Special Rider Blues: Original 1940-1942 Mississippi Recordings opens with an early recording of Son House's signature song, the soulful "Death Letter Blues" – a lament by a man who received a letter one morning telling him of the death of the woman he loved. However, the majority of the tracks featured here were culled from two emblematic sessions recorded by Son House in 1941 and 1942. These two dates were taped in Robbinsonville and Lake Cormorant, Mississippi by folklorist Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress and Fisk University and find him both solo and with accompaniment from fellow bluesmen like Willie Brown, Fiddlin' Joe Martin and Leroy Williams. An indispensable collection for any folk-blues devotee!