Review

While the blues may well have come from everywhere at once in the South, the Southern Delta area of Mississippi stakes a convincing case for being the epicenter, and the "Big Road Blues" slide style of Delta players is as influential as any in the genre. There are several examples on this brief collection, including Mississippi Fred McDowell's passionate version of "Levee Camp Blues" and a rediscovery era live recording of Son House doing his classic "Death Letter." Most of the tracks here come from the 1960s, when folklorists and blues scholars were finding the surviving old blues veterans from the 1930s and bringing them into studios to record fresh versions of their material. Three remastered 78s are included for good measure: "Screamin' and Hollerin' Blues" by the venerable Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson's sprightly and haunting "Canned Heat Blues," and "Mississippi Blues," Kid Bailey's retooling of the guitar figure from "Canned Heat Blues." The Blues Came From Mississippi is an OK collection as far as it goes, but at a dozen tracks, it is way too short to be anything other than a side swipe at the genre, and with so many blues compilations on the market, it is hard to truly recommend this one.