Green Room Blues, created and produced by Bob Welsh, Dale Wise, and Dale Epperson, is a fantastic compilation of Mississippi Delta, New Orleans, and Chicago blues that speaks to the heart of the genre. From Tom Larsen’s “Route 13” to Frank Grace’s “My Woman Treats Me Bad,” this disc has a great mix of blues that comes straight from the soul when someone asks, “How ya doin’?”

Although the record has seen rapid success with over 1,000 copies sold in the Harrisburg area in the first few weeks of its release, it isn’t what Bob Welsh envisioned it to be.

“It set out to be a chronological look at the growth of the style, beginning with the African call and response, the slave trade, and its migration west to the Caribbean, then north to New Orleans,” he says. The collection was to then catch the style’s expansion to the Mississippi Delta and movement north to Chicago for what Welsh dubs the “very sparse electric stuff,” and finally onto New York for “the more funky R&B stuff.” He pictured the disc to be a really involved explanation about the birth and growth of certain styles and where certain instruments came in. But, as he notes, “it just proved to be a giant that I couldn’t get. The resources just weren’t there.”

Although he didn’t get all that he wanted, Welsh and his team did succeed in getting a good representation. There’s a New Orleans march and Mississippi Delta and Chicago-style tracks as well. Although the blues hasn’t caught on in the U.S. like other music styles have, the music on this CD speaks to each person individually. “So many people are afraid of the blues,” Welsh says. “They think it’s going to be ‘Went downtown last night … my old lady left me and the cop hit me on the head … ’ Yes, urban living, loss, and poverty are some of it. But it’s also celebratory, transcendent, victorious, and just simple love songs set in simple music.” The “simple music” in his context is folk music — a traditional sound. “It’s like an Irish reel or something Western European … a couple of chords and some sheep hopping around. But blues is just a folk music of this continent and this period of time.”

All 15 tracks were produced and recorded in 15 days. “A very interesting, sort of old fashioned approach to recording,” Welsh says. He wrote some of the songs, including “Hoochie Woman,” “I Can’t Stay Chained,” and “What’s Up With That?” when the artists walked into the studio to record. “I like the pressure,” he says. Some people brought titles or ideas, but the artists that performed these three songs are his intimate music mates who know how he works. “They know I’m just going to start throwing [stuff] on the wall until something sticks.” A couple of the artists used the same rhythm section, but all of the songs are new. If Welsh set one ground rule for the project, it was that there should be no covers. “I didn’t want any standard blues tunes and everything sounding the same,” he notes. “In turn, we did a nice eclectic mix of everything that we thought at least somehow fit under the broad umbrella of the blues.”

The record’s unique sound stems from how the tracks were put together and how they were performed. Most of the cuts are from integral bands, but Welsh wanted to use solo artists from both Harrisburg and surrounding regions. With help from Dale Wise, a well-connected local musician, the two brought in blues musicians from Baltimore, Philadelphia, Scranton, and State College. Some of the artists were in combinations that had never been together before, such as locals Stan Middleton and Amy Simpson, who collaborated for the heartbreak Welsh original, “I Can’t Stay Chained.” “The hybrid acts that we put together were mostly stuff that we thought would fly pretty well,” Welsh says.

These hybrids were a delicate mix of planning and dumb luck. After Wise drafted a list of potential artists, Welsh noted that there was no female representation. Not by design, but simply for the fact that there aren’t many women singing blues — period. Wise suggested Annie Sutton, who coupled with Krypton City on “Steady Steppin,” one of the best songs of the compilation. Another stellar pair emerged with Krypton’s Stan Middleton and Amy Simpson. The two had just met when they came to town to watch a band Welsh works with in Harrisburg. Welsh spied them and saw a classic vocal combination waiting to happen. He told them he was working on a record and offered a challenge — if he wrote a song, would they perform it together. They agreed and recorded the song two days later.

The final product of this virtual spin-art of artists is a fascinating representation of the style performed by some of the region’s best blues musicians. It’s a genuine collection of music that compels someone to jump in the car and drive cross-country with no destination in mind, or sit at home and listen to the rain pound the windows all day. From M. Mitchell Ivanoff and Dale Wise’s “Barb Wire Blues” to Rev. Flamin’ Harry and The Roadhouse Rockers’ “Wild Willie Blues,” the disc spans the gamut of deep blues rhythm and jazz club sounding tunes. This compilation is proof positive that great music can come quickly with little practice.