[3] In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

[5] They primarily earned their income as Robert Johnson and Skip James did: they toured throughout the South but also traveled to Chicago and New York.

Their first and biggest success was "Sitting on Top of the World" (1930), later recorded by Doc Watson, Bob Wills (numerous times), Howlin' Wolf, Nat King Cole, Bill Monroe, Harry Belafonte, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Cream, Grateful Dead, Jeff Healey, John Lee Hooker, Bill Frisell, The Seldom Scene, Jack White, and Australian combo, The Bona Fide Travellers.

[10] Sam Chatmon made more recordings in the 1960s, and Walter Vinson contributed three selections (under the name of the Mississippi Sheiks) to Riverside's 1961 series Chicago: The Living Legends.

The album contains contributions from seventeen artists, including Bruce Cockburn, Bill Frisell, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Geoff Muldaur, Kelly Joe Phelps and John Hammond.