Various – Garden City Blues – Detroit’s Jumping Scene 1948-1960 – 4CD

Once the heart of America’s motor industry, many of Detroit's production lines are derelict, 30,000 houses are empty or demolished. Neighbors now grow vegetables for neighbors, while industrialised farming waits to take over. The inner city tries to regenerate itself but wholesale bankruptcy acts as a deterrent. Music and gas-guzzling cars stagger on but the city that nurtured the talents of the artists featured here has all but vanished.
As well as automobiles, there was music. But until Motown, Detroit even lacked a major record label. Activity came from a handful of independents - Fortune,  JVB, Sensation and Staff among them - who relied on local talent.
Then there was Elmer Barbee, the owner of a record store with a studio in the rear. He it was who found John Lee Hooker playing a little bar on Monroe Street. The pair persisted for a year before - through the success of Boogie Chillun - Hooker's talent became increasingly widely known.
Here are many of Hooker's early Detroit recordings and of the many who hoped to achieve - and occasionally succeeded in achieving - similar success.

Track Listing:

CD1:
John Lee Hooker: 1. Rocks - 4:04   2. Leavin' Chicago - 3:52   3. Wednesday Evening Blues - 3:53   4. Mercy Blues - 3:17   5. Boogie Woogie - 3:34   6. Good Business - 3:34   7. Poor Skin [Take 1] - 2:50   8. Shake Your Boogie - 3:03   9. Poor Slim [Take 2] - 3:27   10. Down So Long - 1:57   11. Miss Pearl Boogie - 3:03   12. Boogie Awhile - 2:40   13. Tuesday Evening - 3:06   14. Christmas Time Blues - 3:17   15. Cotton Pickin' Boogie - 2:46   16. Low Down Boogie - 2:50   17. We Gonna Everything Alright - 3:03   18. Must I Wait til Your Man is Gone - 3:06   19. Roll Me Baby - 3:39   20. Miss Rosie Mae - 3:02   21. Highway Blues - 3:07   22. I Love To Boogie - 3:07   23. Real Gone Gal - 3:14   24. Little Boy Blue - 2:35

CD2:
John Lee Hooker: 1. Questionnaire Blues - 3:28   2. My Daddy Was a Jockey - 3:18   3. Feed Her All Night - 2:17   4. How Long Must I Be Your Slave - 3:13   5. Ground Hog - 2:40   6. Mean Old Train - 3:10   7. Catfish - 3:09   8. Have Mercy On Poor Me - 3:28   9. I Came To See You Baby - 3:10   10. I'm a Boogie Man - 2:18   11. My Baby Left Me - 2:50   Eddie Burns: 12. I Ain't Cheatin' - 2:59   13. Sunnyland Blues - 2:33   14. Making a Fool Out of Me - 2:46   15. Gangster Blues - 3:12   16. Grieving Blues - 2:59   17. Where Did You Stay Last Night - 1:36   18. Squeeze Me Baby - 2:45   19. Decoration Day Blues - 3:09   20. She Keeps Me Guessing - 2:04   21. Sitting Here Wondering - 2:41   22. I Love To Jump the Boogie - 2:35   23. Tavern Lounge Boogie - 3:27   Richard Brothers: 24. Stolen Property - 2:37   Big Jack Reynolds: 25. Going Down Slow - 4:28

CD3:
Sylvester Cotton: 1. Three Cent Stamp Blues - 2:51   2. Brownskin Woman - 2:53   3. Ugly Women - 2:41   4. Christmas Blues - 2:47   5. Cottonfield Blues - 2:50   6. Stormy Weather Blues - 2:44   7. Wife Lovin' Blues - 2:53   8. Stranger in Your Town [Take 1] - 3:06   9. Big Chested Mama Blues [Take 1] - 2:36   10. Thanksgiving Blues - 2:46   11. Sak-Relation Blues - 2:58   12. Pay Day Blues - 3:08   13. I Tried - 2:57   14. When I'm Gone [Take 1] - 2:49   15. Waterlee Blues - 2:35   16. Single Man Blues - 2:42   17. Way Down in Hell - 2:39   18. Stranger in Your Town [Take 2] - 2:44   19. Big Chested Mama Blues [Take 2] - 2:33   20. When I'm Gone [Take 2] - 2:44   Alfred Dunham: 21. Mae Liza [Take 1] - 2:32   22. Sweet Lucy - 3:02   23. Hattie Mae - 3:02   24. Little Bitty Woman [Take 1] - 2:44   25. I Got a Woman - 3:34   26. She Left Me - 3:41

CD4:
Alfred Dunham: 1. I Found Out - 4:39   2. Genevee - 5:29   3. Nezeree Blues - 4:14   4. Mae Liza [Take 2] - 2:50   5. Little Bitty Woman [Take 2] - 3:02   L.C. Green & Sam Kelly: 6. When the Sun Was Shining - 2:30   7. Little School Girl - 2:18   8. Remember Way Back - 3:03   9. Shine Mine Light - 3:16   James Walton: 10. Eva Lee - 3:02   11. If You Don't Believe I'm Leaving - 2:41   12. Papa Do - 2:50   Bobo Jenkins: 13. Decoration Day Blues [Take 1] - 3:20   14. Seasick and Water Bound - 3:18   15. Ten Below Zero - 2:10   16. Baby Don't You Want to Go - 2:29   17. Decoration Day Blues [Take 2] - 3:09   Eddie Kirkland: 18. Mercy Blues - 2:57   19. I'll Move You - 2:39   20. Train Done Gone - 2:10   21. You Know I Love You - 2:44   22. Blood on Your Hands - 3:35   23. Love You Till the Day I Die - 2:43   24. I Must Have Done Somebody Wrong - 3:05
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