It is like entering an empty temple in an unfamiliar country: you have seen some of the signs, you have some of the knowledge about the faith, but the experience is new and humbling.

Yes, humbling is the word. If loneliness had a voice, it would be the voice of Son House.

39 of 40 found the following review helpful:


Short but sweet  Nov 10, 2003 By Docendo Discimus
Well, maybe "sweet" isn't the right word, but Columbia/Legacy's "The Original Delta Blues" is a really fine distillation of the label's double-disc set "Father Of The Delta Blues", containing 11 highlights from that comprehensive overview of blues legend Eddie "Son" House's 60s recordings.

These 55 minutes of music feature Son House and his National steel guitar, which he played with a slide, and Columbia have managed to include all of House's essential 60s songs.

The powerful a capella spiritual "John The Revelator" is here, as is the slashing slide guitar workout "Pearline", the sarcastic "Preachin' Blues", the bitterness of "Grinnin' In Your Face", and the fantastic 9 1/2-minute "Levee Camp Moan" with Canned Heat's Alan Wilson playing great harmonica fills behind House's clanging, percussive guitar riffs.

And then there's the awesome, razor-edged "Death Letter" ("I got a letter this morning / say, what d'y'reckon it read? / Said hurry, hurry, the gal you love is dead").
Music journalist Ted Drozdowski of the Boston Phoenix once wrote something like this about House:
"The voice of the great Son House not only sounds as though it could split the earth asunder, it is also the voice of a soul utterly alone".

I couldn't have said it better myself. Which is why I steal Mr Drozdowski's line.

38 of 39 found the following review helpful:


Son House Blew Me Away...  Oct 02, 2001
For me, this was one of those rare CD's that from the first play became an instant favorite. I had heard of Son House, of course, but had never heard him. I have played this CD about a hundred times since I bought it a month ago (my wife is about to have me put away...) It is absolutely incredible. I have never heard anything like Son House.

I have quite a few blues discs but this one, more than any other, really moved me. If I could only keep one, this would be it.

13 of 13 found the following review helpful:


This Is The BLUES!!!  Mar 02, 2005 By N_Joy
When you listen to this you feel like you have been transported to the Mississippi Delta. So many great songs and Death Letter gets it started perfectly. Everytime I hear Louise Mcgee I can almost picture Son riding in a box car down a lonely railroad track in the dead of night with his guitar pining for Louise. That may sound corny but that just gives you an idea of how powerful these songs are. John the Revelator, Levee Camp Moan, Sundown, Pony Blues are also great. Hell, there all great. If you are just getting into the blues, specifically the delta blues you have to have this. This and Robert Johnsons King of the Delta Blues Singers vol.1 & 2(I say these volumes because I think the sound quality is superior on these two as compared to the set)is mandatory.

11 of 11 found the following review helpful:


Not just blues, a history lesson  Jun 03, 2001 By Joseph
The more I study the forces that bound together the deeply American, and beautifully unique cultures of African Americans since the Civil War, I find myself referring to the Blues more and more. Son House, despite this recording being made in the 1960's, was a master story teller of an earlier era for the Southern United States; one divided by a still-bitter southern aristocracy and a young culture of black Americans struggling to write their own poetry that would come to define what it is to be a free black American. Son House influenced greats like Robert Johnson, another great story-teller, and more popularly driven Muddy Waters and others. I, like so many others, love to listen to blues guitar, and House plays one of the meanest, dirtiest, most hauntingly beautiful slide guitars ever recorded. However, listen to the man, and the story he is telling all of us with each sentence of every song. THIS is culture. THIS is history. THIS is the Blues. Accept no substitutes....you might just learn a thing or two.

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