Think of Big Bill Broonzy as Leadbelly with sharper teeth. Like the seminal Texas strummer, Broonzy worked in the songster tradition, using guitar purely as accompaniment to his storytelling rather than a means of virtuosic expression. But Broonzy's political lyrics--especially the famed color-line critique »Black, Brown, and White,« with its warning »if you're black, get back«--are more direct. So are his onstage observations about racism and poverty in America in the two just-unveiled concerts on this two-disc set. As the liner notes explain, gin and the warmth of Broonzy's audience loosened the native Mississippian's lips on these nights. Nonetheless, his openhearted delivery of originals like »Just a Dream,« later covered by his disciple Muddy Waters, and the standard repertoire of the early folk-blues era (»Midnight Special,« Leroy Carr's »When the Sun Goes Down«) is on the mark. An improvised stab at »Guitar Rag« and a »Happy Birthday« to a new acquaintance testify to the informality of these sets. They also lend breadth to a rare self-portrait of this highly influential bluesman as an inspired entertainer. --Ted Drozdowski