ROCKABILLY
REBEL!
ROCKABILLY
REBEL!
LATEST REVIEW OF JIM'S FIRST CD, "ON THE MEMPHIS ROAD!", by Arild Rønes, on Rockboard, www.rockaround.org
Arild wrote on 18 September, 2006:
Here's an extract from Arild's review, in Norwegian (posted 30 August 2006):
Jim Potts har spillt inn låtene alene med sin gitar og sitt munnspill, og kan
minne mye om John Lee Hooker, både når
det gjelder gitarspillingen og det vokale. Selv "That´s All Right", "Mystery
Train" og "Movie Magg" er mye mer blues
enn rock & roll når Jim Potts gjør dem. Ellers får vi fine versjoner av
bluesklassikere som "I Can´t Be Satisfied", "How
Many More Years" og "3 O´Clock Blues".....
See review in Serbian! http://www.barikada.com/bb_lokner/ostala_scena06/2006-05-09_jim_potts.php
Tracks played on Greek Radio Neo, 97.8 FM ( 5 May, during 45-minute interview with Nick Anthis) and
Belgian Radio ZRO (ROCKABILLY REBELS, Mark Verbert, 12 May) see "Mystery Train", Playlist : Rockabilly Rebels 12th May 2006 and 1st August 2006 ("That's All Right, Mama") See also weblog : www.hogtown.project1440.com/weblog
ROCKABILLY BLUES CD
Press Release
"Perfect command of the genre...a magnificent job" : Rockin' Fifties magazine, December 2004.
"I listened to your CD and was very impressed" Billy Lee Riley, 24 March 2005
"A hell of a feeling for the blues....delightfully authentic album....I look forward to hearing much more from a genuinely gifted performer". Bryan Chalker, Music Maker magazine, June/July 2005.
"I really liked the CD. Your love for blues & rock & roll music really shines through.... Listening to your CD actually made me feel like I was listening to the soundtrack from a TV-show. I even saw the pictures in my head, of you taking us on a trip around Memphis (and the rest of the south) talking about blues and rock & roll and taking us to the important/historic places in blues/rock & roll history! " Arild Rønes, Rockboard. See also www.rockaround.org
"Music to listen to at home, late at night with a bottle of whisky" The BlackCat (Marijn Raaimakers)
http://www.rockabillyeurope.com/?reviews/jimpotts.htm
Illustrated and reviewed by Bernd Kratochwil in Germany's excellent "Rockin' Fifties" magazine (December 2004): "Diese CD ist wirklich eine Uberraschung.....Jim Potts beherrscht dieses Genre perfekt. Man höre nur "That's All Right" und "No More Doggin'". Was aus dem Blueseinfluss geworden ist kan mann bei "Movie Magg" registrieren. Jim Potts macht einen grossartigen Job."
Bryan Chalker , Music Maker, June/July 2005: "Jim Potts loves the old blues of Memphis Minnie, Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson, Sleepy John Estes but also acknowledges the music of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Cliff Carlisle and Lonnie Glosson and this delightfully authentic album was recorded at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis on July 7, 2004...Jim has a hell of a feeling for the blues....and also proves to be a promising writer with the final track and I look forward to hearing much more from a genuinely gifted performer."
The BlackCat, www.rockabillyeurope.com
"Jim includes tracks from his favourite legends such as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, BB King, Junior Parker, Arthur Crudup, Rosco Gordon and he plays them all "moanin' blues style...The opening John Lee Hooker song, "The Hobo" can be compared to Hooker's basic work...a pretty good interpretation....Music to listen to at home, late at night with a bottle of whisky"
The lyrics to the last track of the CD, Jim's composition, "It took fifty years in the making that rock 'n' roll" (copyright Jim Potts) can be found on www.rockabilly.com in the Lyrics section (BlackCat Rockin' Lyrix G-L).
The CD is currently featured on www.tradmusic.net under Independent`Artists.
TradMusic
Independent Artists
| Buy Now! |
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Vladimír Merta (wonderful Czech singer,
http://www.vladimirmerta.cz/ ) wrote
in an email: "The CD is wonderfully old-sounding. How did you
manage to get the 50's slapping reverb? The atmosphere is present.... During the
Velvet Revolution I insisted that any candidate for any function should sing a
song. Just to be controlled from the un-political side of the brain. You pass
for the President!"
Vladimír Merta: "You pass for the President!"
The first track ("The Hobo") was featured on BBC Radio 4 "Home Truths", 19 February 2005. "What became of Jim Potts?" Michael Rosen had asked on air, on "Home Truths", 12th February 2005: "at the touch of a plectrum (as a student at Oxford) he could transform himself into a Mississippi Delta blues-singer; Jim was last heard of in Australia, serving up British culture". The answer to Michael Rosen's question came on the following week's programme. Check it out on the Home Truths web-site!
"On the Memphis Road!" was recorded at the Sun
Studio, Memphis, Tennessee, on July 7, 2004, to celebrate Sun Records and the
fiftieth anniversary of Rockabilly Blues (Elvis recorded “That’s All
Right, Mama” after midnight on the evening of 5/6 July 1954).
The CD pays tribute to some of the great artists who recorded at 706 Union Avenue, singers like Howlin’ Wolf, Little Junior Parker, B B King, Rosco Gordon, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins or who started their careers in the Memphis/Mississippi Delta region- Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup (who all inspired and influenced the early rockabilly singers).
Apart from the classic rockabilly blues songs like Mystery
Train and That’s All Right, Mama, deep blues like The Hobo,
Three O’Clock Blues and How Many More Years? are given a strong,
soulful treatment by Jim Potts, who also plays blues guitar and harmonica on the
CD. The record also celebrates 100 years of the blues. Country songs like Movie
Magg and a Hank Williams-influenced interpretation of Rockin’ Chair
Money all find a place in a set which concludes with Jim’s own composition
It Took Fifty Years in the Making that Rock ‘n’ Roll.
This CD may be as close as you’ll get in the 21st century to the original Sun Sound as it was in 1954. Imagine an unknown blues singer wandering in to Sun or the Memphis Recording Service back in the early fifties to make a demo 10” LP, accompanied only by his own guitar and harmonica. That’s Jim Potts “On the Memphis Road”.
Currently available from www.tradmusic.net (under Independent Artists) or from the artist direct, Jim Potts at jimipotts@hotmail.com
Currently in stock at the following record shops in Stockholm, Corfu and the UK:
1) Magnet Publishing Ltd, 28 Grafton Terrace, London NW5 4JJ, www.tradmusic.net
mailto:tradmusic@btinternet.com
2)
3) Muses Record Shop, Michael Theotokis 9 & 22, Corfu , 49100, Greece, FAX Corfu 23597
4) Bim Bam
Records, Eastleigh, Hampshire,
S050 7DN, England
5) House of Oldies, Torsgatan 63, S-113 37 Stockholm, Sweden
Three shots from Jim's performance at a juke-joint in Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1999.
Good Blues Links site: http://www.blueslinks.nl
Some great artists and a rich source of information, all arranged by country.
This site is linked to it: click on Greece, CD, "Blues 'n' Poetry"
Good Rockabilly Links (and great source of lyrics): www.rockabilly.europe.com
Here's some information about some of Jim's early articles and papers on the blues, jazz and English music:
Blues and the Absurd, Jim Potts, ISIS, Oxford, 17 October 1964
Back Stage at the Blues Festival, ISIS, Oxford, 28 November 1964
Ellington ad lib, an interview with Duke Ellington by Jim Potts, Stan Rodliffe, Bunny Warren, Ed Webb, Oxymoron, Oxford, December 1965
A Sociological Interpretation of the North-American Blues, Jim Potts, Sociology Dissertation, London University Institute of Education, 1968
Homer liked words aloud, Poetry and Song Lyrics, Jim Potts, Second Annual Festival of English Studies, University of Athens, 29 April 1982.
Australia and Britain: Literary and Other Links, Jim Potts, Lecture at University of Uppsala English Society, November 27, 2001 (illustrative recorded examples included Yothu Yindi's "Treaty", plus Anglo-Australia folk-songs like "Jim Jones at Botany Bay", and "Bound for South Australia".
Iannis Ritsos and Panagoulis, An Introductory Talk, followed by a lecture by Amy Mims, Greek Cultural Centre, Stockholm, February 2003.
There is an island...Poetry and Diplomacy, Friendship and War, A British Tribute to George Seferis, to Mark the 40th Anniversary of the Award of the Nobel Prize for Literature , at the Mediterranean Museum, Stockholm, May 6 2003, within the framework of the Greek EU Presidency. Readings by Kjell Espmark. With songs composed by Theodorakis and Moutsis (The Secret Seashore/Denial; Ligo Akoma; Einai Palio to Limani)
World Music (a collection of poetry on music); in preparation.
BROADCASTING:
The Blues is Back, weekly programme on Sydney's Eastside Radio, 89.7 FM, 1998-1999
FILM SOUNDTRACKS:
"EBB", written and directed by Jim Potts, with an original blues soundtrack by JLH. Produced by Wadham Film Group,Oxford, 1965. Excerpts:
"The winter-wind is blowing, I'm out here on the empty street (x 2)
Don't know why I'm here, or who I'm gonna meet....
I got a tempest in my mind, and a hammer in my brain (x2)
If they don't cut out of here, they're gonna drive me insane."
"THE CROSS: ART-FORM OF ETHIOPIA"
Original field recordings of Ethiopian folk music and church singing on soundtrack
JIM'S BLUES GIGS:
London, Overseas Students' Centre, 1970, Addis Ababa (Ethiopian Television, c 1973), San Francisco (Stanford University, 1978), Clarksdale, Mississippi (1999), Prague (1989), Eastside Radio, Sydney, 89.7 FM, 1997-98 (Monday Arts Live, The Blues is Back). There's a video recording of the impromptu performance at Hopson's Place, the Clarksdale nightspot (former Hopson Plantation Commissariat outside Clarksdale, beside Highways 61 and 49). LATEST GIGS: Sun Studio Memphis, 7 July 2004. Izzy Young's Folklore Centre in Stockholm, 7 October 2004. CD "On the Memphis Road!" released 15 November 2004. O'Reilly's Pub, Kentish Town, November 2005.
POETRY GIGS :
Lyric Theatre, Sydney, 23.1.97, (with Cedric Talbot on didgeridoo).
Northern Foyer, Sydney Opera House, 21.1.95.
Karel Capek Bookshop, Prague, 24 October 1989.
European Cultural Centre, Delphi, 10 September, 2003 (with Susan Bassnett, Stephanos Stephanides, Adrian Grima and Mary Farell).
Izzy Young's Folklore Centre, Stockholm, 7 October 2004.
FOR ENQUIRIES ABOUT ORIGINAL SONG LYRICS contact Jim via email address on home page.
JIM'S SONG COMPOSITIONS INCLUDE:
Corfu Blues
The nights are drawing in
The same old songs
Martial Law
Fort Elmina
Trying to keep cool in Kano
Down Hell's Ladder Lane
Moving House
It took fifty years in the making (on CD "On the Memphis Road!")
Thirty-one
The City Mortuary
Song of a shoulder-shrugger
Expat Blues
Folk-songs
The Cowrie Shell
The Nomad
The Wine Speaks
Got to move on out of this town
Paying Guest
Dagmar
The Streetboy's Lament
Song for Sherborne
Boudicca, Boudicca
Wandering Widsith's Original Homesick Anglo-Saxon Blues
Tudor Rock
Greek Girl
Vitsa Blues
It's OK in the Old UK
Nonsense Song
Party Piece
Dad's Dead
Palma Airport Euphoria
Mau Mau Blues
Song of the Migrant Labourer
Masenko
Marriage
Marriage is a matter of politics
Where's that Good Samaritan gone ?
I'm a Renaissance Man
Ain't no troubadour
Funky Junky Jim
Nina
Taking care of business
Thank you, Hank
Song for a Psychodramatist
Prophet of Doom
The Kenyan Cannonball
Rushcutters' Bay
Croatoan
Sally Hemings
Easter 1966
Decolonise your mind
Delphic Oracle
It's a round, spinning world
May Day Blues
The Punk on the Tube
Howling Beowulf
The Ballad of Kassa (for radio programme on Emperor Theodore of Ethiopia)
Jamestown Blues
Bruton Parish Blues
Potts Camp Boogie
Whisky-Tasting
The Night is Young
Talking Language Laboratory Blues (published in English Teaching Forum, USA, c 1971)
BLUES, ROCK AND OTHER ARTISTS SEEN IN LIVE PERFORMANCE SINCE 1957: AIDE MEMOIRE
BLUES AND JAZZ
John Lee Hooker, Howlin´ Wolf, Sleepy John Estes, Muddy Waters, Son House, Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, Louisiana Red, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lightnin' Hopkins, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, Cat Anderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Smith, Stanley Turrentine, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, Oscar Peterson, Jiri Stivin, Original Prague Syncopated Jazz Band, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Tracey Quartet, Chris Barber, Dimos Dimitriadis, Courtney Pine, Julian Joseph, Evan Parker, Beryl Bryden, Jimmy Reed, T-Bone Walker, Eddie Taylor, Curtis Jones, John Henry Barbee, Big Joe Williams, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimi Hendrix, Junior Wells, Koko Taylor, John Cephas and Phil Wiggins, Snooks Eaglin, Little Walter, B.B. King, Carey Bell, Tina Turner, Ike Turner, Johnny Johnson, Ray Charles, Keb' Mo, Eric Bibb, Etta James, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Big Jay McNeely, Champion Jack Dupree, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, Willie Dixon, Lloyd Price, Margie Evans, Mojo Buford, Hammie Nixon, Johnny Winter, Eric Clapton, James Brown, Hubert Sumlin, Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Boyd, Big Mama Thornton, Sugar Pie Desanto, J.B.Lenoir, Fleetwood Mac, Duster Bennett, The Mighty Reapers, Linda Tillery and The Cultural Heritage Choir, Brian Kramer Trio, Chris Thomas King, Keith Dunn, Tommy Smith, Robert Mitchell, Dr John, Charlie Musselwhite, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Bukka White, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Jo Ann Kelly, The Groundhogs
Gospel
Zion Harmonizers, The Spiritual Quintet (Czech),
Rockabilly / Rock 'n' Roll / R n B/ Rock
Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Billy Lee Riley, Sonny Burgess and the Pacers, Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Everly Brothers, Charlie Gracie, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Oasis, Tom Jones, Stereophonics, Radiohead, Duane Eddy, Eric Burdon, Paul Jones, Manfred Mann, Marianne Faithful, Wildfire Willie and the Ramblers, Phil Trigwell, The Mull Historical Society, Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band, Tony Joe White, Paul McCartney, Little Gerhard, Rock-Ragge, Jose Gonzalez, Elin Sigvardson, Karin Ström , Brian Wilson (Beach Boys)
Bob Marley and the Wailers
Doc Watson, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Tracy Chapman, Dick Gaughan, Martin Carthy, Alistair Hulett, Dave Swarbrick, Jack Clement, Alias Ron Kavana, Vladimir Merta, Jan Vodnansky, Jeanne Bichevskaya, Lenka Filipova, Magna Carta, The Yetties, Lonnie Donegan, Donovan, Gina Jeffreys, George Hamilton IV, Shenandoah Jubilee, Ralph Stanley, Patty Loveless, Ricky Skaggs, Norman Blake,Dan Tyminski, The Whites, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Del McCoury Band, Seldom Scene, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Porter Wagoner, Mountain Heart, Osborne Brothers, T Graham Brown, Fiddlers' Bid, The Wrigley Sisters, Joan Armatrading, Väsen, Brian Ellerick, Malinky, Ellika & Solo, Shoogenlifty
Greek Music
Mikis Theodorakis, Maria Farantouri, Olympia Georgiou, Aliki Kayaloglou, Sotiria Bellou, Antonis Kaloyannis, Alkisti Protopsalti, Margarita Zorbala, Maria Dimitriadi, Martha and Tena Elefteriadu (Greek-Czech), Taximi (Greek-Swedish), Sakis Papadimitriou, Floros Floridis, Dimos Dimitriadis, Christoforos Stabogli and Stavros Lantzias
Brazilian Music
Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil
Spanish Flamenco Music
Jimmy Katsaros, Paco Pena
Cape Verde Music
Cesaria Evora
Rai
Khaled
Classical, early music, contemporary music, organ, piano, guitar and song recitals and opera
(Too many to list or remember, but some that I call to mind)
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra
David Fanshawe (African Sanctus)
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (conducted James MacMillan)
The Swedish Chamber Orchestra (premiere of Sally Beamish Viola Concerto no 2, The Seafarer, solo Tabea Zimmermann)
Emma Kirkby
Mary Nichols (Henry Lawes)
The Consort of Musicke with Emma Kirkby and Evelyn Tubb
The Tallis Scholars
The Hilliard Ensemble
Fretwork
Florilegium
Sinfonye
Balanescu Quartet
Michael Nyman and Band
His Majestie's Sagbutts and Cornetts
The Wallace Collection
Melvyn Tan
The Nash Ensemble of London
The Arditti Quartet
The Brodsky Quartet
The Jerusalem Trio (Shostakovich Trio in E Minor Opus 67 no 2)
Thomas Ades
Judith Weir
Gavin Bryars
James Macmillan
Thomas Allen
Jiri Ropek
Radoslav Kvapil
Zuzanna Ruzickova
Petr Eben
Elena Kats-Chernin
Alois Pinos
Karel Janovicky
Wayne Marshall
Micallef-Inanga Piano Duo (Jennifer Micallef and Glen Inanga)
Katerina Kachlikova
Julian Bream
John Williams
Vladimir Blaha
Evangelos and Liza
Martin Myslivecek
Janis Vakarelis
Domna Evnouchidou
Dimitris Sgouros
James Griffett
Richard Deering
Anthony Peebles
John Lill
Erik Boström (organ)
Mattias Wager (organ)
Jitka Vlasankova (cello)
David Parkhouse and Eileen Croxford
Mattia Zappa and Massimiliano Mainolfi
Ulf Schönberg (solo Scottish bagpipe)
Philharmonic Society of Corfu (Brass Band)
Lindsay Quartet: Complete Beethoven String Quartets, Sydney Festival
Kungliga Filharmonikerna (Royal Philharmonic, Stockholm) , Dvorak's 8th Symphony
Storkyrkan kör och orkester ( Nyårskonsert). Bethoven's Ninth Symphony, op.125 and Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" from The Messiah
Royal Liverpool Symphony Orchestra in Prague for "Days of British Music"
St Paul's Cathedral: Cantique de Jean Racine, Faure, 2000
"From the House of the Dead", Janacek, ENO, 97/98 Season (for me, the most meaningful of the 30-40 operas I've seen)
Don Giovanni, Mozart, Sydney Opera House
"Billy Budd" by B. Britten, The Queensland Conservatorium of Music Opera School, 1993, conducted by Brian Hughes, designed by Michael Holt
Conductors: Sir Charles Mackerras, Libor Pesek, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christopher Bell
Current recorded favourites (an eclectic mix!):
Fado Music, Amalia Rodriguez
Peter Sculthorpe, Earth Cry
Louise Hoffsten, From Linköping to Memphis and Knäckerbröd Blues
Karin Rehnqvist, Sun Song (Solsången)
Dr. John (New Orleans standards)
Doc Watson, Docabilly
Billy Lee Riley, Shade Tree Blues - see interesting interview with Billy Lee at http://www.rockabilly.net/billyleeriley/interview.shtmlngen
Éthiopiques, Vols. 1,2,5
Most of Alfred Schnittke (especially Four Hymns for Chamber Instrumental Ensemble, III and IV, Alexander Ivashkin et al)
Snooks Eaglin, John Lee Hooker, Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, Bill Monroe, Red Allen.......
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001): " Pleiades" and "Nuits"
Britten's " Les Illuminations"
Janacek's "From The House of the Dead" (Mackerras) and String Quartets 1 & 2
Mozart's "Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546" (Czech Chamber Orchestra, Josef Vlach).
Arabian, Iraqi and Turkish 'ud solo improvisations and taqsim.
Aboriginal didgeridoo music. I listen to it a lot. Old Northern Territory (Arnhem Land) field recordings and Yothu Yindi*. It wasn't on offer very often at the Sydney Opera House. Nor was Slim Dusty..
One very talented didgeridoo player is Cedric Talbot. I once performed my poems "The Apocalyptic Blues" and "Jindyworobak 1997" at the Lyric Theatre, Sydney, with his expressive didj accompaniment, for the Sydney Poetry Olympics (for three consecutive years, 1995-1997, I was invited to be one of the judges/adjudicators; in '97 they asked the judges to perform too, the others being Chin Woon Ping and Jill Jones). In 1995 , to launch the first Sydney Poetry Olympics, I wrote and performed an antipodean Olympic ode in praise of Komninos, the "Aussie Pindar" (included in "Corfu Blues", Ars Interpres Publications, 2006), a great performance poet ( now also a cyber- poet). My fellow judge in ´95 was Yusef Komunyakaa. That year the Sydney Writers' Festival organised the opening event at the Opera House (Northern Foyer). In 1996 the Nuyorican# poets, including Dale Orlandersmith and Emily XYZ , took part in a poetry slam at the Museum of Contemporary Art and together we attempted to judge the best poems and performances for the Poetry Olympics, never an easy matter).
This is my poem "The Apocalyptic Blues", for didjeridoo accompaniment;
The Apocalyptic Blues
(FAST DIDJ)
In his underground pulpit he's preaching
staining the flagstones with dew;
they're dancing themselves to a frenzy,
the disciples whose mind he once blew.
In his underground pulpit he's preaching
beating the drum by his side;
he prays for the brothers who lived and who died,
- if only the poor bastards knew.
(SLOW DRONE)
In the attic, flames flare up
kindled by an antique tinder.
Oak-beams, once burnished bright,
now wrinkled with pain by the centuries' strain....ing
to produce a single acorn,
bloom and give birth as they burn
Though the blazing cradle
cremates the new-born,
let nobody weep, let nobody mourn -
we shall all in our turn
be reduced to a cinder.
Ancestral portraits
coated with the dust of generations
once two-dimensioned, bloodless, static,
burst into smiles and howl with laughter,
(DIDJ GETS ANGRY, LOUDER)
rebelling at last against their portrayal
as sad-eyed stoics
staring at the Crucifix
frozen in poses of self-denial.
Only now do they know their painters' betrayal.
(DIDJ VIOLENT)
"Revenge!" cries the oldest and cruellest fanatic:
they will wait no longer for the rainbow sign,
they execute vengeance without mercy or trial.
(DIDJ , STACCATO CRESCENDO)
Only flames and blood are emphatic.
--------------------
Nowadays I'd probably describe that as a post-colonial(ist) poem. Cedric Talbot really brought it to life as an accompanist. Some members of the audience wondered why an Englishmen and an Australian Aboriginal were collaborating in this unlikely way.
It seemed right. It worked.
----------------------------------
*For Yothu Yindi, visit
+ For Komninos' own cyber-poetry site, visit
http://www.gu.edu.au/ppages/k_zervos/
or
http://users.bigpond.net.au/mangolegs/
See also
# For more about the Nuyoricans, visit
For the BBC's Poetry Outloud collection, click
http://www.bbc.co.uk/artzone/poetry/outloud/index.shtml
For the Beat Scene and Kerouac books , try
http://www.beatscene.net/kerouac.asp
Hear Jack Kerouac read his poem "History of Bop", with jazz added, on http://www.americanroutes.org/interview.html
Anglophonix! Blues , Rockabilly and some of that
Jazz in the Swedish Music Industry.
How many of you remember Sweden’s great record label,
Sonet Records ? How many of you know of Lars Strandheim’s 1950s- style
recording studio in Småland or of Joe Allan’s Recording Service in
Hallstahammar ?
Do you jive , jitterbug or lindy-hop to Wildfire Willie
(alias Jan Svennson) and the Ramblers, Phil Trigwell and the Deputies, Jyrki
Juvonen, Hank C Burnette (alias Sven-Åke Högberg from Sveg) ? Forget about Sun
Studios in Memphis. It’s in Sweden that the spirit and musical energy of 1950s
rockabilly lives on.
And blues ? Brian Kramer and Eric Bibb are real Americans.
The tip of the iceberg. Try “All that BLUES From Sweden” (SBACD 12650
and its companion Norwegian blues CD). Take a listen to the CD of the Brian
Kramer Trio “Live at the Folklore Centre” at Wollmar Yxkullsgatan 2
in Stockholm (where Izzy Young presides, the same Izzy Young who provided early
opportunities to the young Bob Dylan; for it was Izzy Young who organized
Dylan’s first important New York concert in 1961 at the Carnegie Chapter Hall
–53 people came according to
David Hajdu).
Dylan dedicated his “Talking Folklore Centre Blues” to Izzy Young, when the Folklore Centre was based not in Stockholm, but in Greenwich Village, New York (having opened in April 1957[1]).
The shopwindow at Izzy’s Folklore Centre in Stockholm
currently features copies of the original lyrics for Bob Dylan’s
still-relevant song “With God on Our Side”.
Eric Bibb has just moved to England, after ten years in Sweden where he recorded his best CDs with Swedish blues musicians. Kramer can usually be found at Saturday afternoon blues-jams at Stampen. He plays a mean version of Muddy Water’s classic “I can’t be satisfied”.
Swedish record retailers like Enviken Records and Sunjay (as well as Goofin’ Records in Helsinki) keep the good times rolling; magazines like American Music, Jefferson, Om Jazz are as good as they get, although Norway’s BluesNews, published by the Norwegian Blues Union (a fantastic touring network of several hundred active Norwegian blues-clubs) is unrivalled. A few years ago I found myself in a Clarksdale (Mississippi) blues venue and before long I was singing and playing with a wonderful Norwegian harmonica player. The Norwegians take their blues seriously. So do the Swedes.
European interest in the blues owes a lot to the legendary Samuel Charters, author of the classic “The Country Blues” (1959) as well as “The Poetry of the Blues” (1963), “The Bluesmen” (1967),”Robert Johnson” (1973), “The Legacy of the Blues” (1975, from his Swedish years); but Sam Charters and his wife Professor Ann Charters are also authorities on Jack Kerouac and the Beats.
Settling in Sweden after leaving McCarthy-ite America, Sam has also translated poetry by Tomas Tranströmer and Edith Södergran, and published many volumes of his own poetry, as well as novels and criticism. As a record producer he has produced LPs by Snooks Eaglin, Big Joe Williams, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bukka White, Champion Jack Dupree and many other great blues singers, to Bill Haley and Country Joe and the Fish (“I Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’- To- Die-Rag”). At the time of writing he has a two-part Swedish radio on the blues, P2. Every serious blues collection contains his albums of Blind Willie Johnson and his original Country Blues anthology.
Many musicians in Sweden, and I guess in the Nordics as a whole, are masters of their instruments, their preferred styles and genres. They seem to be able to play every category of music, every blues note and rockabilly lick, exactly as it sounded fifty years ago in Memphis or Clarksdale, or forty years ago in Liverpool (not to mention 1920s New Orleans ). In terms of world music, you don’t have to look far to find great rebetika, klezmer or reggae groups either; some great gigs can be heard at Stallet, and on Rikskonserter’s Caprice CD label (they even have a CD featuring my one-time masenko (Ethiopian one string fiddle) teacher , Alemayehu Fanta, from Addis Ababa ! As the Swedish Institute fact-sheet on Swedish Music in the 20th Century( Mikael Strömberg, 1998) “The folk music concept has been globalised. For one thing, the music has become a kaleidoscopic stream of foreign music played by immigrants in Sweden: the Algerian rai, the Moroccan gwana, the Zairian kwaskwasa, the Argentine tango, and Russian accordion music.”
If you think all this intercultural collaboration is a new phenomenon, you only have to remember how brilliantly Swedish jazz-men accompanied Charlie Parker when he started his tour of Sweden in November1950. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the Swedes could concentrate on practising and playing their favourite types of music in the 40’s when other European countries were at war. Lars Gullin and Bengt Hallberg are just two of the great names of Swedish jazz.
Just a few years later the Swedes were hip to the sounds of rock ‘n’ roll before most Europeans, if we can judge by the success of the swinging cover of Bill Haley’s first American hit, “Crazy Man Crazy” by Swedish-American Ernie Englund and his Crazy Men. I have the Karusell 78rpm record and it really rocks, if quaintly !
So don’t let anyone tell you it all began the Beatles’ performances in Sweden in 1963 (although two weeks later 100 Swedish pop groups were formed as a result, according to Mikael Strömberg) , or with ABBA’s “Waterloo” win at the 1974 Eurovision song contest. You have to give it to ABBA that their command of English was perfect. Few people in the 1960s would ever have believed that anyone from a non English-speaking country would ever be able to sing rock’n’roll convincingly. The British never accepted Johnny Hallyday , French or German rock groups in those days. British films used to make fun of the sounds of Swedish as parodied in the style of Bergman’s films (Christopher Miles’ “Six Sided Triangle” short film stands out in my mind). How times have changed. The Sunday Times review of The Cardigan’s new CD (“Pop CD of the Week, March 23 03) comments on Nina Persson’s “consonantal precision” which “hits new heights” on ‘And Then You Kissed Me’: “At a time when the currency of pop is devalued as never before, the Cardigans have come to its rescue”, writes Dan Cairns.
Nowadays, international artists queue to come to Sweden’s recording studios and to work with Swedish producers. We shouldn’t overlook the small, specialist studios, the authentic and dedicated musicians, the know-how which could work even more wonders if more musicians from the UK and elsewhere took the time to explore the possibilities for creative collaboration. It would definitely be of mutual benefit, and could help revive both the British and the Swedish music industries, which have lost some of their impetus in recent years. I know I’m going to grab my guitar and head for the studio in Hallstahammar, if they’ll have me. It’s a lot closer than Memphis !
21 December
I've been listening to a lot of blues harmonica lately, Noah Lewis, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller) predominantly, but also Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, Sonny Terry, Jimmy Reed, Junior Wells etc. Finally discovered the right guitar tuning for the B Flat (A sharp) harp. Took me forty years ! I first started playing the harp around 1963. I recorded a couple of scratchy tracks in one of those do-it- yourself slot-machine recording booths:. Hoochie Coochie Man and Roll 'Em Pete.. My favourite harp-based records : Ripley's Blues (Cannon's Jug Stompers) and Help Me, Sonny Boy Williamson.
I wonder when the first record featuring blues-harp was issued in Britain ? Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon "Drop Down Mama" ? Sonny Terry accompanying Leadbelly on Melodisc 78s like "Ain't You Glad" and "How long blues" ? London released some 78s of the country harmonica player Salty Holmes (quite bluesy).Chris Barber hadn't mastered blues harp when his skiffle group recorded "When the sun goes down", although he had been exposed to Sonny Terry's playing. Cyril Davies must have been one of the first Brits to play real blues-harp. Records by Muddy Waters and Little Walter started appearing in the mid 50s, soon after some Sonny Terry records. Billy Lee Riley and Louise Hoffsten blow some great harp these days.
Good Harp site:
October 7: "Beat Poetry and Mississippi Blues". An evening at Izzy Young's Folklore Centre in Stockholm, where I showed two films, read some poems and sang a few blues, including Dylan's tribute to Izzy, "Talking Folklore Centre Blues", slightly adapted to Stockholm.
October 8: My Sun Studio CD well (re-)mastered (ten tracks), delivered today.. "On the Memphis Road". Lena Eliasson did great job with the design of the 8 page CD insert-booklet.
Bob Dylan writes on Izzy Young (pp 18-19) and Sun Studio (p. 216) in "Chronicles" vol 1:
"I began hanging out at the Folklore Center, the citadel of Americana folk-music...Young occasionally produced folk concerts by the unmistakably authentic folk and blues artists..."
"I always thought that Sun Records and Sam Phillips himself had created the most crucial, uplifting and powerful records ever made...At Sun records the artists were singing for their lives and sounded like they were coming from the most mysterious place on the planet."
February 2006
Two great Swedish singer song-writers: Louise Hoffsten
and Karin Ström
Highly recommended- wonderful, intelligent lyrics and a whole lot of soul. Both sing brilliantly in English.
One of the most interesting
contemporary composers is also Swedish: Karin Rehnqvist
http://www.karin-rehnqvist.se/English/karinrehnqvist.html
Also very interesting, the
Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin
http://www.amcoz.com.au/composers/composer.asp?id=3428
Good John Lee Hooker site http://web.telia.com/~u19104970/johnnielee.html
Good general American music site http://www.wirz.de/music/american.htm
Great early rock 'n' roll site with recorded examples of rare records http://www.hoyhoy.com/
Tremendous range of classic American radio interviews on http://www.americanroutes.org/interview.html
Good Doc Watson site http://www.docsguitar.com/
One of the greatest Greek singers and interpreters is Aliki Kayaloglou
