Oberlin College Concert

by Thomas Ward The "re-discovery" of the folk-blues tradition in the mid 1960s brought a second wave of fame to many performers. Son House's career was given a new lease of life when the singer performed at regular blues and folk festivals around the US, which led to House playing the college circuit. The Oberlin College Concert, recorded when House was sixty-three, shows a mature artist, but one who had lost little of the menace and wonder of his earlier sessions. House performs long, rambling, revelatory versions of his best material, songs like "A True Friend Is Hard To Find" and the closing, apocalyptic "Preachin' Blues" in which House sounds positively possessed. Although listeners may find minor problems with the release -- House's voice is not quite as powerful as twenty years previously, but this release stands as one of the blues' finest live documents of the 1960s.