Full title: Four Women Blues: The Victor/Bluebird Recordings Of Memphis Minnie, Mississippi Matilda, Kansas City Kitty & Miss Rosie Mae Moore.

Performers include: Memphis Minnie, Mississippi Matilda, Kansas City Kitty, Miss Rosie Mae Moore.

Personnel: Kansas Joe McCoy, Memphis Minnie (vocals, guitar); Kansas City Kitty & Georgia Tom (vocals, kazoo, piano); Rosie Mae Moore (vocals); Charlie McCoy , Eugene Powell, Willie Harris, Charlie Burse (guitar); Casey Bill Weldon (steel guitar); Will Shade (harmonica); Black Bob Hudson (piano).

Liner Note Author: Paul Garon.

Recording information: Chicago, IL (02/03/1928-10/15/1936); Memphis Auditorium, Memphis, TN (02/03/1928-10/15/1936); St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, LA (02/03/1928-10/15/1936).

Four Women Blues is the kind of anthology that would be assembled by a specialty label like Document or Story of the Blues, not a major label like RCA. And yet here it is, encompassing rare and unreleased Victor/Bluebird sides by four early female blues artists, mastered wherever possible from the original metal parts. The recordings, made between 1928-1936 and representing the four artists' extant output for the label, are predominately those of Memphis Minnie, a guitar-playing blues woman who was the most successful of the bunch. Her 13 cuts will be the ones that attract most blues collectors to this package, but the remaining tracks are fascinating as well. The names Mississippi Matilda, Kansas City Kitty, and Miss Rosie Mae Moore may not ring many bells for most blues enthusiasts, but the music is never less than interesting and the sound quality is probably as good as it will get ever on these scarce and forgotten recordings. ~ Greg Adams