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Browse by Artist: WILLIAMS, ROBERT PETE
Artist:
WILLIAMS, ROBERT PETE
Title:
Louisiana Blues
Label:
4 MEN WITH BEARDS
Format:
LP
Price:
$19.00
Catalog #:
4M 193LP
"Over fifty years since his discovery by ethnomusicologists Dr. Harry Oster and Richard Allen in the prison farm of Angola, Louisiana, what is it that makes the blues as sung and picked out by Robert Pete Williams such a singular listening experience, unequalled elsewhere in that musical form? As Peter Guralnick, in his
Feel Like Going Home
book writes: 'It's difficult to approve the banalities of most blues singers after listening to Robert Pete Williams. More than anyone else he shatters the conventions of the form and refuses to rely upon any of the clichés, either of music or of lyric, which bluesman after bluesman will invoke. Instead he sings blues which reflect a unique and personal vision; he makes each song unmistakably his own.' Unfamiliar keys, cliché-free lyricism, spontaneity, an individualistic style in invoking his particular blues, all make Robert Pete Williams an idiosyncratic entry into the canon. It's impossible to listen to blues artists before him and hear strains of his particular style. None have matched it since.
Louisiana Blues
contains ten songs recorded in the month of July 1966 out in Berkeley, California for John Fahey's Takoma imprint. Includes the original eight-page booklet with liner notes." On 180 gram vinyl.
Artist:
WILLIAMS, ROBERT PETE
Title:
Free Again
Label:
DOXY (ITALY)
Format:
LP
Price:
$23.00
Catalog #:
DOY 657LP
"Robert Pete Williams (1914-1980) is the quintessential Delta bluesman. His songs, which tell the tale of his own life's considerable hardships, are performed in the style of the early country blues, with only a fleeting adherence to a twelve-bar form. Much like Lead Belly, Williams was 'discovered' by a music historian (Harry Oster) at Louisiana's infamous Angola prison, where he was serving a life sentence for murder. Williams, again like Lead Belly, managed to 'sing himself to freedom', thanks to Oster's petitioning for his release. While still incarcerated, his first recordings appeared on the Folk Lyric label in the form of
Angola Prisoners' Blues
, but by the time
Free Again
(as the title suggests) was released in 1961 he had been paroled to a work farm. Although the farm was better than prison, the 80-hour work week left precious little time for music. Amazingly he did manage to record and perform occasionally and
Free Again
, a collection of gripping solo guitar and vocal performances recorded by Oster himself in Baton Rouge on November 14, 1960, is a shining example of this."
Artist:
WILLIAMS, ROBERT PETE
Title:
Louisiana Blues
Label:
WATER
Format:
CD
Price:
$15.00
Catalog #:
WATER 245CD
"Over fifty years since his discovery by ethnomusicologists Dr. Harry Oster and Richard Allen in the prison farm of Angola, Louisiana, what is it that makes the blues as sung and picked out by Robert Pete Williams such a singular listening experience, unequalled elsewhere in that musical form? As Peter Guralnick, in his
Feel Like Going Home
book writes: 'It's difficult to approve the banalities of most blues singers after listening to Robert Pete Williams. More than anyone else he shatters the conventions of the form and refuses to rely upon any of the clichés, either of music or of lyric, which bluesman after bluesman will invoke. Instead he sings blues which reflect a unique and personal vision; he makes each song unmistakably his own.' Unfamiliar keys, cliché-free lyricism, spontaneity, an individualistic style in invoking his particular blues, all make Robert Pete Williams an idiosyncratic entry into the canon. It's impossible to listen to blues artists before him and hear strains of his particular style. None have matched it since.
Louisiana Blues
contains ten songs recorded in the month of July 1966 out in Berkeley, California for John Fahey's Takoma imprint. Contains liner notes by Andy Beta."
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