A chunk of my time at SXSW this year was spent on the blues side--and in
that regard I enjoyed having the chance to see Clarence Gatemouth Brown,
WC Clark, Lou Ann Barton, Alvin Youngblood Hart,and even Guy Forsyth (a
little blues, some ego--and pretty good SAW within a couple of days. I
was sorry I did not get to see the new documentary shown at the film
fetsival about RL Burnside and Possum Records now, but hope it will pop up
on TV or elsewhere.
Meanwhile...here's the interetsting part--
In the Convention Hall I met the poeple who run what's called the Music
Maker Relief Foundation...an organization which still seeks out, finds and
then truly supports unknown blues musicians--with the likes of recording
contracts with actual distribution somne promotion, and donation-backed
tours...one of which is now ongoing, as the "Winston Blues Revival"....
They gave me a demo disc of a bunch of their artists, and there are some
TRULY EXCELLENT discoveries here--including Piedmont Tradition (as in Pink
Anderson, Blind Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller) songster-writer Cootie
Stark, notable acoustic blues singer Neal Pattman, guitar men Mudcat and
Guitar Gabriel--and that rarest of rarities, one ass-kicking electric
guitar woman, Ms. Willa Mae Buckner, who is pretty definitely not Richard
Buckner's sister.
You can learn about these artists and their recordings at
http://www.musicmaker.org
And here are upcoming tour dates--at which Stark, Ms. Beverly "Guitar"
Watkins (another one!), Pattman and Mudcat will be joined by Taj Mahal and
surprise guests. $10 tickets are relaly donations--but the show should be
memorable. This sort of thing doesn't happen every day any more. I will
definitely catch one of the NYC Knitting Factory shows:
Cleveland OH April 8 Fat Blue Fish
Denver CO April 15 The Casino
New York NY April 30/May 1 Knitting Factory
If anybody else caught this tour earlier, in Texas, California, or New
Orleans, tell us about it.
Barry
