Allen Lowe, Mike Shanley, Blues and the Empirical Truth

(Music and Arts) http://www.musicandarts.com/

Ah, music critics. Ask them a yes or no question about an album and you’ll get an oratory. Ask for a compilation and you might get… a nine-disc anthology.
That’s just what Allen Lowe compiled in the recent past. The descriptively-titled American Pop: An Audio History – From Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893-1946 contained nine discs. Then he outdid himself with That Devilin’ Tune: A Jazz History 1895-1950, which contained a whopping 36 pieces of plastic. And you probably don’t believe that much music was even recorded during that period. In addition to compiling the music, Lowe also wrote extensive texts to go along with each of these productions. Some might call it crazy, but it makes Lowe a man after my own heart.
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