Bukka White's studio album Parchman Farm was released in 1970 and mostly recorded in 1940. Bukka (the phonetic spelling of Booker) White was an established delta blues artist from Aberdeen, Mississippi and had recorded several songs in the early thirties. After serving two and a half years in Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm, White was released and booked a studio session with producer Lester Melrose. According to legend, after White showed up to the sessions with several cover songs he had prepared, Melrose delayed their sessions, bought White a hotel for two nights, and insisted he write several songs of his own so they could increase their profits. Once White showed Melrose the twelve new songs he had written, Melrose was ecstatic and they recorded the songs in two days. In 1970, the twelve songs and two other songs White had previously recorded (one of them being "Shake 'Em on Down") were released as Parchman Farm, the album White is best known for. In a way, it serves as his greatest hits album because the majority of his best known material came from the 1940 session.
White is a master storyteller and, after being released from the infamous Parchman Farm in 1940, he used this ability and his mastery of the delta blues to write twelve masterpieces that beautifully reflect the human experience. First and foremost, the songs convey the wretched conditions of prison so vividly and simply--"I wonder how long 'fore I can change my clothes" he nearly snarls, "I hope some day you will hear my lonesome song" he moans to his wife after being sentenced to life--but his evocative lyrics aren't limited to his prison experience--White mourns his mother's death on "Strange Place Blues" and contemplates his own death on "Fixin' to Die Blues." His picking and slide guitar show an obvious influence from his hero Charley Patton but, with about ten years separating the two's recordings, White's playing is much closer to the modern approach to the guitar. It should click immediately and you'll love it, I mean. A-
