ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
---|---|---|
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee | My Baby Done Changed The Lock On The Door | Newport Folk Festival: Best of the Blues 1959-1968 |
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee | Long Gone | Newport Folk Festival: Best of the Blues 1959-1968 |
Willie Thomas and Butch Cage | 44 Blues | The Folk Music Of The Newport Folk Festival 1959-60 Vol. 1 |
John Lee Hooker | Tupelo | Newport Folk Festival: Best of the Blues 1959-1968 |
John Lee Hooker | Hobo Blues | The Newport Folk Festival 1960 Vol. 1 |
Mississippi Fred McDowell | Highway 61 | The Blues at Newport 1964 |
Mississippi Fred McDowell | If The River Was Whiskey | The Blues at Newport 1964 |
Sleepy John Estes | Drop Down Mama | Blues At Newport 1964 |
Robert Pete Williams | On My Way From Texas | Blues At Newport 1964 |
Mississippi John Hurt | Sliding Delta | Blues At Newport 1964 |
Mississippi John Hurt | Talking Casey | Blues At Newport 1964 |
Mississippi John Hurt | Coffee Blues | Newport Folk Festival 1963: The Evening Concert Vol. 1 |
Skip James | Going Back to the CountryDarling, Do You Remember Me? | Going Back to the Country |
Skip James | Cypress Grove Blues | Blues At Newport 1964 |
Skip James | Devil Got My Woman | Blues At Newport 1964 |
Lightnin' Hopkins | Baby Please Don't Go | Lightnin' Hopkins At Newport |
Wilie Doss | Coal Black Mare | Blues At Newport 1964 |
Wilie Doss | Hobo Blues | Blues At Newport 1964 |
Son House | Preaching Blues | Blues With A Feeling |
Son House | Empire state Express | Blues With A Feeling |
Lafayette Leake & Willie Dixon | Wrinkles | Blues With A Feeling |
Otis Spann | Goodbye Newport Blues | At Newport 1960 |
Muddy Waters | Soon Forgotten | At Newport 1960 |
Muddy Waters | I Got My Brand On You | At Newport 1960 |
Robert Wilkins | Don't You Let Nobody Turn You Round | Blues With A Feeling |
Robert Wilkins | The Prodigal Son | The Prodigal Son |
Show Notes:
Mississippi John Hurt performs at the Newport Folk Festival in July, 1964 |
The Newport Folk Festival is an annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival. The Newport Folk Festival was founded in 1959 by George Wein, founder of the already-well-established Newport Jazz Festival, backed by its original board: Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger and Albert Grossman. The festival in its initial guise ran from 1959 to 1970, with no festivals scheduled in 1961 or 1962. The festival was revived in 1985. The festival's beginning in 1959 parallel the blues revival period and all of the great rediscovered bluesman appeared at the festival. The first bluesmen to appear at the festival were Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in 1959. Others who performed at Newport include Muddy Waters, who issued a live album of their 1960 performance, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Rev. Robert Wilkins, Sleepy John Estes, Robert Pete Williams, Lightnin' Hopkins and many others. Today is part one of or look at the great blues performances of Newport in particular chronological order.
All of the great rediscovered bluesman performed at Newport; John Hurt was tracked down in Avalon, Mississippi, Bukka White in Aberdeen, Mississippi, Skip James was found in Mississippi's Tunica Hospital while Son House was residing in Rochester, New York. Eric Von Schmidt recalled the scene when Skip James took to the stage in his book Baby Let Me Follow You Down: "Skip sat down, and put his guitar on his leg. He set himself down, doing a little finger manipulation with his left hand, then he set his fingers by the sound hole. Sighed and hit the first note of I'd Rather Be the Devil Than Be That Woman's Man. He took that first note up in falsetto all the way, and the hairs on the neck went up, and all up and down my arms, the hairs just went right up. It's such an eerie note. It's almost a wail. It's a cry. There was an audible gasp from the audience."
Skip James recorded a legendary session for Paramount Records in 1931 then vanished for 33 years leaving no trail to follow. Just another blues man who had come and gone. He was tracked down and found in the Tunica, MS, hospital and then brought north to appear at the 964 Newport Folk Festival.
In Baby Let Me Follow You Down Schmidt recalled his memories of the festival: "I was listening to Mississippi John Hurt sing Spike Driver Blues. It was unreal, John Hurt was dead. Had to be. All the guys on that Harry Smith Anthology were dead. But there was no denying that the man singing so sweet and playing so beautifully was the John Hurt. He had a face – and what a face. He had a hat that he wore like a halo."
In 1963, a folk musicologist, Tom Hoskins, supervised by Richard Spottswood, was able to locate Hurt near Avalon, Mississippi. While in Avalon, Hoskins convinced Hurt to perform several songs for him, to ensure that he was genuine. Hoskins was convinced, and seeing that Hurt's guitar playing skills were still intact, Hoskins encouraged him to move to Washington, D.C., and begin performing on a wider stage. His performance at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival saw his star rise amongst the new folk revival audience.
Mississippi John Hurt performs at the Newport Folk Festival in July, 1964 (photo by Rick Staehling) |
Robert Wilkins cut one of the great albums of the blues revival, Memphis Gospel Singer, recorded in 1964 for the Piedmont label but perhaps because he refused to play blues his part in the 60's revival is sometimes neglected. Wilkins hit the folk circuit, appearing at Newport in 1964 and the Memphis Country Blues Festival in 1966 and 1968. Even after the Rolling Stones covered "Prodigal Son" Wilkins steadfastly refused to play the blues. At the 1964 festival Wilkins delivered an epic nine minute version of "Prodigal Son", showing, that if anything, his playing was better than ever.
Other bluesmen weren't so much rediscovered as simply exposed; Mance Lipscomb was a gifted songster and slide guitarist who was born in 1895, who played at local functions around Navasota, Texas and did not make his debut recording until 1960. Lightin' Hopkins, another Texan had been recording since the 40's when he arrived at Newport. Mississippi McDowell was discovered by Alan Lomax in 1959 and recorded several albums before playing Newport in 1964. In 1956, Robert Pete Williams shot and killed a man in a local club and was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in Angola prison. He served two years before being discovered by folklorists Dr. Harry Oster and Richard Allen. The pair recorded Williams performing several of his own songs and helped Williams receive a pardon in 1959. For the first five years after he left prison, Williams could only perform in Louisiana, but made several albums. In 1964, Williams played his first concert outside of Louisiana, at the Newport Folk Festival. The cuts recorded of Willie Doss at Newport in 1964 are the only recordings that were ever released of his music. Doss was born in Cleveland, Mississippi, but discovered living in Ashford, Alabama by folklorist Ralph Rinzler.
Successful urban bluesmen like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, faced with a diminishing market for blues in the black market, saw the festival as a way to attract a whole new audience. At Newport 1960 was released by Muddy Waters after his appearance. When Muddy’s band played the Newport Folk Festival in 1960, Otis Spann sang "Goodbye Newport Blues" which appeared on the subsequent live album. The song was written by poet Langston Hughes in response to a riot that happened at the festival the day before.
Performers were paid just $50 to appear at Newport, but careers were made on this main stage. Dick Waterman who became a booking agent and business adviser to many of the rediscovered bluesmen recalled: "It's important to remember that the record companies were well represented at the festival. You only had about fifteen minutes to play, but if you performed really well in those few minutes, as you turned from the microphone and left the stage, you just might be greeted by John Hammond of Columbia, or Maynard Solomon of Vanguard, or Jac Holzman of Elektra. There were no lawyers or middlemen involved. The guy who made the decision at the record company was there to make a deal."