Sid Hemphill - The Devil's Dream
Alan Lomax's 1942 Library of Congress Recordings

Multi-instrumentalist, band-leader and composer Sid Hemphill (1876–1961) was for decades the musical patriarch of the Mississippi Hill Country. He and his band were fixtures at dances, picnics, and frolics throughout the right triangle formed by Memphis, the Delta, and the Hill Country.

"The Devil's Dream" is the first release devoted to Lomax's 1942 recordings of Sid Hemphill. Transferred from the fragile original acetate discs and expertly mastered and speed-corrected, the album is a portrait of a once-thriving black regional musical tradition, all but forgotten in its Mississippi Hill Country home.