V.A.—Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969, Volumes 1 & 2 (Third Man), two 2-LP sets

ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969 LP Vol. 1

1. Roosevelt Sykes – Dirty Mother For You
2. Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup – So Glad You’re Mine
3. J.B. Hutto & His Hawks – Too Much Alcohol
4. Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins – I Wonder Why
5. Junior Wells – Help Me (A Tribute To Sonny Boy Williamson)
6. B.B. King with Sonny Freeman And The Unusuals – I’ve Got A Mind To Give Up Living
7. Mississippi Fred McDowell – John Henry
8. Pinetop Perkins – Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie
9. Big Bill Hill – Introduction
10. Luther Allison And The Blue Nebulae – Everybody Must Suffer/Stone Crazy
11. Clifton Chenier – Tu M’as Promise L’amour (You Promised Me Love)
12. The Original Howlin’ Wolf And His Orchestra – Hard Luck
13. Otis Rush – So Many Roads, So Many Trains *

• Recorded April 12, 1970 at Hill Auditorium, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969 LP Vol. 2

1. Muddy Waters – Long Distance Call
2. Charlie Musselwhite – Movin’ And Groovin’
3. Magic Sam – I Feel So Good (I Wanna Boogie)
4. Shirley Griffith – Jelly Jelly Blues
5. Big Mojo Elem – Mojo Boogie
6. T-Bone Walker – Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad)
7. Big Bill Hill – Announcements
8. Big Mama Thornton And The Hound Doggers – Ball And Chain
9. Big Joe Williams – Juanita
10. Sam Lay – Key To The Highway
11. Lightnin’ Hopkins – Mojo Hand
12. James Cotton Blues Band – Off The Wall
13. Son House – Death Letter Blues

V.A.—Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969, Volumes 1 & 2 (Third Man), two 2-LP sets

     Despite some off-years, the Ann Arbor Blues Festival has been going for 50 years, starting in 1969, which was a historic event, bringing together blues greats from different backgrounds and periods, artists who probably would not have crossed paths otherwise, in a college environment in beautiful Ann Arbor, Michigan.

     And what a combination of artists it was…from younger urban electric artists such as Magic Sam and Jimmy Dawkins, to the greats of post-WWII electric blues such as Muddy Waters and B.B. King and James Cotton (who’d come from the South originally), to someone like Son House, acoustic bluesman who’d first recorded (at the same session as Charley Patton!) in 1930 and had the gravitas of an Old Testament prophet, to barrelhouse pianist and prolific songwriter Roosevelt Sykes, who first recorded in 1929 and who adapted well to the changes in African-American music over the decades (he later made great records in the jump blues and R&B vein).

     Then there’s country bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell, who’d been playing since the late 1920’s, but never made a record until he was discovered by folklorist blues researchers in 1959, and perhaps because he’d never been a commercially recorded bluesman, he remained a pure and uncompromising artist, eventually recording the album I Do Not Play No Rock’n’ Roll for Capitol and having his song “You Gotta Move” covered by the Rolling Stones. And let’s not forget the always show-stopping Big Mama Thornton, Texas master Lightnin’ Hopkins, Big Joe Williams, and T-Bone Walker (and others). A collection of major artists as rich as this could not have been assembled even five years later, so four full LP’s of precious live recordings from the 1969 Festival is a revelation for the blues fan.

     Although these are non-professional recordings made on a portable machine by the festival organizers, the artists and their stinging guitars and passionate singing are always out front, and the recordings deliver a rawness and immediacy perfect for this music. These albums (two 2-LP sets, or a 2-cd set) compare favorably with the studio recordings of the same artists from that era. Third Man Records generally does a great job with LP’s, so this set is pressed on heavy vinyl and engineered to sound loud even when played at low volume. The thick booklet accompanying the discs is full of photos and first-hand accounts of the event. A must-own collection!

BILL SHUTE, originally published in Ugly Things magazine in 2019

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STATIC STRUT by Bill Shute

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published 2 January 2024

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