Category Archives: ARTICLES

Producing a recording session… mixing and mastering the tapes… getting lacquers cut, then metal “mothers” and stampers made… having actual records manufactured… that was the easy part, as I was soon to learn with Trix. The hard part was the … Continue reading →

Trix Records… what a concept: a true, unintentional exercise in masochism, if ever there was one. In fact, it is all the fault of Chris Strachwitz, coupled with my own small degree of stubbornness and a large degree of naiveté. … Continue reading →

One of the things that I had to get used to dealing with early on in my decades of involvement with musicians (often older) was death. Beginning with Baby Tate (see O&S 11), most of the people I have dealt … Continue reading →

In spite of all that I have written in these pages about my various Southern sojourns over the years, I actually dislike travel… it was never fun, and I have traveled very little in my life just for the hell … Continue reading →

In 1976, I got involved with Eddie Kirkland as a record producer once again since nobody else was interested, and booked a week’s time at Minot Studios in White Plains, NY just an hour south along the Hudson River. The … Continue reading →

Eddie Kirkland is an unique musician, a stunningly energetic performer even in his eighties… only James Brown or Tina Turner come to mind as his peers in that realm of performance. As a guitarist, he sounds like himself and not … Continue reading →

The performer with whom I have had the longest-lived and closest relationship since my meddling in other peoples’ affairs is Eddie Kirkland, and that began in 1979 with my first trip South that was only a field trip and not … Continue reading →

My first recording field trip took place in 1970 as Bruce Bastin and I collected material for what became his book, CRYING FOR THE CAROLINES, the first historical study of the blues traditions of the Southeast. Basically, it was the … Continue reading →

As I’ve written in these pages before (O&S#12), Roy Dunn was a major resource for me throughout the Atlanta vicinity… what card-carrying folklorists refer to as a primary informant, but he was also my friend. I never knew how he … Continue reading →

The Atlanta, Georgia area was a source on much information and music during my decade of work through the Southeast. Being able to speak with such people as Willie Mae Jackson (the sister of Robert and Charlie Hicks), Cora Mae … Continue reading →