Try to get past the lousy sound quality on this recording, because there"s some great material here that"s not available elsewhere. This excellent sampling of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown"s early work includes the smoking slow blues "Dirty Work at the Crossroads"; the crisp, clean guitar of "Gate"s Salty Blues" and "Boogie Uproar"; the lead violin on "Just Before Dawn"; and a fantastic take of "I"ve Been Mistreated"--fantastic despite the fuzz that occasionally threatens to overwhelm the music. Though Brown doesn"t mix and match musical genres as easily here as he would in later years, his confidence (not to mention competence) as a performer is already well established. --Genevieve Williams