A supremely talented singer, guitarist, songwriter and actor, JOSH?WHITE was a staunch civil rights activist, at a time when it was both unfashionable and dangerous; but after he was denounced as a communist by the McCarthyites, at the peak of his popularity, he was unable to work in the U. S. for more than a decade. He subsequently became one of the first Blues musicians to reside in Europe, basing himself variously in London (where he even had his own BBC?radio show), Paris and Stockholm, as the work took him. These two albums, "The Josh White Stories Volumes 1 and 2", were recorded in New York for ABC Records, in 1956-57, during his "lost decade". They were aimed at the burgeoning Folk Boom market in The States, and would ultimately serve to introduce him to a new, younger, hipper college undergraduate audience. Neither of these LPs has previously ever appeared on CD, which makes this compilation a mandatory purchase for Josh White and general Blues fans, alike