must I Break 'Em On Down*

5. Little Boy Blue

6. B And O Blues

7. Love Honeyboy Slow

8. Don't Mistreat A Fool

9. Howlin' Wind

10. (Meet) The Mornin' Train

 

Worried Blues – Houston Stackhouse (Recorded 1972)

1. Kind Hearted Woman Blues

2. Bricks In My Pillow

3. Bye Bye Blues

4. Sweet Black Angel Blues*

5. Pony Blues

6. Cry On! Cry On!

7. Cryin' Won't Help You

8. I Got Something

9. Maggie Campbell Blues

10. Big Road Blues

11. I'm Gettin' 

 

Worried Blues – Little Brother Montgomery (Recorded 1969)

1. No Special Rider*

2. Prisoner Bound Blues

3. You Gotta See Your Mama Every Night

4. Cow Cow Blues

5. Gin House Blues

6. New Vicksburg Blues

7. London Shout

8. Oh, Daddy

9. Little Brother's Early Pieces And History

10. No Special Boogie

11. Farrish Street Jive

12. Muleface Blues

 

 

Worried Blues – Reverend Robert Wilkins (Recorded 1971)

1. Jesus Said If You Go

2. (Jesus Will Fix It) Alright

3. You Gotta Move*

4. Streamline Frisco Limited

5. Pray For Me

6. Don't Let Nobody Turn You 'Round

7. Why Don't You Do It

8. Just A Closer Walk With Thee

9. Rock Of Ages

10. ...Remember Me

11. You've Got To Stand Your Test In Judgement 

12. When The Saints Go Marching In

13. In The Army Of The Lord 

 

Worried Blues – Reverend Gary Davis (Recorded 1969)

1. Let's Get Together

2. Sun Goin' Down

3. Lo, I'll Be With You Always

4. Mornin' Train* 

5. Out On The Ocean Sailing

6. Right Now

7. Birmingham Special

8. There's A Destruction In That Land

9. O, Glory

10. Soon My Work Will All Be Done

 

Worried Blues – R.L. Burnside (Recorded 1969)

1. Goin' Down South

2. Two Trains Runnin' 

3. Sat Down On My Bed And Cried

4. Nine Days In jail

5. Long Haired Doney

6. Hobo Blues

7. My Black Name Ringin' 

8. Catfish Blues

9. See My Jumper

10. Peach Tree Blues* 

11. Goin' Away Blues

12. Poor Boy

13. Tom Wilson's Place

 

 

Worried Blues – Skip James (Recorded 1964)

1. All Night Long

2. Broke & Hungry

3. I'm So Glad

4. Bad Whiskey

5. Cypress Grove Blues

6. Catfish Blues

7. Goin' Away To Stay

8. Crow Jane

9. Devil Got My Woman

10. She Lyin'

11. Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues

12. Drunken Spree

13. Black Gal

14. Illinois Blues

15. Worried Blues* 

16. Look Down The Road

 

Worried Blues – Furry Lewis (Recorded 1969)

1. On The Road Again

2. Why Don't You Come Home Blues

3. Oh! Babe!

4. I've Got A Bird To Whistle

5. Furry's Worried Blues

6. Judge Boushe* 

7. East St. Louis Blues

8. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

9. St. Louis Blues

10. If You Follow Me Babe

11. Natural Born Eastman

 

*Song is now available to stream exclusively on Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music.