In the recent PBS series The Blues, one episode dealt entirely with the musical history of Memphis. Some of the most extraordinary images appeared in this film, and not least of them was an interview with Memphis' own Jim Dickinson. Dickinson is a friendly bear of a man, whiskered and garbed in plaid topped off with a baseball cap he discusses the old days on Beale Street, when he began his career backing up some of the greatest bluesmen ever. Since those early days he has worked with Alex Chilton, Toots Hibbert, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder, the Rolling Stones, Mudhoney, Freddie Fender, and the list goes on, and on. The Delta Experimental Project sprung from Dickinson's abiding interest in the music being made in the south; it's been an on-going project, and now Birdman Records has presented us with Volume 3.

Sub-titled Jim Dickinson Field Recordings, these three albums are raw, vital and exuberant audio snapshots of some of Tennessee's most important (albeit lesser-known in other regions) musical citizens. Volume 1 (which has been a "Holy Grail" item for years, and which this new release most closely resembles) featured Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis, Alex Teal, Johnny Woods and Thomas Pinkston. Volume 2 was essentially a Don Nix solo album with a guest appearance by Furry Lewis. Volume 3 mirrors the first album. Lewis, Estes, Teal, Woods and Mose Vinson and Otha Turner each add their unique approach to the blues. Dickinson's liner notes state that "the Blues is a legend, a ghost from the past, a musical tradition born from the dark prison of slavery. Torn from family and homeland, separated from custom and culture, the call and response of the African work song took on new emotional depth. A lonesome sound in the darkness..."

Many of these recordings echo that "lonesome sound in the darkness." Furry Lewis's haunting slide guitar work, accompanying his thin, aged vocals make "Furry's Blues" float like gossamer over the harsh reality of his life. Sleepy John Estes's aggressive guitar work and his unlovely voice create the perfect image of a man who is "Broke and Hungry." Otha Turner, who was one of the stars of Martin Scorsese's "Feel Like Goin' Home" episode of The Blues plays his own brand of the blues with his "Rising Star Fife and Drum Band." You've never heard blues like this before...they own Willie Dixon's "My Babe!"

Jim Dickinson features the solo artists. The authentic bluesmen. He appears on piano on a few tracks, playing back in the mix, adding a chord here and there to flesh out the sound. Estes is accompanied by other musicians, including Ry Cooder on mandolin for "Floating Bridge." This is a true story-song concerning an accident during which Sleepy John Estes nearly drowned. The minimalism of the Dickinson "field recording" technique reaches its peak on "Roll Me Over Slow" by Alec Teal and Butter Biscuit. It is simply vocals, sung over what sounds like an axe chopping wood. And yet it is evocative in its simplicity.

"So Many Cold Mornings" features the harmonica, and chesty vocals of Johnny Woods. You can feel the wind and chill! The songs are surrounded by ad hoc talking, mistakes are left in. This is the real stuff. The feel is more important than perfection. In fact...perfection is achieved in the feel, in the performance, in the reality of this deep, deep music. Johnny Woods fronts a "studio" band for the slow rolling "Lonesome Feelin'." Mose Vinson tells a story, and plays some barrel-house piano on "Barrel House Blues/Cryin' Won't Make Me Stay." Then Sleepy John returns in front of a band comprising harmonica player Hammie Nixon, Cooder on mandolin, and Jim Dickinson on piano for "Race That You Don't Run." This one rocks.

The album concludes with a newer recording of "Jesus On the Mainline" by the Tate County Singers, with Otha Turner and the Afrossippi Allstars! That's Luther Dickinson, slide guitar; Bill Evans, drum kit, and a dozen or so others! Gospel blues funk to keep you going til Dickinson digs up another volume of these extraordinary recordings. Most of the participants have passed on...leaving the field open for the next generation, but as long as Dickinson's library has material of this potency we'll never lose sight of the founders!