Category Archives: BLUES

The APOLLO, 1966 It was in the fall of 1964 that I first timidly ventured backstage at the fabled Apollo Theater on 125th Street in Harlem to meet B.B. King. A major (and successful) first attempt at connecting with a … Continue reading →

“An accidental folklorist!” During my decades in the blues trenches, as it were, I was able to accomplish a number of admirable things over that time beginning in the mid-sixties, things of which I am extremely proud. The record label … Continue reading →

The work of others: occasionally taking advantage of…!   OK, first I must confess that I did not do ALL of the recordings that I have accumulated over time from my decade (+) spent in-the-field. This includes all my various … Continue reading →

Such a life!? A collection of shorter rambles by a field recordist at the end of his travels (part two)   If there ever was a method to my researching methodological madness, it was to do nothing but record whatever … Continue reading →

Such a life!? A collection of short rambles by a field recordist at the end of his travels (part one)   I’ve been “doing” something musically appropriate with these various pages since the early sixties with little to no remuneration … Continue reading →

 a/k/a James Calvin Speed             Roy Sydney Dunn was introduced to us[1] ca. 1971 by Cora Mae Bryant as a guitar-playing friend of her late father, Curley James Weaver. She also introduced us to others who no longer played (Son … Continue reading →

People and Places and Times: a folklorist’s partial tale.             Most of my summers (later most of my full years) in the 70’s had me putting some 20,000 miles annually on my van in my mainly southeastern jaunts while recording … Continue reading →

Little Sam Davis – Sam Davis is one of the “almosts” in the ranks of post-war blues harmonica-playing artists. Mississippi-born (Winona – 28 Nov, 1928), he became a wanderer at fourteen, tired of Mississippi sawmills and cotton farms. He played … Continue reading →