Boyd Rivers - You Can't Make Me Doubt

Here is something from a backroads country church to light up your gospel Sunday.  One of the great mysteries to me is why Boyd Rivers, who possessed a truly great and unique county blues/gospel voice, hardly had a chance to record.  Alan Lomax was on to him in the 70s and documented him on a few tracks.  Rivers lived and performed well  into the 90s.  Yet only the German L+R label had the sense to allow him to record an album.  Where was Fat Possum when we needed it?

So this is it as far as Boyd Rivers albums go.  It is also a rare album that (I believe) never got an issue on CD, despite the fact that it is from the 1980s.  True, a few other Boyd Rivers tracks made it to a few compilations, most notably the Living Country Blues series.  Still...

Boyd Rivers was also a very powerful live performer, and was fortunately filmed in performance a number of times.  Some of the results are available on youtube.  Check this one out, for example:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCalc5JrDeM     Muddy Waters is my probably favorite blues singer, but if I were Muddy Waters and heard that, I would probably stop performing "You Got to Take Sick and Die" from that day on!

Sincerely,

Pres