Atlantic's short-lived Blues Originals series brought forth some real gems: not just Professor Longhair's New Orleans Piano, but this 1949 session by singer-guitarist McTell. What Bob Dylan heard in McTell, the title subject of one of his most fabled songs, is both easy and hard to catch, but there's something eerie in the almost cheerful delivery of songs such as "Dying Crapshooter's Blues." A grand album that forms yet another facet of the label's gemlike catalog. --Rickey Wright