great stuff! i like the jelly roll morton best. a comment there says it was transferred from a piano roll. so glad they could preserve all this old music!

i've been listening to big mama thornton a lot at blip.fm. she's of later vintage but still, just in case, here's a link: ball & chain. uh, hope i haven't already left this link in one of your comment threads. if i have, please to ignore. :)

I don't think I've heard this particular Big Mama track before.

Jelly Roll made more than a dozen piano rolls. I don't know how many of them have been put on to records, though. The clean sound of this version of The Pearls indicates a digital recording from a piano roll.

He could sing, too: Honky Tonk Blues.

oh, i like his voice! he was interesting-looking, too. he'd be a movie star today. :)

that version of Ball & Chain blows me away. i'd only heard janis joplin sing it, but she was never a favorite of mine. it always sounded like she was trying to ruin her voice as fast as humanly possibly. big mama simply had power out the wazoo. errr, so to speak.