Author Archives: peterblowry

MIXED BAG: #2 (1.)           One evening in the middle seventies, Pink Anderson performed at Izzy Young’s Folklore Center in Greenwich Village (NYC). This was sort of Pink’s farewell world tour, organized and shepherded by Roy Book Binder – in NYC … Continue reading →

One of the benefits of coming of age (more or less) during the late 50s/early 60s (and there were not that many) was the availability of interesting Black radio in the New York area. There were stations (AM only) such … Continue reading →

Record collecting takes many forms, from creating a sound-track for one’s life (!) through historical interest and preservation to the obsessively compulsive behavior of the truly addicted (this last include many discographers, I’m afraid.(2) I tend to fall into the … Continue reading →

While an undergraduate at Princeton University in southern New Jersey, I belonged to something like a fraternity; “eating clubs” were somewhat less macho than frats, but were somewhat more snobbish. It was the club that was the location for all … Continue reading →

The other artist that I recorded in Chicago was the inimitable Homesick James. Actually, I think he was the one to stimulate Jim O’Neal to prod me as Homesick had never before recorded as a solo performer. Jim had had … Continue reading →

Long ago and far away, I was pulled away from my Southeastern focus in a couple of different directions. Detroit (and the pianists; O&S #23) was one, while Cleveland, OH had Robert Lockwood (O&S # 39, 40). Jim O’Neal was … Continue reading →

Before going to the University of Pennsylvania to “folklore school” in the fall of 1980 and after receiving (and properly spending) my N.E.. Folk Arts Grant in 1978, I found myself at loose ends. An unexpected phone call put an … Continue reading →

There’s a long list of musicians I was privileged to record in my decade of intense field-work, many for the first time in their lives. It is much easier to lay claim to an individual “first” than it is to … Continue reading →

My more recent epiphany that I alluded to last time came via some reviews in Nat Hentoff’s publication of some LPs on a label I’d never heard of before… Chess Records. The albums were “The Best of Muddy Waters”, “The … Continue reading →