An Older, But Still Wonderful, Blind Willie McTell
McTell may have lost quite a few steps since the 1920s and '30s by the time this music was recorded, but he was still in excellent form. The disc has a solid song selection and shows us that, had McTell have lived just a few more years, he could have been a huge star in the Country Blues revival. His twelve string guitar playing is exquisite. In my opinion, McTell and Gary Davis are the greatest twelve string guitarists in history; better than Leadbelly and Jesse Fuller. This disc and "Pig 'N' Whistle Red" are extremely enjoyable, but one should buy the JSP McTell box set first!

perfect present
My brother is a music conisseur. He had been having trouble locating this cd & one other, so I got them both for Christmas. He was extatic. Although I have not personally listened to either one, his face said it all.

Little Known Masterpiece
I was looking over the blues albums in a music store one day in hopes of finding a good one that I might not have (I have more blues cds than most of the stores, and that is not an exaggeration... and I mean real blues cds, not white celebrity-filled jam fests). When I came across this one, a Mctell that i did not own, I was excited. As excited as I was though, I was not expecting it to be as unbelievable as I discovered it to be. This may well be the man's greatest recording. His voice and playing had matured and taken on an chilling quality. Every song is excellent and distinctive...Mctell is truly unique. The twelve string playing is breath taking and the vocals full of power. Like I said, every track is great, but if I had to mention at least one highlight, his version of Blind Willie Johnson's "Motherless Children..." is haunting. This "album" gave me chills, seriously.

Genius at Work
One could assume that Blind Willie Mctell had to have all the markings of a blues artist from the 20's who recorded on 78's, recorded under "psuedo names" for different label, was poor, uneducated, lonley, depressed, a faliure, and to top it of was blind. Well truth is, his recordings, as most race records, diden't sell well and he was blind. But he was educated and real and write music in braile. He was supposidly very confident with the real world despite being negro and blind. I wonder how he would have felt if he knew actually how good he was, maybe he did, I don't know. But only three records exsist of Mctell with decent sound quality (Atlanta 12 String, Pig Whistle, Last Session). Its to bad he diden't record more because he lived to 59. Either way his records from the 20's and 30's were actually recorded quite well. One listen through this and you realize that Blind Willie is one of the most influental bluesman ever. He influenced Robert Johnson, who in turn influenced every rock muscian for years. Bob Dylan, who wrote a famous song about Mctell, copied Mctell nearly as much as Woody Gunthrie on "The Freewhilin Bob Dylan". Allman Brothers covered "Statesboro Blues". Jack White from the White Stripes at times sounds just like him, in fact, Jack White can't even get close to Mctell, but does try (they have covered his songs). These are only a few examples, but rather than listen to the decendents, listen to the real thing. He was a great singer, and guitar player, not to mention his diversity of styles. Of any of the old blues genius's have a fault, it is that some of them have little diversity. Not Mctell, here you have happy dancy tunes, dirge's, gospel, blues, ect...

The Greatest of Blind Willie
I bought this originally for the gospel cuts, which I fell in love with, but soon I started to listen to the blues closer, and everything has given me inspiration at the church house.