I love the sound of old, scratchy, recordings.  All the technology today takes it away but the early tracks need all that atmosphere.  It’s part of the music.

There was a rainy morning where I heard what was perhaps Bessie Smith, and I fell in love with the gritty, faraway sound.

Matt’s foray into steel guitar lead him to acquire old Hawaiian steel guitar blues recordings by the likes of Sam Ku West, and a great compilation called Hula Blues–a brilliant collection of these old scratchy blues.  There I discovered Lemuel Turner’s Jake Bottle Blues.