Had fate dealt Cecil a different hand of cards, he might have ridden out the 1950s, participated in the Blues revival of the '60s, and reinvented himself as an international Blues Legend. But his life and career were sadly not destined for longevity. He died in February 1951, at the age of only thirty-seven. Having arrived in 1944 with the powerful, lachrymose ballad 'I Wonder', which topped the US R&B charts and sold in its hundreds of thousands, Cecil packed a lot of recording sessions into his brief métier, and his recorded legacy is both prolific and impressive. But sadly, his was not one of the reputations nurtured by Blues scholars, and over the decades he has become largely forgotten. This double-disc set presents a selective career overview and is packed with strong ballads, hard and humorous Blues and driving Boogies, virtually all of which were self-penned.
