Blind Willie McTell The Early Years 1927 - 1933

Like so many other Delta blues musicians of the
1930s and 40s, rock music owes a debt of gratitude
to the works of Blind Willie McTell. Considered one
of the finest guitarists and vocalists of the era,
noteworthy for his then unheard of usage of a
12-string guitar, artists and bands from The Allman
Brothers to The White Stripes to Taj Mahal have
listed the blind bluesman as a key influence. From
the start of his career in 1927, McTell cut numerous
singles for Victor Records, and maintained a
noteworthy level of popularity in his home of Atlanta,
but like many of his contemporaries, his career
skidded to a halt during World War II. McTell left
music during the 1950s and later passed of a brain
hemmorage in 1959.
Not long after his passing would come the British
blues explosion, which would not only make
household names of Eric Clapton and John Mayall,
but spark a renewed interest in the material of
classic bluesmen like McTell. It wasn't long before
innumerable collections of such material came into
being, including The Early Years, which captures
one of McTell's most prolific periods, from 1927 to
1933. The singles included in The Early Years
include numerous singles recorded for Victor, as
well as for staple labels of Delta Blues like Okeh,
Vocalion, and Columbia. Featuring some of McTell's
most enduring works, including his most famed,
"Statesboro Blues", which would famously be
covered by The Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal, Deep
Purple, and many others.