Tracks:
In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down)
Move To Kansas City
John Henry
The Fox Chase (AKA Hound Dog Holler)
Louise
Red River
Goodbye Leaderbelly
Custard Pie
I Woke Up This Morning And I Could Hardly See
Old Woman Blues
Talkin' About The Blues
Changed The Lock On My Door
Moanin' And Mournin'
Baby, Baby

Performer Notes:

• Personnel includes: Sonny Terry (vocals, harmonica); Alec Seward (guitar).
• Recorded in 1953.
• Personnel: Sonny Terry (vocals, harmonica); Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee (vocals, harmonica); Alec Seward (guitar).
• Audio Remasterer: Kirk Felton.
• Recording information: NY, NY (12/1963).
• Arrangers: McGhee; Sonny Terry.
• This rare December 1953 session (reissued on CD in 1999) was unusual for Terry in that his guitar accompanist was not Brownie McGhee, but Alec Seward, who had previously recorded as Guitar Slim in a duo with "Fat Boy" Hayes" (aka Jelly Belly). It's unusual only in the personnel, however. It sounds like typical Sonny Terry, as he works his way through original material, including standards like "John Henry" and other blues tunes like "In the Evening" (the song that would provide much of the basis for Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain"). You'd have to say that it's usually more interesting to hear Terry with his longtime partner McGhee than it is to hear him with Seward, but it's not terribly different. The trademark vocal and harmonica whoops, and hollers are in gear and running throughout the album, sometimes to exhilarating effect, as on the rapid "The Fox Chase (aka "Hound Dog Holler")." His lyrics get uncommonly specific on "Goodbye Leadbelly," a tribute to the then-recently deceased folk-blues legend, composed by "writer unknown." The recording engineer on the session, incidentally, was a young Jac Holzman, who had just started Elektra Records. ~ Richie Unterberger

Producer: Kenneth S. Goldstein

Format: CD (1 Disc); Mono

Studio/Live: Studio

Guest Artist: Alec Seward

Release Date: 1 August, 1999

Label: Terry

Dimensions: 14 x 12.6 x 1.1 centimeters (0.10 kg)