I'm Going Where the Water Drinks Like Wine (18 Unsung Bluesmen) [Rarities 1923-29]

For better or worse, the history of prewar American music has been powerfully influenced by academics and collectors. Figures such as Robert Johnson and Skip James, who received little recognition from their contemporaries, had their legendary reputations imposed on them retroactively by '60s-era critics, while once-popular performers like Peetie Wheetstraw and Sylvester Weaver fell into comparative obscurity. Sub Rosa’s I’m Going Where the Water Drinks Like Wine is a compilation of prewar blues that seeks to correct this critical imbalance. Though history may have marginalized these musicians, there's nothing marginal about their talents. Weaver, whose “Guitar Blues” opens this set, was the first recording artist to adapt Hawaiian slide guitar tunings and techniques to blues music. The other artists featured here were similarly innovative stylists, particularly Virginia guitarist Luke Jordan, who demonstrates an intricate fingerpicking style on “Pick Poor Robin Clean," and Rube Lacey, whose spectral “Mississippi Jailhouse Groan” is a small masterpiece in its own right.