The American Folk Blues Festival was a succession of annual tours throughout Europe. The first festival was held in 1962, and they continued almost annually until 1972, after an eight-year hiatus reviving the festival in 1980 until its final performance in 1985.
American Folk Blues Festival, 1962
The artists on the 1962 American Folk Blues Festival tour, were:
Helen Humes - vocals
Memphis Slim - piano and vocals
T-Bone Walker - guitar and vocals
Shakey Jake - guitar and vocals
John Lee Hooker - guitar and vocals
Sonny Terry - harmonica and vocals
Brownie McGhee - guitar and vocals
Willie Dixon - bass and vocals
Armand "Jump" Jackson - drums
'American Folk Blues Festival 1962' is a 3CD set from Frémeaux & Associés. It was recorded on October 20, 1962, at the Olympia Theater in Paris, France
American Folk Blues Festival, 1963
The artists on the 1963 American Folk Blues Festival tour, were:Victoria Spivey - ukulele and vocals
Memphis Slim - piano and vocals
Otis Spann - piano and vocals
Sonny Boy Williamson - harmonica and vocals
Muddy Waters - guitar and vocals
Big Joe Williams - guitar and vocals
Lonnie Johnson - guitar and vocals
Matt "Guitar" Murphy - guitar
Willie Dixon - bass and vocals
Bill Stepney - drums
'American Folk Blues Festival 'sixty three' is a two CD set from the Evidence label. It was recorded at Die Glocke on October 13th 1963 in Bremen, Germany
For the freeload, tell us what was your introduction to the blues.
When my first girl friend dumped me.
ReplyDeleteMusically, It was probably hearing BB King doing "Ain't Nobody Loves Me But My Mother (But She Might Be Jivin' Too)"
DeleteCollege radio stations in the 80's (megahertz not the years - at the leftmost end of the dial). Temple University had Saturday night and U of Penn had Sunday or maybe vice-versa. I took an immediate liking to Buddy Guy and the three Kings. We'd beg the bulls to turn the radio up loud so we could hear it over the clanking of the license plate stamping machine.
ReplyDeleteI found a copy of the Columbia (EMI) 1962 (released in the US on Vee-Jay in 1960) compilation "The Blues" at a boot for pennies and promptly bought it. That was almost 50 years ago....
ReplyDeletehttps://www.discogs.com/sell/release/4316706
As a teenager in the early seventies :
ReplyDeleteCream - Spoonful, Crossroads
Fleetwood Mac - Shake Your Moneymaker
Rolling Stones - Little Red Rooster
I then discovered that they were covers of blues songs and so sought out the originals. I remember not liking them, but thinking that I probably needed to persevere so bought a cheap compilation - "Golden Hour presents the Great Blues Men" and was particularly blown away by Key to the Highway and San Fransisco Bay Blues
Pretty sure I was listening to Have You Ever Loved A Woman? by Derek & The Dominos in my room & promptly walked into the other room and had a likely brief discussion about the blues with my mom. She was into jazz, bigtime. I'm sure she had brushes with the blues, but no blues albums. Had to be in 1970, I was 14 (oh my!) such an impressionable age. The guitars, the rhythm, the vocals, everything working together to define the blues for me. I was hooked.
ReplyDeleteMany years later our Santa Fe household always listened to Blues Night on KUNM every Wednesday, where they always closed the show with B B King, Thank You For Loving The Blues. I believe I still have a cassette somewhere around here (but nothing to play it on) that has great music including Esther Phillips performing a medley Blow Top Blues/Jelly Jelly Blues/Long John Blues, been a favorite ever since. Thanks Babs
Late 60s, got exposed to Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Elmore James via a late night blues only format that a local radio station played - not rock blues, just "real" blues. Had a few of the shows taped on cassettes, but the Katrina "blues" took those tapes.
ReplyDeleteMy best buddy Dwight, who always was WAY ahead of the curve in taste in music, played me Big Bill Broonzy and Robert Johnson -- the latter on acoustic guitar (Dwight was a 15 year old prodigy). After that, it was white British blues (Mayall and P Green and such) Butterfield, and Kooper's Blues Project.
ReplyDeleteMy father was a Count Basie fan, and played tracks with Joe Williams and Jimmy Rushing singing the blues, when I was a little girl.
ReplyDeleteIn 1962 (I was 16), I heard John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” on the radio. In those days, I used to save most of my lunch money to buy music with. My local record store didn’t have it, and told me in no uncertain terms, “We don’t carry that kind of music here, try the Bedford-Stuyvesant ghetto.” As I was leaving, while opening the door, I heard, “Don’t get mugged, little girl!” to which I replied, “Get bent”. I ended up sneaking into Manhattan to buy it. As my father used to say, “If you can’t find it in Manhattan, they don’t make it.” The flip side of “Boom Boom” was “Drug Store Woman” which I found provocative in my teens.
Yet another great Babs reflection, thanks. I'm currently reading Brooklyn Crime Novel by Jonathan Lethem, which is fantastic. Even though it's written about specific places (& times), it's written in a way that broadens the horizon, making you think that it could be anywhere, but at the same time really couldn't be anywhere else. I know that I can relate to a lot of it despite never having stepped foot in New York. Same atmosphere growing up in a small town in Kansas, next to an army base.
DeleteIf you're looking for a book to read I can highly recommend it. As always, thanks Babs.
I guess what I really meant is, his stories remind me of your stories & your stories remind me of my own, somehow. All very relatable. Shoulda just went with that in the first place. Thanks Babs
DeleteMy old man had a vast collection of 78s and LPs with plenty of blues-tinged swing and jazz titles that I heard all the time growing up. But I think I grew more deeply engaged with modern blues forms as a teenager in the LA suburbs thanks to Wolfman Jack whose show reached my six transistor radio via 100,000 illegal watts blasted direct from Rosarito Beach in Baja California. Amid the ads for potency pills, hair straighteners, and skin lighteners, the Wolfman played amazing, primal music that transfixed this kid: Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Ike Turner were just a few of the musical revelations.
ReplyDeleteFor people who dig the freeloads and haven't seen the festivals were all filmed and they're available on DVD and streaming. The shows include all the big names but also offer priceless footage of bluesmen rarely seen in performance such as Big Walter "Shakey" Horton, Earl Hooker, Otis Rush, and Magic Sam. Collectively they form a remarkable history of how the blues came to Europe, indelibly influencing the British blues-rock stars of the 60s and 70s.
Probably like a lot of others who listened to the Stones, Cream, Led Zep, Hendrix etc - discovering the originals via those artists.
ReplyDeleteMe, too. First heard Boom Boom (and a bunch more) by the Animals.
DeleteExactly 'cause where I lived you weren't going to hear John Lee Hooker on the radio!
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As a youngster (early 60s) in Winnipeg MB I had a little radio that I could listen to under my pillow when I was supposed to be sleeping. There must have been some sort of signal convergence (there was a fellow who lived a couple of miles away who had logged over 200 TV station call letters received from his rooftop antenna) and at that early age I was exposed to a variety of regional musics from the area between the Appalachians and the Rockies at night when they turned up the broadcast wattage. It wasn't until many years later that I realized much of the music I enjoyed was due to that pre-sleep listening. That said, the first blues record I ever bought was Fathers And Sons and it was game over from there on!
ReplyDeleteLate 50's, early 60's - Jimmy Rushing - Mr 5 x 5.
ReplyDeleteI was 10 and just thought his blues shouting was great. To this day I have and play his stuff all the time.
It might have been a French ep of those bluesfestivals, not sure.
ReplyDeleteNot sure. So much early rock was infused with the blues. And then their was the British Invasion. It only seemed natural to investigate the originals.
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Key to the Highway by Sammy Price on Humph's radio show.
ReplyDeleteFremeaux have great CD series', there's a 4 CD set of Ray Charles in Paris 1961 which is better than any of his subsequent live albums.
If these are actual concert recordings I've not heard them, but I had on vinyl another album of the 62 tour which made John Lee Hooker a star in France. It was recorded in Germany, had Hooker playing Shake It Baby with (a brilliant) T-Bone Walker on piano.
I believe that the first blues music I heard was Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. They were the blues act most acceptable to folk music audiences, I guess, 'cause that's the only reason I can think my parents would've heard and enjoyed them. My folks had decent musical taste, but they weren't adventurous into many kinds of roots.
ReplyDeleteOn my own, I think I probably first heard The Doors first album with "Back Door Man" from the kid on the next block up in our suburban neighborhood. I coulda done worse!
D in California
My introduction to the blues was The Rolling Stones. It's a good question because it was in 1970 that an older classmate sat me down for a Chess festival aimed to demonstrate a sound harder than anything the Stones or Led Zep could conjure.
ReplyDeleteI was floored, killing floored!