*** HARD TIMES COME AGAIN: EARLY AMERICAN RURAL SONGS OF HARD TIMES AND HARDSHIP, VOLS. 1 AND 2

(Yazoo)

These two discs, sold separately, are a look at the dirty face of America in the '20 and '30s -- songs drawn from the well of working poverty. Most of these 43 lamentations, which cover country, blues, and mountain folk, are spun with poignant, journalistic detail. The Allen Brothers jug band's "Price of Cotton Blues," for example, explains that the crop's value has dropped to seven cents a pound, so low that the bank won't make loans against the harvest anymore. And the singer is thinking about turning to bootlegging to make a thin dime. Then there's pure melodrama, as when bluesman Barbecue Bob insists that "I ain't had a paycheck since the Devil was a boy" against his chiming chords, slippery picking, and fleet slide.

Plenty of famous players are included: Uncle Dave Macon, Sleepy John Estes, Scrapper Blackwell, Blind Blake, Bo Carter, Riley Puckett. The level of musicianship matches the compelling stories throughout the CD, regardless of the performers' fame, obscurity, or genre. So this is history that often breathes fire.

-- Ted Drozdowski