This early compilation of
Tampa
's work both as soloist and sideman covers a good 20-year period, from his early hokum recordings with
Georgia Tom
and his jug band to his later sides for
Bluebird
. Highlights include his liquid slide guitar work behind
Jenny Pope
on
"Whiskey Drinkin' Blues"
and when he accompanies
the Gospel Camp Meeting Singers
"Hold to His Hand"
and
"Come and Go to That Land."
Unfortunately, the set also suffers from excessively noisy transfers, making some of these rarities much harder to listen to than need be. Some tracks fare better than others, and the set gets better as it moves on chronologically, but you may have to a-b this with other collections to get better-sounding versions of these seminal sides. ~ Cub Koda