At the Roots Festival this
year we were able to present Little Pink Anderson, who came to our attention
through the Music Maker Relief Foundation, an organization that promotes old-time
vintage blues, gospel, and related old-time music. They publish a catalog of
CDs through which they raise money to give these old-time performers a new
lease on life, helping to bring them to the attention of people who put
together folk-life festivals and concerts like the Adams Avenue Roots Festival.
They have recorded such artists as Etta Baker, Jerry Boogie McCain, and Guitar
Gabriel as well as other deserving but lesser known artists like Algia Mae
Hinton, Precious Bryant, Carl Rutherford, and Beverly Guitar Watkins. The work
of this organization has been praised by B.B. King and Taj Mahal, both of whom
have written liner notes for and accompanied various artists. You can reach Tim
and Denise Duffy at 4052 Summer Lane, Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278 or on
the web at www.musicmaker.org to request a catalog of their fine CDs and to
support the work they're doing. (I've been playing some of their CDs on my Jazz
Roots program, KSDS 88.3FM, Sundays, 8-10pm.) They also offer a beautiful book
of photos and information about the old-time artists they promote and work with
titled Music Makers: Portraits and Songs from the Roots of America with a
foreword by B.B. King and a 22-track CD.
Roots Music
Night
About two months ago we
started a Roots Music Series at Creations Cafe on 30th Street. The idea was
that Virginia and I would play some of our music and invite people who play one
kind of roots music or another to drop by and join in. My thinking was that it
could serve as a kind of audition for those people I hadn't heard whom I might
want to hire for a future Roots Festival.
Karen,
the owner, was willing to stay open late on Wednesday evenings and hire a
waitress, thinking that perhaps she'd sell a sandwich or two and make it worth
her while. We got the publicity out and posters printed, but almost no one came
during the six weeks it ran - a couple of musicians and friends but no public
and certainly no roots musicians we hadn't heard. And so it came to a quick
end. We're going to try a live Roots Music Night on the front porch of Folk
Arts Rare Records (2881 Adams Ave.) on Tuesday nights. Maybe if enough of you
roots music fans and musicians get off your duff and drop by, someone like
Karen at Creations will let us use a place where folks can sit down and have
refreshments while they listen. I'm a bit disappointed with you roots music
fans out there. Singer-songwriters seem to pack them in most everywhere they
play (even some who aren't very good) and that's fine, but I can't be the only
one shouting the cause for old-timey music. If you've been to one or more of
the Adams Avenue Roots Festivals, then you know the kinds of music I'm talking
about. It can range from old-time fiddle tunes to mountain ballads and songs
that take a side turn into vaudeville as well as novelty songs and country
blues, and things learned off old 78s or LPs or maybe from your grandmother.
It's all roots music and it's the kind of music that needs passing down from
hand to hand whether you're singing and playing it or listening and supporting
those who sing and play it by passing on word of its value. We've all got a
part to play. I'll be here at Folk Arts Rare Records on Tuesday evenings at 7
p.m. (also 9 a.m.-5 p.m. every day). Maybe someone will volunteer to bring
refreshments. Let's keep old-time roots music alive year 'round in San Diego!!
My Pet Peeve
Have you ever noticed that
whenever an old-time country blues artist plays at a festival or a concert,
there's usually some white guy playing harmonica who thinks he's God's gift up
on stage with him, trying his best to upstage the old timer? Most often the
blues artist backs off and lets the harmonica player show off. Many times over
the past 37 years or so I've talked to blues artists who wish that harmonica
player would go away but are just too polite to say so. I've tried to keep that
from happening at the Roots Festivals, but I can't be everywhere at once. This
year one of those guys got up on stage with Honey Boy Edwards and kept the
public from hearing a classic blues performance the way the artist most wanted
it and the way the public deserves to hear it. What we need is a Festival
Harmonica Police to intercept these fathead showoffs before they get on a stage
they weren't hired to be on and ruin another performance. Maybe we could have
Harmonica Police tee shirts made to get the word out that we won't put up with
these guys. Any one interested can contact me at Folk Arts. I need big
mean-looking guys able to crush a Marine Band with one hand while escorting the
bad taste blow-hard off the stage.
San Diego
Folklife Project
The San Diego Folklife
project finally got its non-profit status and is actively working on two major
grants: additional funding for the Adams Avenue Roots Festival and financial
backing for the digitization of material in the Lou Curtiss Sound Library that
is on reel-to-reel tape. The second project is a grant application to the
Grammy Foundation, which is also supported by the Library of Congress and the
UCLA Ethnomusicology Archives. Future goals include establishing a San Diego
Folklore Center, outreach to city and county schools, and everything and
anything we can do to bring word about roots music and folk life to everyone we
can.
Recordially,
Lou Curtiss