All my digressions aside, Fat Possum has been recording "Honest" blues for quite some time. Some of their artists may be of quite limited abilities, not able to play much at any given time due to health, money and female problems, they may be unreliable,in jail or too damn drunk to stand up and piss come time to record but hey that's life and that's what the blues really is: Life imitating art imitating life. It isn't just a bunch of weenie fingered, shaggy headed jerks playing some 100 MPH pentatonic scales.

The Blues is, has and always will be about feeling & about soul as opposed to just chops, a fact that's sadly lost somewhere in that netherworld between well meaning boneheaded folklorists and the "Blues Brother" friday nite, drink and smoke cigars, rub elbows (at a safe distance) with "Black Culture" type boneheads. God amighty, I really do dislike you both.

Anyway, this most beautiful tome of essays and photos along with the 2 CD's that accompany it, should go a long ways towards separating the men from the boys (please feel free to insert crowbar joke here if you wish, I'm too tired) musically, that is. You receive two of the first tracks RL Burnside ever recorded alongside of killer tracks by Delta heavy hitters like T-Model Ford (who offers up some wisdom as to why pretty girls smell better than ugly ones LOL), Paul "Wine" Jones, Johnny Farmer, Asie Payton, the legendary Robert Pete Williams, Elmore Williams, Junior Kimbrough's rare track with the late Rockabilly great Charlie Feathers (who had partially learned his craft from Jr. K in that lonesome N.Miss. hill country) and Mr. "Rock N Soul" hizzownbadself: Solomon Burke.

From somewhere between $25 & 40 bucks this can be had, depending on where you look. At either price it's truly a bargain for the photos alone, much less the CD's, the first disc being a really good look at where Fat Possum currently stands musically and the 2nd disc being filled with rare, re mixed and otherwise unavailable tracks from the king of hill country stomp: RL Burnside. Smooth as moonshine and more fun than yelling "FIRE!!!" in an overcrowded theatre. Enjoy,y'aaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll.