Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Louis Washington's four spirituals were issued under his own name on Vocalion in 1934 while his 10 blues numbers came out on the "dime store" labels under the wonderful pseudonym Tallahassee Tight. We don't know if Washington was a street singer to suit all needs, a gospel singer who had formerly been a blues singer or simply someone who led a double life (like a pre-war Prince or R Kelly). Anyway, Louis' voice was gnarled and gutsy and his guitar playing competent and, on occasions, quite intricate. "Run Sinner Run" got an airing on Rimmerama recently while the man's blues recordings are pretty impressive too and at least avoid the salacious imagery of the mysterious Spark Plug Smith whose 10 recordings fill up this compilation.

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