What's wrong With This Picture?

[AllenLowe]

from today's NY Times, article about Arhoolie Records and Chris Strachwitz, the label's founder:

"For a generation of folk- and blues-inspired performers, from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones to Bonnie Raitt and T Bone Burnett, Arhoolie has been a lodestone. In his autobiographical “Chronicles Vol. I,” Mr. Dylan, a member of the advisory board of the nonprofit Arhoolie Foundation, credits the label as being the place “where I first heard Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Charlie Patton and Tommy Johnson.”

(this contest prohibited in the void; batteries not included)

[jazztrain]

Sounds like he's talking about Yazoo rather than Arhoolie.

from today's NY Times, article about Arhoolie Records and Chris Strachwitz, the label's founder:

"For a generation of folk- and blues-inspired performers, from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones to Bonnie Raitt and T Bone Burnett, Arhoolie has been a lodestone. In his autobiographical “Chronicles Vol. I,” Mr. Dylan, a member of the advisory board of the nonprofit Arhoolie Foundation, credits the label as being the place “where I first heard Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Charlie Patton and Tommy Johnson.”

(this contest prohibited in the void; batteries not included)

[Chuck Nessa]

Or OJL.

[Christiern]

Or Folkways

[AllenLowe]

yup - sorry, but the Buick was stolen overnight from my driveway (I probably should not have left the keys in it) -

I'm guessing OJL, indeed, was the first label to do serious blues reissues (under the auspices of the wonderful, late, Bill Givens, a very nice man who deserves credit).

The article also cites Mance Lipscomb, of whose repertoire 90 percent of songs were NOT blues, as a blues man.

Who says the Times is not the paper of record?

[Stereojack]

Or Folkways

I think Folkways is most likely the correct answer. The celebrated Harry Smith series of the 1950's influenced a whole generation of young musicians.

[AllenLowe]

true - but that wasn't really a series but one big thing - not to split hairs -

[jazztrain]

Yeah, OJL makes more sense for him. I caught up with many of those artists first on Yazoo and only heard some of the OJL releases later. It's clearly a generational thing.

Didn't want the Buick anyway.

Or OJL.

[Dan Gould]

Regardless I always pegged Dylan as a dilettante and this just proves it.

[Christiern]

Whether one labels Folkways issues as a series or not, there were many, many LPs and they pretty much covered the early folk/blues/circumcision music scene (to mention but 3 genres).

[Big Beat Steve]

OTOH Mance Lipscomb was INDEED featured exhaustively on Arhoolie. My 1980 catalog of the label (which I keep for reference) lists SEVEN LPs by the man.

And since the Arhoolie catalog lists him (with a section of his own) in the "Country Blues" part, what would you expect of a journalist trying to get into the subject. Songsters may be on the fringe of blues in the stricter sense but where else would you "catalog" them after all?

Edited November 28, 2010 by Big Beat Steve

[AllenLowe]

Mance is one of my favorites, but, sales category or not, he should not be labeled a blues man in a piece of journalism.