Rolling Stone (6/30/94, p.77) - "... As a blues player, McTell was amazing, using his 12-string to suggest everything from a cackling hen to a couple walking down the street. Far more telling, though, is the vocal, which boasts wit and confidence..."
Q (8/94, p.127) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Blind Willie McTell deserves his place alongside Robert Johnson in the pantheon of the greatest blues artists..."
Sing Out! (11-12/94-1/95, pp.129-130) - "...the five years documented here... produced much of his finest work..."
Rovi(2009/04/08)
This double-CD set is a little misleading. It is definitive, but only in terms of McTell's Columbia and Okeh sides -- you won't find "Statesboro Blues" or his other earliest sides here, because they were done for Victor. But the material that is here is all worthwhile, and this is the best single source for McTell's work for those labels (done under a variety of names) from the mid-'30s, very nicely remastered and thoroughly annotated, although producer Lawrence Cohn concedes that even Sony Legacy was unable to locate sources on a handful of songs that McTell is known to have recorded. ~ Bruce Eder
Rovi