1971 Memphis TN River City Blues Festival - 3-Page Vintage Article

Description

1971 Memphis TN River City Blues Festival - 3-Page Vintage Article
Original, Vintage Magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
Memphis has long been a very special blues
town. Today it remains so, even though historic
Beale Street has been torn down, rebuilt and de-
prived of musical activity. The blues doesn’t
seem to enjoy the popularity it once had with
local blacks, as there are few active blues
bands or clubs. WDIA does, however, play more
blues than the average R&B station (especially
on Rufus Thomas’ late-night program), and one
reason for the lack of a strong current blues
scene is that many prominent bluesmen deserted
Memphis in the ’50s for Chicago or other northern
blues centers.
But the blues community that remains still
makes Memphis unique. The city has some con-
temporary artists who play and record locally;
however, many people today think of a different
circle of musicians when they think of Memphis
Blues. This special circle comprises oldet
musicians, veterans of the prewar blues days
whose music was eclipsed by the amplified
Memphis sound and who lived in obscurity until
the rediscovery of country blues in the ’60s.
This clique of blues artists, many of whom used
to play together on Beale Street, has gained a
loyal, appreciative local following (mostly young
and white). They have by now played many con-
certs and festivals together, in Memphis and
throughout the country. Most of these musicians
are now also under contract to the same record
company — Adelphi, which recently issued a
two-volume Memphis anthology. And these were
the artists who starred in the River City Blues
Festival on December 3. •
Under the direction of Steve LaVere, the
River City Blues Festival (not connected with
the five previous Memphis Country Blues Festi-
vals, except that many of the same artists ap-
peared) proved to be an undisputed success,
artistically and financially. 1500 people filled
Ellis Auditorium to hear a well-planned array of
15-minute sets. Though the artists were in a
sense limited by the short sets, the format ac-
tually worked quite well. The performers had re-
hearsed earlier in the day, and most were able
to concentrate their best efforts into the tight
concert sets.
Backstage before the show, guitarist Earl
Bell asked if we had seen his picture in the lo-
cal paper. "If you saw the paper, you saw me,”
he announced. "That’s my picture on the front.”
He boasted, “I got the biggest amplifier here,”
and insisted we see it. A definite rivalry exists
among the Memphis blues veterans, but it all
seems to be on a friendly level. Most of the mu-
sicians jammed, talked or ate sandwiches, while
Bukka White stretched out on some chairs to nap
and Sleepy John Estes sat serenely and waited.
After Houston Stackhouse had finished a quiet
but impressive impromptu set in the dressing
room, Richard "Hacksaw” Harney took a turn on
guitar and drew looks of astonishment and a rare
round of applause with a flurry of rapid, accurate
picking. "Ah, that’s nothin’,” one of the other
guitarists told the group of admirers. "You
should have heard him 25 years ago.”
As it turned out, Stackhouse and Hacksaw
were the standouts onstage as well. His mater-
ial eclectic, his delivery exquisite, Stackhouse
was chilling, vocally and instrumentally.. He
He opened with a delicately sung Mean Black
Spider, added a beautiful falsetto on Cool Water
Blues, and switched to bottleneck guitar on a
fine rendition of Annie Lee. Hacksaw and Stack-
house then teamed up on an uptempo instrument-
al, followed by four solo instrumentals from
Hacksaw — two on piano and two on guitar. He
displayed a full, fluent style on both instru-
ments, but he left no doubt in my mind that he
is one of the very finest authentic country blues
guitarists alive. Not a straight delta blues
stylist like most of the Memphis crew, he
picked both in a more sophisticated, swinging
fashion and in a superb ragtime style. His fac- ...
Photo on page 3 - (Left to right) Fred McDowell, Mrs. Von Hunt, Sweet Charlene, Willie “61” Blackwell, Mose Vinson (at piano), Sam Clark,
Willie Morris, Richard “Hacksaw” Harney, Dewey Corley, Lee Baker (seated), Houston Stackhouse (partially obscured),
Sleepy John Estes, Hammie Nixon, Earl Bell (face away from camera), Furry Lewis (seated), Bukka White, “T.R.”
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