Media | All About Blues Music

BRUCE BASTIN

In 1958, Muddy Waters played a gig at St. Pancras Town Hall in London as guest of Chris Barber, the bandleader whose love of the Blues was to spark the British Blues Boom in the following decade. In the audience that night was a teenaged Bruce Bastin, the future musicologist, writer and label owner whose…

DICK WATERMAN

During the late 50s and early 60s, college campuses and downtown coffee shops often rang to the sound of Folk music. One branch of country music that young people found exciting was Delta Blues, and when they realised many of these guys must still be alive, many took up the quest to locate these ‘living…

PAUL OLIVER

Paul Oliver was a remarkable man and a prolific author, whose name is spoken in awe by people who regard him as a fountain of wisdom on his chosen subject. However, they may not know of his alternative career in quite a different sphere. The author of seminal musical writings like ‘Blues Fell This Morning’…

PETER GURALNICK

The Blues has changed enormously on its journey from its origins as a local ethnic folk form, to its current situation as the foundation of almost all popular Western music. With his wise analysis of the American scene in times of great change, Peter focussed attention on the music that gave disenfranchised people a vocabulary…

MARTIN SCORSESE

“The Blues are the roots and everything else is the fruits” is a quote from Willie Dixon. Martin Scorsese is a man who I think would agree with that sentiment, and he made a big contribution to public understanding of the principle with his television series ‘The Blues’ some years ago. A native of New…

CHRIS ALBERTSON

Chris Albertson is a writer, broadcaster and record producer whose work in Jazz and Blues, especially in his interviews with leading figures, has opened a window on the character of the people that have made the music great. His knowledgeable and unsentimental approach allows real insight to emerge from the hype, and his biography of…

SAM CHARTERS

When Sam Charters was eight years old, he heard Bessie Smith‘s ‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out’: it opened his eyes and ears, starting his quest to spread the word about the Blues and black culture in general. Sam’s work as a musicologist, record producer and especially his Grammy winning book, ‘The Country…

CUB KODA

Singer, guitarist, producer and DJ, Michael ‘Cub’ Koda is perhaps best known as a record collector, writer and critic. His work editing the All Music Guide, his journalism, reviews and album notes made his reputation for clear writing and thoughtful criticism. Cub’s music career reached it’s height when his band Brownsville Station took his song…

KEN BURNS

This renowned American documentary film-maker has produced many important cultural reports on the elements that have come together to form modern American society. He has addressed The Civil War, Baseball, Prohibition, Jazz and in 2012, a look at the American Justice system based on the case of The Central Park Five. Ken uses archive film…

ALAN LOMAX

Writer, film-maker and musicologist Alan worked with his father John making field recordings of all kinds of folk music for the Library of Congress. He was responsible for discovering and promoting many Blues performers and went on to cast his net wide across the world, including Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean, promoting…