----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger and Allison Kulp" <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>
Oh jeez,where to begin here ? Are you completely brushing aside,labels
like Folkways,Takoma,and Delmark ? Takoma,you recall,also gave us the a
cappella gem "Ever Since I Have Been a Man Full Grown"
http://www.wirz.de/music/takomfrm.htm (I own an original of this.) These
labels introduced many of us buying records in the 60s,to the likes of
Reverend Gary Davis,Sleepy John Estes,Mississippi Fred MacDowell(Paving the
way for his landmark 1969 Lp "I Do Not Play No Rock and Roll",one of the
greatest acoustic blues records ever cut !),Furry Lewis,Blind Boy Fuller,and
Brownie McGhee, amoung others.Now,I will grant you,most of the covers of
such songs,from the period that immediately pop into my head,are by American
bands,from the second wave of blues-rock(1966-72),but I'm sure there were
earlier ones.I'm not at home now,so i can't spend an hour or two poring over
my records.
Not brushing them aside...but those were for the most part specialty
LP labels, and I know I never saw any of them where I shopped (in the
Eastland Mall in Bloomington, Illinois)! When I first went looking
for "blues albums," all they had was the RJ and a couple of Sonny
Terry/Brownie McGhee albums! (the selection of jazz reissue albums
and "dixieland jazz" was, IIRC, even worse!). As well, remember that
it was called the "*British* Blues Invasion," so it referred to
British musicians...and I would guess that their blues-album selection
of the late fifties/early sixties was, if anything, worse. Of course,
the most interested of the US musicians could, and did, collect the
original 78's (notably the brothers Hite)...but the only evidence I
have that blues could be had "across the pond" is one Muddy Waters
78 I own on the UK Vogue label (originally on Chess).
Steven C. Barr
(the sad part was that I was listening to WLAC, and COULD have had
all the blues singles I wanted by mail order...and could have gone
the 150 miles to Chicago [a trip I made often!] and heard/seen
LIVE blues...but what did I know then?!)