The history of the music recorded by Mike Shea on Chicago's Maxwell St. in the fall of 1964 has an interesting if convoluted history. Adding to the confusion are two recent reissues of the material, a single disc collection on Rounder and a 3-CD set on the Rooster label.

  First a quick background about the recordings. The recordings were actually part of a documentary made by Mike Shea about Chicago's thriving Maxwell Street market. The filming took place every Sunday capturing the vibrant sounds of the market including sidewalk merchants, street preachers, gospel singers and blues musicians. Disappointed by the film's reception, Shea let the tapes languish in a warehouse for years until they were finally thrown away in the 70's. Fortunately the audio tapes had been stored separately so all the original music has been preserved. The artists recorded that Fall in 1964 included Robert Nighthawk, Carey Bell, Johnny Young, John Wrencher, James Brewer, Arvella Gray, John Lee Granderson, Big Mojo Elem and Mike Bloomfield.

  Long time blues fans may be familiar with some of this which originally came out on LP in 1980 on Rounder Records under the title Robert Nighthawk Live On Maxwell Street -1964 and was re-released on CD in 1991. Now Rounder has just released this again calling it a deluxe edition with 5 new tracks and 24 bit mastering. The problem for the blues fan is which collection to purchase? The answer is that the Rooster release contains all the recordings made in conjunction with Mike Shea's documentary while the Rounder release is plagued with a number of problems that make it obvious that it was rushed out to compete with the Rooster set.

  First and foremost is that the Rounder release contains a lot less music plus many of the performances are edited and significantly shorter then those on the Rooster release. It turns out that Mike Bloomfield who is on a number of the recordings had been edited out by Mike Shea as being unauthentic but since the Rooster release was remastered from the original tapes, Bloomfield's presence has been restored which is not the case on the Rounder release. Also the Rounder CD contains improper credits including a credit for J.B. Lenoir on "Mama Talk To Your Daughter" which is actually Big Mojo Elem, a credit for Carey Bell on "I Got News For You" which is actually Big John Wrencher, the drummer is mis-credited as Robert Whitehead and is actually Jimmy Collins. In general the session details are incomplete making it difficult to decipher who actually plays on what track. Adding to the confusion is the fact that Rounder has decided to title some of the recordings differently than the Rooster/P-Vine sets. In addition the 5 tracks listed as previously unreleased on the new Rounder CD have in fact been issued before on the P-Vine release which came out in May of 1999. Much of the street sounds is also absent from the Rounder release which adds a real ambience to Rooster's version. Also the credits list Norman Dayron as the producer when in reality he was working for Mike Shea as a sound specialist on a work for hire basis. The liner notes also make no mention of Mike Shea or his documentary from whence these recordings come from. More importantly it's questionable that Rounder has the rights to put this material out as the original Rounder LP and it's subsequent 1991 release on CD was issued without Mike Shea's knowledge.

  The bottom line is that the Rooster collection contains all the music complete with street sounds recorded by Mike Shea in 1964 and remains the only authorized version of this material. In addition the Rooster CD contains a detailed booklet discussing the history of these recordings plus interesting background on the famous Maxwell Street market. The music is raw, wild and a great snapshot of what Chicago blues was all about back in 1964. For serious fans and collectors the 3-CD Rooster set is the only way to hear this music and belongs in every blues collection.

  Complete track listing from Rooster's And this Is Maxwell Street:

*Denotes tracks not on the Rounder release

**Rounder release contains only 13:30 minutes of interview

[Read a complete review of Rooster's And this Is Maxwell Street.]

[Find out more about Robert Nighthawk at the only website devoted to this great bluesman.]

[Check out the Rooster Records website.]

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