I've recently been poking through the forum and see that there's been a fair bit of discussion about Robert Nighthawk. In addition I noticed John Miller's thoughtful review of Document's "Prowling With The Nighthawk." While I didn't compile the tracks I did write the liner notes. As Bunker Hill noted in an earlier post this was supposed to be a 2-CD set collecting everything Nighthawk recorded under his own name from the 1930's through the 1950's. Why this was trimmed to a single disc appears to have something to do with license issues. Here's what I was told by Document in Dec. 2004:
"I spoke to the chap at Delmark about it and he flatly refused to license the tracks. So, I have kept both the Delmark and late Chess releases out of it. By doing that I have then had to tailor the tracks around a single CD release. Despite this, I have decided to keep your notes for what was going to be two CDs together."
I never understood this since the Nighthawk sides from this period are over fifty years old, which according to European copyright would put them in public domain. I'm not an expert on this so perhaps I'm mistaken. Anyway I'm glad the CD came out and my notes were left intact although I still view it as an opportunity missed.
Those interested in reading the notes can view them as a word doc:
Part 1:
http://www.baddogblues.com/docs/nighthawk1.docPart 2:
http://www.baddogblues.com/docs/nighthawk2.doc-Jeff Harris
