Robert Pete Williams - Long Ol' Way From Home: The Chicago Sessions

Among the last of the great old country-blues players discovered in the 1960s, Robert Pete Williams was easily the most unique. His ragged griot approach to the blues paid little attention to standard rhymes or blues forms, allowing him to spin personalized stories of tremendous emotional power, even when he was working off of traditional pieces like "Motherless Child" or "Poor Boy Long Ways From Home." The recordings collected here were taped by Norman Dayron at concerts Williams gave at the University of Chicago and Lake Forest College in early 1965, and they show a masterful performer at the top of his game, playing flawless acoustic guitar and singing like a man who is assured he has something to say, and that he'll be heard saying it. Read More