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As diverse an instrument as the violin/fiddle is (it has 2 names even!), one music genre not generally associated with the instrument is the blues. But, boy, are there exceptions. In the 1920's, the guitar-driven blues eclipsed the generally fiddle-led stringband as the dominant form of rural black musical expression/entertainment. It was during the transitional period when a lot of interesting and exciting moments can be found involving the blues and the violin. The main sources for these moments are blues musicians heavily influenced by the stringbands, and the stringbands incorporating blues into their sound to stay fresh. This CD is full of examples of these wonderful moments and earns a place among the most important, and, even better, most enjoyable blues collections ever. The revelations just don't stop, from the opening cut, "Violin Blues" by Lonnie Johnson, whose peerless virtuosity on the guitar should have precluded him from being a brilliant blues violinist but didn't, to the last, "Ted's Stomp" by the loveable duo of Louie Bluie and Ted Bogan. In between, take your pick; they're all outstanding - a few examples: Peg Leg Howell's hard driving instrumental "Beaver Slide Rag"; the Mississippi Mud Steppers' "Alma Waltz," whose beautiful melody is also played on the rare banjo-mandolin; Tommy Bradley's hilarious "Adam and Eve" ("Adam & Eve in the garden of Eden/surely musta shook that thing"). A few key performers appear more than once, such as Andrew and Jim Baxter and the various incarnations of the Chatman Brothers, also known as the Mississippi Sheiks. Dugan Trodglen