Let Me Tell You About The Blues Nashville (3CD set)
This 3-disc set features 75 songs adds up to over 3 hours of solid rhythm and blues. Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, Nashville was the home of a thriving blues and R&B recording industry. Principal among the labels were Bullet, Republic, Tennessee, Nashboro and Excello, with a host of smaller ones such as World, Mecca, J-B and Cheker. Bullet Records dominated Nashville s recording scene in the immediate post-war years. Beginning with a country series in January 1946, it added a blues and R&B series three months later, launching with records by Wynonie Harris and Cecil Gant. Harris moved on but Gant became a prolific Bullet artist, soon joined by bluesmen Rudy Greene, Walter Davis, Max Bailey and Rufus Thomas. Bullet was joined in 1951 by Republic, Tennessee and Nashboro. Tennessee's most popular artist was Christine Kittrell, a talented and powerful singer who never achieved nationwide fame, while Republic's Bernard Hardison cut the original version of Too Much, later made a hit by Elvis Presley. Starting in August 1952, Excello soon swept its competition aside with a roster of artists that included Kid King's Combo, Shy Guy Douglas, Max Bailey, Arthur Gunter, Gunter's brother Little Al, Louis Brooks, Good Rockin' Sam, Louis Campbell, Clarence Samuels and Jerry McCain.
