People also take warning that this set is not for everyone. This is a significant historical document culled from 1913 to 1930’s recordings of blues and country folk artists. Most are restored from rare 78’s. Thirty of them have never been available on disc before. Listeners should also be advised that bad things happen to good people in nearly all of the seventy selections over these three discs. All that said, this is a pretty cool set. You have to remember there was a time before television and the internet when news traveled in different ways than it does today. One of those was in song and it’s a tradition that still thrives today I’m happy to say. Tom Waits writes the introduction to the forty eight page booklet and after that the bodies start piling up faster than you can count.

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Disc 1 Man V Machine

1) Titanic Blues Hi Henry Brown & Charlie Jordan

2) Wreck Of the Old 97 Skillet Lickers

3) Bill Wilson Birmingham Jug Band

4) The Crash Of the Akron Bob Miller

5) The Fate of Talmadge Osborne Ernest Stoneman

6) El Mole Rachmim (Für Titanik) Cantor Joseph Rosenblatt

7) The Wreck Of the Virginian Alfred Reed

8) Fate of Will Rogers & Wiley Post Bill Cox

9) Down With The Old Canoe Dixon Brothers

10) Wreck Of Number 52 Cliff Carlisle

11) Kassie Jones Part 1 Furry Lewis

12) Kassie Jones Part 2 Furry Lewis

13) The Brave Engineer Carver Boys

14) The Sinking Of The Titanic Richard “Rabbit” Brown

15) Fate Of Chris Lively And Wife Blind Alfred Reed

16) Wreck On The Mountain Road Red Fox Chasers

17) The Unfortunate Brakeman Kentucky Ramblers

18) Altoona Freight Wreck Riley Puckett

19) The Fatal Wreck Of The Bus Mainer’s Mountaineers

20) Last Scene Of the Titanic Frank Hutchison

21) Casey Jones Skillet Lickers

22) The Wreck Of The Westbound Airliner Fred Pendleton

23) The Titanic Ernest Stoneman

24) When That Great Ship Went Down William & Versey Smith

Disc 2 Man V Nature

1) The Story of the Mighty Mississippi Ernest Stoneman

2) Mississippi Heavy Water Blues Robert Hicks

3) Dixie Boll Weevil Fiddlin’ John Carson

4) Mississippi Boweavil Charlie Patton

5) Ohio Prison Fire Bob Miller

6) Memphis Flu Elder Curry

7) Explosion in the Fairmount Mine Blind Alfred Reed

8) Storm That Struck Miami Fiddlin’ John Carson

9) When the Levee Breaks Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie

10) Alabama Flood Andrew Jenkins

11) Burning of the Cleveland School J. H. Howell’s Carolina Hillbillies

12) High Water Everywhere, Part 1 Charlie Patton

13) High Water Everywhere, Part 2 Charlie Patton

14) Ryecove Cyclone Martin & Roberts

15) McBeth Mine Explosion Cap, Andy & Flip

16) Dry Well Blues Charlie Patton

17) Baltimore Fire Charlie Poole

18) Tennessee Tornado Uncle Dave Macon

19) Dry Spell Blues, Part 2 Son House

20) The Santa Barbara Earthquake Green Bailey

21) The Death of Floyd Collins Vernon Dalhart

22) The Porto Rico Storm Carson Robison Trio

23) Boll Weavil W. A. Lindsey & Alvin Condor

24) The Flood of 1927 Elders McIntorsh & Edwards

Disc 3 Man V Man (And Woman, Too)

1) Peddler And His Wife Hayes Shepherd

2) The Little Grave in Georgia Earl Johnson

3) Kenney Wagner’s Surrender Ernest Stoneman

4) Henry Clay Beattie Kelly Harrell

5) The Murder Of the Lawson Family Carolina Buddies

6) Naomi Wise Clarence Ashley

7) Railroad Bill Will Bennett

8) Frankie Dykes Magic City Trio

9) Trial of Richard Bruno Hauptmann, Part 1 Bill Cox

10) Trial of Richard Bruno Hauptmann, Part 2 Bill Cox

11) Lanse Des Belaires Dennis McGee & Ernest Fruge

12) Darling Cora B.F. Shelton

13) Billy Lyons and Stack O’ Lee Furry Lewis

14) Tom Dooley Grayson and Whitter

15) The Story of Freda Bolt Floyd County Ramblers

16) Pretty Polly John Hammond

17) Fingerprints Upon the Windowpane Bob Miller

18) The Bluefield Murder Roy Harvey & The North Carolina Ramblers

19) Frankie Silvers Ashley & Foster

20) Fate of Rhoda Sweeten Wilmer Watts

21) Dupree Blues Willie Walker

22) Poor Ellen Smith Dykes Magic City Trio