Artist	Song
Grant Brothers & Their Music	Tell It to Me
Charlie Poole & His North Carolina Ramblers	If the River Was Whiskey
King David's Jug Band	What's that Tastes Like Gravy
The Mobile Strugglers	Raise a Ruckus Tonight
The Memphis Jug Band	On the Road Again
Dock Boggs	Down South Blues
The Leake County Ramblers	Crow Black Chicken
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers	Black-Eyed Susie
Burnett & Rutherford & Foster	These Bones G'wina Rise Again
J. P. Nestor & Norman Edmonds	Train on the Island
Cannon's Jug Stompers	Minglewood Blues
W.A. Lindsey & Alvin Conder	Boll Weavil
Dock Boggs	Ruben's Train
King David's Jug Band	Tear It Down
The Mississippi Shieks	Sitting On Top of the World
The Memphis Jug Band	Cocaine Habit Blues
Gid Tanner & His Skillet Lickers	Cumberland Gap
Big Billl Broonzy	C.C. Rider
Clarence Ashley	Little Sadie
Dock Boggs	Old Rub Alcohol Blues
Grandpa Jones	Kitty Clyde
Al Hopkins & HIs Buckle Busters	Cluck Old Hen
The Callahan Brothers	Somebody's Been Using that Thing
The Prairie Ramblers	Deep Elem Blues
Earl Johnson & His Clodhoppers	Ain't Nobody's Business
Uncle Dave Macon & His Fruit Jar Drinkers	Sail Away Ladies

Comment:

Allow me to plug one of my favorite bands again: Old Crow Medicine Show. This mix compiles some of the early versions of old string-band, jug-band, blues, and gospel tunes the OCMS boys do (tracks 1-21) and a few other classic tunes that would fit right in their repertoire. Of course, they're not just a "cover band"; they do some great originals and occasionally cover a song written after WWII. But everything they do is informed by a deep knowledge of, and love for the music of the old, weird America.
These songs were mostly recorded in the early days of 78s and radio, before the leavening of mass culture began to smooth the rough edges off of rural music. And that, I suppose, is why they appeal to me -- they are raw, real, free of pretense, and are a reflection of the cultures the artists lived in, for better or worse. But even though America was divided into white and black cultures (just as the marketing departments of the record companies had divided the music into "country" and "race" categories), these songs show that white and black musicians shared the same musical roots, played the same songs, and shared and stole each others' licks and lyrics.
Charlie Poole's "If the River Was Whiskey" is another version of "Hesitation Blues"; "Sitting on Top of the World" is basically the same song as OCMS's "That'll Be a Better Day", and "Crow Black Chicken" is the Crows' "Chicken Pie". "Cocaine Habit Blues" is also known as "Take a Whiff on Me."

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