Nearly everyone has heard about Woodstock and the US Festival, but the same can’t be said for the Memphis Country Blues Festival. Depending on the year, the annual gathering held in Memphis between 1966 and 1970, was the place to see and hear genre icons. Country-blues guitarists Furry Lewis and Mississippi Fred McDowell, along with blues and R&b character Rufus Thomas, all played there, as did folk and rock guitar heroes Johnny Winter and John Fahey. The Rolling Stones were even invited to appear (more on that later), and some...
- 10/1/2023
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Chris Strachwitz, the founder of Arhoolie Records — an indispensable label for American roots music, from blues and zydeco to gospel and Mexican folk, for nearly seven decades — has died at the age of 91.
The German-born Strachwitz “died peacefully” Friday “at home in Marin County, CA, surrounded in his last days by dear friends and family,” the Arhoolie Foundation announced on social media Saturday; the non-profit was established by Strachwitz to preserve much of the music he’d unearthed since establishing the label in 1960.
“Over his 91 years, Chris captured the music...
The German-born Strachwitz “died peacefully” Friday “at home in Marin County, CA, surrounded in his last days by dear friends and family,” the Arhoolie Foundation announced on social media Saturday; the non-profit was established by Strachwitz to preserve much of the music he’d unearthed since establishing the label in 1960.
“Over his 91 years, Chris captured the music...
- 5/6/2023
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
After the Black Keys wrapped up Dropout Boogie, their forthcoming 11th record, something unlikely happened. “Dan [Auerbach] called me and said, ‘It’s really good,’ which is unusual for him,” says drummer Patrick Carney from his Nashville home. “I don’t think he’s ever called and said that. He doesn’t go back and listen to his stuff.” Auerbach agrees: “Pat’s always the one who says, after each record, ‘This is the best record we’ve ever done.’ Literally. Every single one. I listened to it again for the...
- 3/10/2022
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Michael Lang, one of the co-creators of the legendary Woodstock Music & Arts festival series, has died at 77 of a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City, according to his publicist.
In 1967, Lang dropped out of New York University and headed to Miami. There, he ran a head shop and promoted a series of concerts. including the 1968 Miami Pop Festival, which drew 25,000 attendees and saw performances by Jimi Hendriz, Frank Zappa, John Lee Hooker and more. .
He moved to Woodstock, New York and met Artie Korfeld, brainstorming the idea of a massive music festival that would celebrate the culture. That led to Woodstock, which was held at Max Yasguar’s farm in the Bethel, New York area from Aug. 15 to 18, 1969. The show attracted the cream of that era’s musicians, but was overwhelmed by the sheer number of attendees, estimated at 400,000. Traffic backed up and eventually,...
In 1967, Lang dropped out of New York University and headed to Miami. There, he ran a head shop and promoted a series of concerts. including the 1968 Miami Pop Festival, which drew 25,000 attendees and saw performances by Jimi Hendriz, Frank Zappa, John Lee Hooker and more. .
He moved to Woodstock, New York and met Artie Korfeld, brainstorming the idea of a massive music festival that would celebrate the culture. That led to Woodstock, which was held at Max Yasguar’s farm in the Bethel, New York area from Aug. 15 to 18, 1969. The show attracted the cream of that era’s musicians, but was overwhelmed by the sheer number of attendees, estimated at 400,000. Traffic backed up and eventually,...
- 1/9/2022
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
A music festival, held in 1969, is filmed — bits of it airing on local TV — but then shelved for decades before it’s resurrected for a new film. No, it’s not Summer of Soul. It’s Memphis ’69, a recently completed doc — which starts airing next week — that amounts to the blues equivalent to the lauded, Questlove-directed chronicle of that gathering of soul, R&b, and jazz acts.
In Memphis in late May of that year, just shortly before the Harlem Cultural Festival kicked off in New York City, a...
In Memphis in late May of that year, just shortly before the Harlem Cultural Festival kicked off in New York City, a...
- 7/29/2021
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Damn right, he’s got his own doc. Buddy Guy, the blues legend whose 1991 “Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues” firmly established him as part of the form’s upper firmament after decades of work, is the subject of a two-hour “American Masters” documentary premiering this week.
It’s a big week for Guy beyond the documentary: He turns 85 on July 30. In August, he’ll be back on the road for a national tour that takes him into April 2022. That represents a chance to see living history that encompasses, in one figure, membership in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (he was inducted in 2005 by Eric Clapton and B.B. King), celebration by the Kennedy Center Honors (President Obama helped do the honors in 2012), a National Medal of the Arts (bestowed by Prsident Bush in 2003), a Grammy lifetime achievement award (2016) and many more. But as he tells Variety in this Q&a,...
It’s a big week for Guy beyond the documentary: He turns 85 on July 30. In August, he’ll be back on the road for a national tour that takes him into April 2022. That represents a chance to see living history that encompasses, in one figure, membership in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (he was inducted in 2005 by Eric Clapton and B.B. King), celebration by the Kennedy Center Honors (President Obama helped do the honors in 2012), a National Medal of the Arts (bestowed by Prsident Bush in 2003), a Grammy lifetime achievement award (2016) and many more. But as he tells Variety in this Q&a,...
- 7/28/2021
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
The Black Keys have never been afraid to look backward — especially concerning the blues. The first two tracks of their 2002 debut, The Big Come Up, were lively, low-fi covers of tunes by Mississippi juke-joint bluesmen R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, and their 2006 EP, Chulahoma, was a full-on, we’re-not-worthy Kimbrough tribute that ended with a voicemail from the late blues belter’s widow telling them how much she loved their renditions.
Kimbrough and Burnside’s rough ’n’ rowdy guitar wailing and foot stomping has fueled the Keys’ own variety of...
Kimbrough and Burnside’s rough ’n’ rowdy guitar wailing and foot stomping has fueled the Keys’ own variety of...
- 5/14/2021
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
The Black Keys returned to the stage for the first time in over a year to play a four-song set during the Triller Fight Club boxing event at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium Saturday.
Although Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney announced a new album earlier in the week, the duo’s mini-set focused on their hits, with the Black Keys and their backing band rifling through “I Got Mine,” “Howlin’ for You,” “Gold on the Ceiling” and “Lonely Boy” during their 15-minute performance.
The Black Keys were scheduled to embark on...
Although Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney announced a new album earlier in the week, the duo’s mini-set focused on their hits, with the Black Keys and their backing band rifling through “I Got Mine,” “Howlin’ for You,” “Gold on the Ceiling” and “Lonely Boy” during their 15-minute performance.
The Black Keys were scheduled to embark on...
- 4/18/2021
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
The Black Keys reconnect with the blues songs that informed their early years on the duo’s 10th studio album Delta Kream.
Recorded in Nashville at the studio of Black Keys singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach, the record finds Auerbach and Keys drummer Patrick Carney paying homage to bluesmen like R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Fred McDowell over 11 songs. Delta Kream, the follow-up to the Black Keys’ 2019 album Let’s Rock, will be released May 14th on Nonesuch Records.
The band preview the upcoming project with the single “Crawling Kingsnake,” an ominous,...
Recorded in Nashville at the studio of Black Keys singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach, the record finds Auerbach and Keys drummer Patrick Carney paying homage to bluesmen like R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and Fred McDowell over 11 songs. Delta Kream, the follow-up to the Black Keys’ 2019 album Let’s Rock, will be released May 14th on Nonesuch Records.
The band preview the upcoming project with the single “Crawling Kingsnake,” an ominous,...
- 4/15/2021
- by Joseph Hudak
- Rollingstone.com
Historic soul label Malaco Records will release the new book The Last Soul Company: The Malaco Records Story on March 23rd.
Written by Rob Bowman — known for 2003’s Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records — the book will chronicle the history of the label, which was started by Tommy Couch Sr. and Mitchell Malouf in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962. The book dives into the careers of label artists that include Mississippi Fred McDowell, Bobby Blue Bland, Z.Z. Hill, Little Milton, Johnnie Taylor, James Cleveland, Little Milton, and others.
Written by Rob Bowman — known for 2003’s Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records — the book will chronicle the history of the label, which was started by Tommy Couch Sr. and Mitchell Malouf in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962. The book dives into the careers of label artists that include Mississippi Fred McDowell, Bobby Blue Bland, Z.Z. Hill, Little Milton, Johnnie Taylor, James Cleveland, Little Milton, and others.
- 1/27/2021
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Bonnie Raitt and Zz Top’s Billy Gibbons are among the artists set to perform at a special free virtual concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of the famed folk label, Arhoolie Records, December 10th at 8 p.m. Et/5 p.m. Pt.
The concert will air on YouTube and will be hosted by Nick Spitzer of the syndicated public radio music show, American Routes. Other performers include Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, Charlie Musselwhite, Del McCoury, Los Texmaniacs, Los Tigres del Norte, Savoy Family Band, La Marisoul, Cedric Watson, and the Campbell Brothers.
The concert will air on YouTube and will be hosted by Nick Spitzer of the syndicated public radio music show, American Routes. Other performers include Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, Charlie Musselwhite, Del McCoury, Los Texmaniacs, Los Tigres del Norte, Savoy Family Band, La Marisoul, Cedric Watson, and the Campbell Brothers.
- 12/1/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
We thought all the great vintage music documentaries were accounted for, but Murray Lerner’s look at the Newport Folk Festival in the mid-‘sixties is a terrific time machine to a kindler, gentler musical era. The mix of talent is broad and deep, and we get to see excellent vintage coverage of some real legends, before the hype & marketing plague arrived.
Festival: Folk Music at Newport, 1963-1966
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 892
1967 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 97 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 12, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Pete Seeger, Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers, Odetta, Ronnie Gilbert, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Theodore Bikel, Cousin Emmy, Horton Barker, Fiddler Beers, Mimi Fariña, Richard Farina, Mrs. Ollie Gilbert, Fannie Lou Hamer, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, John Koerner, Jim Kweskin, Tex Logan, Mel Lyman, Spokes Mashiyane, Fred McDowell, Brownie McGhee, Pappy Clayton McMichen,...
Festival: Folk Music at Newport, 1963-1966
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 892
1967 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 97 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 12, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Pete Seeger, Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers, Odetta, Ronnie Gilbert, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Theodore Bikel, Cousin Emmy, Horton Barker, Fiddler Beers, Mimi Fariña, Richard Farina, Mrs. Ollie Gilbert, Fannie Lou Hamer, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, John Koerner, Jim Kweskin, Tex Logan, Mel Lyman, Spokes Mashiyane, Fred McDowell, Brownie McGhee, Pappy Clayton McMichen,...
- 8/29/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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