The Mississippi Sheiks recorded during the 1930s and have more than one hundred singles to their credit. Made up of three sons of an slave (Sam, Lonnie and Armenter Chatman), the band recorded broke-down country and Delta blues. Vancouver's Steve Dawson had been a longtime fan of their music and gathered together an amazing collection of Canadians and Americans to do their own renditions of the Sheiks' music. The performers mostly stick more traditional version of this music and don't stray too far from the path. Among the more remarkable renditions come from some of the names you'd expect, like the North Mississippi All-Stars, playing a rollicking version of “It's Backfirin' Now” to lead off the collection. Canadians Jim Byrnes and sometime backups, blues gospel band The Soujourners, turn in rootsy versions of “Jailbird Love Song” and “He Calls That Religion” respectively. Ndidi Onukwulu, one of Canada's best kept secrets, is sparklingly soulful on the title track. On the more jazzy end, there's a fine horn-drenched instrumental from Bill Frisell (“That's It”) and a stellar vocal jazz track from Madeleine Peyroux (“Please Baby”). On the folky side, musical traditionists The Carolina Chocolate Drops play a bluegrass-tinged tune with “Sittin' on Top of the World” and Canadian legend Bruce Cockburn does a very bluesy version of “Honey Babe Let the Deal Go Down”, which is probably the best track on the album. There's tracks from John Hammond, Kelly Joe Phelps, Oh Susanna and Robin Holcomb too, just to name a few. This is an amazing album, steeped in the blues, but crossing over into many different traditional genres. Highly recommended.