Blues at Newport

Well, another summer, another Newport Jazz festival.

Getting to Newport was an adventure unto itself.  As many of you know, I spend July and August in Southampton, Long Island.  Last Tuesday, a few friends who were accompanying me to the festival came out to Southampton.  On Thursday, we headed to Orient Point, to take the Cross Sound Ferry over to New London, Connecticut.  While we were waiting to drive on to the ferry, a car rammed into the back of my parked Land Rover (scared the living crap out of us).  We were all OK, and there was no damage, but the Honda had all kinds of front end damage, and was unable to continue onto the ferry.  Speaking of having the crap scared out of us, halfway to New London, the ferry lost power, and for five minutes (which seemed like an eternity), we drifted sideways in the Long Island sound until we regained power.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun, with great music and food.

Today's freeload is also Newport themed.

The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival.  The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder George Wein, music manager Albert Grossman, and folk singers Pete Seeger, Theodore Bikel, and Oscar Brand.  It was one of the first modern music festivals in America and remains a focal point in folk music.

The Newport Folk Festival played a significant role in the so-called Blues "revival" of the 1960s, with performances by rediscovered blues icons.

In 1959 Newport Folk Festival co-founder and Producer George Wein rented an off-site house for the weekend as a way to corral the various musicians that he’d brought up from around the country – most notably the deep South.  Many of the Blues musicians had never been to the Northeast before, and George Wein wanted to make sure they didn’t get into too much trouble downtown.  George wrote about this in his memoir 'Myself Among Others'.

"Joyce [George's wife - Ed] had found this house and furnished it with beds from Vernon Court.  The resulting residence, which we dubbed ‘The Blues House,’ was something to behold.  These timeless blues legends were having a ball.  It seemed that the house was full of song at all hours; Informal jam sessions would start in the afternoon and persist until the evening.  Some of these artists hadn’t seen each other in years; Others had never previously met. Having them all together under one roof was a joyous arrangement."

Mississippi John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotten at The Blues House

On The Blues House porch: (left to right)
Reverend Robert Wilkins, Gaither Carlton, Skip James, Arnold Watson, Mississippi John Hurt, Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Hammie Nixon, and Doc Watson

Today's freeload is a three CD set:
 

'Newport Folk Festival: Best of the Blues 1959 - 68' is one of my favorite live blues recordings, and in my opinion, belongs in every blues collection.

For the freeload, who is your favorite Pre-War Blues artist, who was rediscovered in the late 50s/early 60s.