John Lee Hooker, Flamingo Club, London, July 3, 1964

From a review I wrote in July, 1964:

"John Lee wandered on- a short sinewy man who is almost fifty years old...He sang up-temp blues, then he told us he was going "to sing a little song that the soul brothers sing down in Soulsville, 'mongst all the wailing and the moaning". It was a slow, beautiful country blues of intense anguish. He made every member of the audience feel like his soul brother.

He sang 'My First Wife Left Me', 'The Hobo' and 'Boogie Chillun'. 'Dimples' and 'I'm Leavin''' he featured in both sessions. I could not help visualising him as a redemptive saint, baptizing us in the Blues. This was as much a 'religious' as a musical experience for me...the deepest musical experience of my life."

Flamingo Club, London, 3 July, 1964

In Hamburg, Let's make it, baby, 1962

Shake it Baby, Hamburg 1962

The night time is the right time, Hamburg 1962

The Hobo

It's my own fault - John Lee Hooker, 1960, with Muddy's band

See also,  Jimi Hendrix at the Marquee Club, 1967

Son House at the 100 Club, 1970

Howlin' Wolf, 1964 (American Folk Blues Festival)

Video Art, Jane and Louise Wilson

Battleship Potemkin, Reenactment

Jane and Louise Wilson, always brilliant.

Whose Houses?

Look at these front gates or doors. Whose houses?

No prizes

If you haven't already guessed, here are the answers:

Elvis Presley
Jerry Lee Lewis
Carl Perkins

Corny Country? Hillbilly and Hick Music? Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams

Nashville Record Shop (photo Jim Potts).

Some country songs may sound corny, but you've got to admire the lyrics (eg Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers). Three of the very best: Hank Williams, I Just Don't Like This Kind Of Livin' , Please Don't Let Me Love You, Are you walking and a-talking for the Lord 

Ernest Tubb, Thanks a Lot

Ernest Tubb, Driftwood on the River

I remember how annoyed I felt when an American musician friend referred to Dylan's "John Wesley Harding" album as "hick music".

The highly successful Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard told Nicholas Dawidoff ("In the Country of Country"), "my wife didn't like the fact that all I wanted to be was a country music songwriter...she called it hillbilly music. That pissed me off. She was talkin' about something I loved."

Dawidoff goes on:

"Howard says there is an implicit morality in country music...'Good is good, bad will suffer and your cheatin' heart will make you weep...I like that thread. Good is good, bad gets your ass kicked, I believe it.' "

Harlan Howard's songs include Heartaches by the Number, Pick me up on your way down, Busted, The Blizzard

Update, 18 February, Mindy McCready

History of Country, Bristol, 1927

Aristotle University, Thessaloniki

On Professor Richard Hunter

Klezmer Music in Virginia, Nina-Maria Potts

Klezmer then and now: Nina-Maria reports from Charlottesville, Virginia

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