best Document CDs

[paulreso1]

Hi
I really like the quality & ethos of Document records CDs, but sometimes find the exhaustive approach to covering great artists output - well - exhausting. So I wonder if you would share your thoughts on the best 5 CDs from the Document stable (i.e. CDs that stand as great in their own right)?

regards
Paul

[Michael Messer]

Hi Paul,

Document CDs are wonderful and the world would be a sorry place without them, but most of them are not really 'albums' as such, they really are 'documents' of artists' work in chronological order. I am sure there are some that are sequenced as 'albums', but in most cases the sequencing is chronological and that doesn't make for a great album.

Please don't get me wrong, I love their stuff, but listening to 15 takes of a particular song by even my favourite artists can get boring.

Sadly Catfish Records collapsed and closed down, but their whole philosophy was to make great albums of early blues pioneers' work, which I think they achieved. So if you want 'great albums', get hold of old Catfish Records CDs, but if you want to collect the complete works of an artist, then Document is for you.

Asking for peples' favourite five could send us into list territory again.......so tread carefully!!! ;D

Shine On
Michael.

[lewiscohen]

Worth mentioning that if you tend to listen to your music on an mp3 player, probably the most cost effective way of getting hold of any Document stuff is a monthly subscription to emusic.com as they've got all the Document stuff on there (or near as damn it). 75 downloads a month for the same price as a CD.

It is mp3 though so not one for the audiophiles - not that I think there's much in it with a lot of the old stuff. It's a digital remaster of a tape recording of an old '78. My ears can't hear much of a degradation through encoding to mp3.

[percythewonderant]

Document Records are doing less exhaustive series and are selling albums such as 'the essential - - - ' for example The Essential Tampa Red' or Memphis Minnie are double albums, of those tracks you can't live without, condensed from their huge output.

They also have 'A Beginers Guide to the Blues ' too.

www.document-records.com/show_news.asp?articleID=362

At the moment they are knocking out some great cheapo's too. Look under Special's

www.document-records.com/index.asp

Perce

[marshcat]

I have come to realize that it pays to take the long-term view. If you're just getting into the country blues, you run the not inconsiderable risk of it becoming a lifetime's obsession... it's tempting at first to go the compilation/'best of...' route, but in thirty years time you're going to end up with seven versions of the same obscure song on several compilations - and you still can't find it when you want it

So take the difficult but wise decision at the very beginning. Start with Document CD 5001 and proceed in an orderly numerical fashion

And believe me, in thirty years time, your ears will need all the help they can get - most of the music we love was indeed very badly recorded; those re-issues which preserve as much fidelity as possible are to be preferred!

There is even a case to be made for extensive digital tinkering - what you might call the opposite of compressive encoding. The Patton re-vamps by pristineclassical.com, for example, are a revelation.

Lewis is right about emusic.com: it's a great way to locate and download stuff in mp3 format at relatively low cost. Although as you know, Lewis, if you don't download any of your allocated tracks in a month (there's no rollover), it rather defeats the object of the exercise...

[Mark Makin]

Having been graphic designer and catalogue designer for Document Records for a number of years - can I just mention a conversation I had with Gary Atkinson (Document MD).
He reckoned that the Document Catalogue was "20% great Country Blues, and 80% screaming women and manic preachers!!"
I suspect such electrifying tracks as "Keep Movin" by the Standard Quartette recorded in 1894 would not be high on many peoples 'In-Car' CD playlists ( you would think your CD player was broken!!)
Gary sometimes said to me that some of these titles do not sell in double figures in a decade!!
Joking aside, what Michael and others say is correct, Document records now has over 850 CDs which are now the greatest repository of early 20th century American music. Many universities in the Southern States of America see the value in owning the complete collection in their libraries for obvious reasons.
As a casual listener, it is a daunting prospect but it DOES contain most of the best country blues and gospel in existence. In some cases, taken from the only known 78 disc in existence.
You MUST tread carefully, again as Michael says, even if you like Tampa Red - 20 albums of 25 tracks each is a bit much!

[Michael Messer]

Thanks Mark. Your knowledge of all things 'Document' is very interesting. I own very few Document CDs because apart from a few artists, I am not interested in collecting everything they ever did. As you say Mark, 20 CDs of Tampa Red is too much for anyone to cope with. Don't get me wrong, I love Tampa Red's music. But if you actually look at his recorded output, what I and other slide guitar freaks want to hear is approximately 10% of his recorded output!

So from my perspective when it comes to Tampa Red as an example, I prefer to own a couple of good compilations of the early blues and swing stuff with Red playing great slide on National guitars.

Mark, are there really 20 Tampa Red Document CDs?

Shine On
Michael.

[Mark Makin]

There are 16 of his chronological output, the other four are compilation CDs etc. There are ACTUALLY 20 CDs of Leadbelly too!

[bod]

I've no idea whether it is one of their best or not (and I guess many of you will have received the same email from Document anyway) but this one is a nice idea - seems to be Document's response to the credit crunch and its impact on them - and might be an interesting mix, too:

Bankers Blues - A Sudy in the Effects of Fiscal Mischief

www.document-records.com/fulldetails.asp?ProdID=DOCD-32-20-16

Truth to tell, there's a fair few names on this that I don't know - but they are anything like reasonable company for those I do (e.g., Memphis Minnie, Mississippi Sheiks, Big Bill Broonzy) it could be great (I'll probably get it to find out - and cos I like the idea).

[Gerry C]

I'd agree with Perce that the Essential... series is one of Document's very many Really Good Ideas. They often contain an artist's "usual suspects" tracks together with several more very obscure numbers (to me at least!). They are VERY good as introductions to artists whose large outputs (Big Bill, Memphis Minnie and Lonnie Johnson come to mind) may seem somewhat daunting to the blues tyro.

I've often said that the purchase of the entire DR blues output will be one of my first acts when I win the Lottery. Can't help but think it would be useful to buy a ticket at least occasionally...

Cheerily,

Gerry C

[percythewonderant]

Well Gerry I hope the numbers come up! Once you had given them all a listen I guess you might just add one or two from the 'Bear Family' catalogue too!

Perce

But stripe me pink! How could they have left Hezikiah Jenkin's 'The Panic is on' off of that list of bankers blues?

[Gerry C]

I agree - great song! I first heard it from Steve Phillips (it's on his first album, amusingly entitled The Best of Steve Phillips)) and it took me years to track down the original. I also thought Blind Alfred Reed's How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live might have made the cut...

Cheerily,

Gerry C