SOUTH ILLINOIS COUNTRY BLUES
FESTIVALS/ The 1970's
While the music enjoyed a more and
more strong following in Europe, the late 60's and early 1970's were very lean
years for the blues in the
USA.
Many a bluesmen that we saw and chatted with or interviewed when they were
touring
France
during this era told us that those European tours were almost the only
lucrative gigs they had! The country blues artists who had enjoyed some quite
large exposures during the early 1960's were now playing almost only for friends
or family with a very few paid gigs in colleges and Universities or some folk
clubs. I saw Larry Johnson in
1973
in New York City in a
Greenwich Village coffeehouse when he was playing a great
set, backed by an excellent drummer (Bobby King), for an audience less than ten
people, including us!
So those sets! They have been
recorded at two distinct small Southern Illinois Festivals sponsored by the Illinois Valley Community College
and have been available only very confidentially. Pianist Memphis Piano Red,
legendaries Tennessee
bluesmen Furry Lewis, Sleepy John Estes, Hammie Nixon appear in good shape and
deliver fine performances. But to my ears the highlight here is the still very
young (at that time) Larry Johnson who demonstrates masterful Piedmont style
country blues with a driving fingerpicking guitar style and good vocals.
Thanks a lot to all involved in the
recordings and preservation of the music and to the website Downstate Sounds (Exploring the musical past
of Illinois
outside Chicagoland!) and enjoy this rare performances.
Gérard
HERZHAFT
MEMPHIS PIANO RED, vcl/pno. Oglesby, Ill.
22 mars 1974
01. Pinetop's boogie woogie
02. Home at last
03. You don't have to go
04. Mother-in-law blues
SLEEPY JOHN ESTES, vcl/g; Hammie
Nixon, hca/jug/kazoo/vcls. Oglesby,
Ill. 22 mars 1974
05. Corrina Corrina
06. President Kennedy stayed away too long
07. Rats in my kitchen
HAMMIE NIXON, vcl/hca/jug;
Sleepy John Estes, g. Oglesby, Ill.
22 mars 1974
08. Yellow yam blues
FURRY LEWIS, vcl/g. Oglesby, Ill.
22 mars 1974
09. Mary Tell blues
LARRY JOHNSON, vcl/g. Normal, Ill.
21 mai 1971
10. Ragged and dirty
11. How long blues
12. Got the blues can't be satisfied
13. Nobody's business if I do
14. Saturday night blues
15. Pick poor Robin clean
(The performances here
were recorded by Greg Steil at Illinois
Valley Community
College)
