Bear Family "Blowin' The Fuse" R&B Series

[Hot Ptah]

Somehow I missed the release of the Bear Family "Blowin' The Fuse" series of R&B recordings. It looks like there is one for each year from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s. Does anyone have an opinion about these sets?

It looks like it would be somewhat pricey to get all of the years, but the song titles look intriguing, so I am hoping for some feedback and advice.

[Ragu]

They are very good, but a little pricey. The packaging is superb with nice booklets that devote a page to each track and often have photographs of the labels. The sound is very good, although some might feel a little trebly and hot. The problem for me, or any fan of this music, is that I already have a lot of these tracks on other collections. So the choice becomes is it worth the $ for a few tracks I don't have and the package as a whole. I have 3 or 4 and do enjoy them.

[ghost of miles]

Not part of BLOWIN' THE FUSE, but some here might be interested in this recent Bear Family release:

Big Al Sears

[Big Beat Steve]

Not part of BLOWIN' THE FUSE, but some here might be interested in this recent Bear Family release:

Big Al Sears

That one isn't all that recent. I've had my copy for way more than 10 years. Very nice stuff for sure, even though the overall sound and arrangements (especially if you take in the entire CD in one go) is just a wee bit clean and tidy - as was customary for major-label releases of this kind of music (that catered to white tastes in the Alan Freed package show vein too) - and not quite as gritty and down-to-earth and frenzied as a lot of the indie label releases for predominantly black consumption.

As for Blowin The Fuse, I agree with Ragu all the way. That set has an awful lot of duplications and overlaps with lots of other reissues so it pays to check the track listings VERY carefully before shelling out (unless you're a total newbie with that kind of R&b, then you can't go wrong anyway with this).

Edited February 17, 2009 by Big Beat Steve

[J.A.W.]

The sound is very good, although some might feel a little trebly and hot.

Sorry, I don't agree at all about the sound, to my ears it's abominable, extremely LOUD with no dynamics left and the highs are boosted very much. Real earbleeders so to speak. I got rid of the complete series, which, by the way, covers the years 1945-1960.

As a big 1940s-1950s R&B fan I like the music on these discs very much, but the horrible sound was too much for me, I got headaches when I tried to listen to them and that's not what music is for.

Edited February 17, 2009 by J.A.W.