Our reissue series on the Excello label continues apace, and the latest offering mainly features country blues recordings from rural Tennessee of the 1950s. At the time, these records sold poorly and consequently are amongst the rarest post-war blues anywhere. Very little has been reissued on LP or CD, so this collection comes across as remarkably fresh and strong. The best known artist is Arthur Gunter, whose Excello recording of Baby Let’s Play House was an early influence on Elvis Presley. Here we spotlight his favourite country rockers She’s Mine All Mine and Honey Babe, both freshly remastered for this CD, and the East Coast blues stylings of first-time-on-CD You Are Doing Me Wrong. Arthur is also lead guitarist on the tracks by the Leap Frogs and his brother Little Al, whose No jive is a cult blues classic. These recordings were cut in Nashville under the auspices of Excello boss ErnieYoung. So, too, were the records by Shy Guy Douglas, Louis Campbell, Slim Hunt and Robert Garrett. A major find is the single by the Dixie Doodlers, described by notewriter Chris Bentley as sounding remarkably like the Memphis Jug Band might have played in the early 1950s”. Bentley, one of the most respected British blues writers, comments that the last 4 tracks (all previously unissued) ’will have collectors’ palates salivating’. The Chas Dowell sides were recorded in 1963 by producer and harmonica player James Stewart very much in the Jimmy Reed style. And Good Rockin’ Bob, possibly with Lonesome Sundown on guitar, takes us from Tennessee into Louisiana with two tough swamp-blues numbers straight from the local juke joints.”