Blues Music timeline.

Mississippi Delta Blues:by Muddy Waters Though he had not played the blues for more than 20 years, his skills were largely undiminished, and he turns in a fantastic set here. James was the pinnacle of the Bentonia (Mississippi) sound, which combines complex fingerpicking with falsetto vocals, resulting in somewhat spooky-sounding strain of blues. James reprises several of his 1931 Paramount sides on this session, as well as a couple new tunes that chronicle the illnesses of James' latter days.

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out: by Bessie Smith
is a blues standard written by Jimmy Cox in 1923. Its lyric, told from the point of view of a one-time millionaire during the Prohibition era, reflects on the fleeting nature of material wealth and the friendships that come and go with it. As a vaudeville-style blues, it was popularized by Bessie Smith, the preeminent female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s.

Mannish Boy: by Muddy Waters Mannish Boy is a blues standard by Muddy Waters. First recorded in 1955, the song is both an arrangement of and an "answer song" to Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man", which was in turn inspired by Waters' and Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie

At Last: by Etta James The At Last Song facts states that the songwriting team of Mack Gordon and Harry Warren wrote this in 1941 for the film musical Sun Valley Serenade. The following year it was rearranged and re-recorded and used in the film Orchestra Wives. It was performed in both movies by Glenn Miller and his orchestra with vocals by Ray Eberle, and the song became a major big band hit in October 1942. Etta recorded this in 1961 shortly after signing with Chess

Shot on James Meredith James H. Meredith, who in 1962 became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, is shot by a sniper shortly after beginning alone civil rights march through the South. Known as the “March Against Fear,” Meredith had been walking from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, in an attempt to encourage voter registration by African Americans in the South.

Black, Brown and White: by Big Bill Broonzy Black, Brown and White includes live tracks recorded in Belgium in March 1952 (three featuring pianist Blind John Davis) and December 1955 during Europe's discovery of Big Bill Broonzy. The highlight of the disc is the laid-back atmosphere in the living room setting recorded at Broonzy biographer Yannick Bruyoghes' house in Brussels.

Trouble so Hard: by Vera Hall
Recorded southern musicians (African-American, white, and Mexican-American) for the Library of Congress. “Trouble So Hard,” sung by Dock Reed, Henry Reed, and Vera Hall in Livingston, Alabama, in 1937, was reminiscent in style of the slavery era, when the congregation sang without hymnbooks or musical accompaniment. The style of singing—the lead singer’s call and the congregation’s increasingly loud and forceful response—had its roots in African religious practice.

Everything Gonna Be Alright: by Big Mama Thornton