The Slide Guitar: Bottles, Knives, & Steel, Vol. 1 - CD

Part of Columbia's Roots N' Blues series. Organized roughly into chronological order, THE SLIDE GUITAR-BOTTLES, KNIVES & STEEL is an expansive selection of blues slide guitar playing from the late 1920s through the mid-1960s. Some well-known slide guitar players from the 1920s and '30s, including Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and Blind Boy Fuller, are featured here. However, there are also number of lesser-known blues players from later periods, including Sister O.M. Terrell and Buddy Woods, who are deservedly featured on this recording. Though the sound quality on some of the older recordings is a little uneven and the Chicago electric slide of post-World War II Chicago blues--particularly that of Elmore James--is omitted in favor of a more intimate, raw blues sound, there is no shortage of first-rate blues playing here. The closing track featuring Son House is especially notable. House, who was recorded in the midst of the 1960's blues resurgence in a proper studio by legendary producer John Hammond, contributes a version of "Pearline" which stands as a stirring reminder of the power of the blues, even when it's just a man and his guitar.