On vinyl for the first time, the first volume in a series of three.

Reissued in time to celebrate 25 years of Fat Possum, showcasing their fine blues roots.

“The last three years have been from hell. Every morning I had to force myself to get dressed and go to work. It would’ve been easier to have gone to Napa Auto Supply, buy a can of neon blue spray paint and paint my ass blue like those freaky baboons you see in National Geographic. I could have been the alpha male up there on the courthouse steps, flashing my savage canine teeth at the women walking by. I restrained myself and somehow managed to move Fat Possum out of Capricorn and team up with Epitaph and Brett’s red Camaro.

“Fat Possum, founded in 1992, began making records the way they are supposed to be made: Junior Kimbrough’s ‘All Night Long’ and R.L. Burnside’s ‘Too Bad Jim’. After a good start with Capricorn we witnessed bizarre events over the next three years and these experiences altered us – everyone’s voice is louder, and nobody looks as good as they did. The thing that matters, making records we like, hasn’t changed.

“We have two new albums that aren’t in our usual vein, one by 20 Miles, the other by Hasil Adkins. So far both groups fit well; they share the same lusts and worship the same gods as the Burnsides and Kimbroughs. We still release top-of-the-shelf blues albums such as T-Models’ ‘Pee Wee Get My Gun’, Junior’s ‘Most Things Haven’t Worked Out’ and R.L.’s ‘Mr Wizard’. We have three blues albums slated for ’98; ‘It Takes One To Know One’ by a new artist, Elmo Williams, one by Hasil Adkins called ‘What The Hell Was I Thinking’, and Robert Cage’s ‘Robert Can See What You’re Doin’’.

“My Momma says it’s okay to generalise a little. First, Fat Possum is not like any other blues label. Second, there are only two kinds of blues records that are made today: Fat Possum records, which don’t suck, and all the others.” – Matthew Johnson