I Do Not Play Rock N Roll (Rm) [Original recording remastered]

That said, Michael Point obviously hasn't listened to much of the early blues, or he'd have realized that Big Joe Williams sang "Baby Please Don't Go" in the 30's, Leroy Carr wrote "Kokomo Blues" (later "appropriated" by Robert Johnson and turned into "Sweet Home Chicago") and there's a very compelling argument that Gary Davis wrote "You Got to Move."

The blues, however, is an artform of cliche's, the forerunner of sampling, and Mississippi Fred does great justice to every song he covers. My favorite tracks are both of the ones he speaks on and "Red Cross Store," which is a jam and a half!

Fred McDowell was born in 1904 and left this world in 1979. The timeframe alone gives it away that he was one of the finest blues guitarists you'll ever hear, he wasnt following anyone, he was a leader. Straight from the gut, with no need to 'clean up' his sound, Fred puts out raw emotion, vocally, and musically, like no one else. If you have any interest at all in reaching back to hear real, raw, unfiltered blues, Mississippi Fred McDowell is the man.

Fred McDowell is backed by drums and bass, although they are mixed quite far into the background, and he plays an electric slide guitar, which worried some blues purists, but the music is as stark and sparse as anything you'll ever hear. And his occational monologues, delivered in a rich country dialect, ony adds to the charm and the value of this fine document.
(The original liner notes warn that "unless you're from Mississippi", McDowell may be hard to understand, which is not the case at all, but his soliloquies are nevertheless fully transcribed. Why people from Mississippi would be the only ones able to understand a fully articulate elderly gentleman from Tennessee is a bit of a mystery.)

This reissue of Fred McDowell's original Capitol album from 1969 adds bonus five tracks totaling 20 minutes, and includes a great take on Big Joe Williams' "Baby Please Don't Go", as well as powerful country blues originals like "61 Highway", "Jesus Is On The Mainline", "Red Cross Store" and "You Got To Move".
It falls a little short of the 1995 Capitol re-release "The Complete Sessions", which tacked on ten tunes, but "I Do Not Play No Rock 'n' Roll" is still a very enjoyable collection, though, and a fine introduction to the Tennessee bluesman.