I thought I would shares some wonderful videos of my buddy Axel Küstner. Here is a link to some videos of his photo exhibit at the Black Prairie Blues Museum from West Point, Ms., Sept. 26, 2024. Click the icon on the upper right to view all videos. It was a terrific event and a well deserved tribute to Axel. Axel and I have done many shows together on his field recordings which rank among some of the favorite shows I’ve done.
Category: Blues News
The Sherlock of Shellac: John Tefteller
Record collector John Tefteller has been on this show many times and his programs are consistently among the most popular ones I air. There’s a great little documentary on John by Michael Kasino that is well worth checking out.
Paul Oliver Dies
| Paul Oliver interviewing the blues artist Lightnin’ Hopkins in Houston in 1960. Credit Chris Strachwitz/Arhoolie Foundation |
“Paul Oliver, a Briton who wrote some of the earliest and most authoritative histories of one of America’s great indigenous musical forms, the blues, died on Tuesday in Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire, England. He was 90.” Read the rest of the New York Times obituary.
Below is a show I did several years back on the recordings Paul Oliver made during his legendary 1960 trip to the Unites States. Read the show notes here.
–“Long May Your Banjo Ring: 70th Birthday Greetings to Paul Oliver.” Blues Access no. 30 (Summer 1997): 44–47. Anon. –Paul Oliver: A Selective Bibliography, 1952-2005. Popular Music Vol. 26, No. 1, Special Issue on the Blues in Honour of Paul Oliver (Jan., 2007), pp. 157-186. Robert Ford. Related Articles
Delta Blues Comes to Rochester
This past week Geva Theatre presented Journey to the Son: A Celebration of Son House a four-day festival that weaved together music, theatre, film, audio recordings, storytelling and lectures celebrating the life of Son House. Son lived in Rochester from 1943 through 1976 and was rediscovered here in 1964. There were fine performances by John Hammond, John Mooney, Chris Thomas King, Joe Beard, Steve Grills and others as well as musical workshops and lectures. The biggest highlight for me was the dedication of an official Mississippi Blues Trail marker on Friday, August 28th on the corner of Clarissa and Grieg Street where Son House resided in the Corn Hill Neighborhood of Rochester. The marker is one of only a few above the Mason-Dixon line. Joining the celebration were Son’s manager Dick Waterman, one of the men who tracked Son to Rochester in the summer of 1964, and Jim O’Neal founder of Living Blues magazine and research consultant for the Mississippi Trail marker project. Here’s photos of both sides of the marker and a picture of Jim O’Neal and myself standing near the site of Son’s apartment building which since been torn down.
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