Show 54: Alphabet Blues, Pt. 14: Yazoo

I'm your host. For today's 54th episode of the CC Blues Show, and 14th in our Alphabet Blues series, I aim to spin, for you, the most important tracks from every significant blues record label. During tonight's show, we will be spending the next two hours exploring the Yazoo record label, which stands starkly out of place with the other blues labels like Document and Dust-to-Digital Records. Where those are serious, informative, and consistent in their missions to preserve the legacy of the blues, Yazoo took a truly remarkable approach that made discovering the blues titans of the early twentieth century an uncanny experience. Now the thing that frequently stands out to anyone who's ever purchased a record from Yazoo is the wild and surreal art style found on the cover of the LP sleeve, often illustrated by the legendary cartoonist and record collector Robert Crumb. Moreover, each of the Yazoo releases features long and insightful liner notes that reflect a sincere appreciation and profound background knowledge, from the outside grooves all the way down to the famous art-deco peacock image at the record's core. The first two tracks I've got for ya come from twenty-something-year-old Roosevelt Sykes, who just blew into the city of St. Louis as a young piano player in the early 1930s. Here's "Drinkin' Woman Blues" by Mr. Sykes, followed by "Tired of Being Mistreated" by Roosevelt "not quite yet the Honeydripper" Sykes.