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Folklorist Marc Silber

Day
22
Month
September
Year
2015

I got a chance to spend about five days with my old friend Marc Silber. I had not seen him in fifty years, but I had heard about him here and there over that time. Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Marc and I were a part of the folk revival, a group of us that included folks like Marc and I, but also a young Bob Dylan and my friend Jim Greenberg. What drew us together was the University of Michigan Folklore Society, founded by Al Young and Bill McAdoo. Al Young today is a Poet Laureate of California.

I-94 Bar Interview of Michael Erlewine

The Albums of Miles Davis

Miles Davis reinvented himself on a regular basis and thus has many distinct periods, each of which he excelled in. Here are some highlights of his more traditional and easy-to-listen-to albums:

"Mississippi" John Hurt

The history of Mississippi John Hurt reads like a real Cinderella story. Born John Smith Hurt on July 3, 1893 in Teoc (Carroll Co), Mississippi, his family moved to Avalon, Mississippi (where he grew up) when he was 2 years of age. One of ten children (all who played music of one sort or another), Hurt was the most into it and taught himself how to play. Years later, when his white landlord asked how he came up with his melodies, he replied, “Well sir, I just make it sound like I think it should.”

The Swan Silvertones

The Swan Silvertones are a premiere gospel group and one of the great music experiences awaiting anyone who has never heard them. If you are not a fan of gospel music or “religious” music of any kind, don’t let that fact deter you from having this unique listening experience. This is pure music at the highest level.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

Here I will share with you something about the history of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which very much influenced me and our band, the Prime Movers Blues Band. First, I will talk about my personal relationship with the Butterfield band, get in out of the way, and then go on with a general history of that band. 

Searching for Roots: Discovering Electric Blues in White America

The Blues in Their Own Words

Tish Hinojosa

Singer/Songwriters of great quality are very rare. They can light up and change our life. Tish Hinojosa is such a singer and songwriter -- very rare indeed. Hinojosa’s albums can be divided into three groups: 

Most important are those albums that contain her own songs. In order of quality (in my opinion), they are “Culture Swing” (1990), “Taos to Tennessee” (1987), “Homeland” (1989), and “Destiny’s Gate”. 

George 'Harmonica' Smith

George Smith was born on April 22, 1924 in Helena, Arkansas, but was raised in Cairo, Illinois. At four Smith was already taking harp lessons from his mother, a guitar player, and a somewhat stern taskmaster -- it was a case of get it right or else. In his early teens, he started hoboing around the towns in the South and later joined Early Woods, a country band with Early Woods on fiddle and Curtis Gould on spoons. He also worked with a gospel group in Mississippi called the Jackson Jubilee Singers.