The European Blues Association

 incorporating

The Archive of
       African American Music

‘It’s my opinion, I may be right, I may be wrong, But if you look after your good friends then your enemies can’t do you harm’ (R.J.)

Exeter University, 3.15pm, Sunday 12^th August. A few guitars lie on schoolroom desks, there is a metaphorical smell of grilling catfish in the damp summer air, the crunching of a pick-up on a gravel road. Somewhere in the distance a resonator slides to the tonic (in open G of course) and the faint, bent wail of a harp drifts from the cypress grove.

Blues week begins! Down in LT4 a disparate bunch was gathering, cheerily greeted by old Mr. Roger ‘guys and chicks’ Cudby, Association Chairperson (& D.J. and teacher - another strike and he’s out!). It was a great pleasure to see old friends from ‘the class of 2000’, meet interesting new characters, look forward to being drenched in the music you love and spend hours wearing a blue(s) anorak.

  Personal highlights must start with ‘hanging out ‘ with John Jackson, not just a patient Virginian gentleman (and I overheard the catering staff say the same) teaching in the folk tradition (“I’ll go over it as many times as you want”), but a knowledgeable conduit passing on the black reality that formed the music, giving a view of Piedmont music as it really was.

Stories of the weekend parties for 200 in the thirties, square dances where, “If they liked the tune you had to play it all night”, how ‘Boats up the River’ came to him in a dream when he was 14, how he had to borrow $50 dollars from the boss to buy his Gibson in 1957, how he was ‘discovered’ and met John Hurt, Son House and all those other survivors in the 60’s. A real privilege.

And the jamming! After our gentle reminder of jamming etiquette (“Please remember the wooden boxes and harps!”), the learning experience of playing with others, especially when that included, Phil Wiggins, Ian Briggs, Mike Messer and Michael Roach. Chances to put the day’s lessons into practice too, so it didn’t all end up as ‘yet another Chicago one in E’.

Yes, I did enjoy the chance to be an anorak, to discuss ‘the relationship between African finger-style guitar and Charley Patton’ with Mike Messer, or ‘can blue men sing the whites’ with Phil Wiggins, listen to Mike Roach enthuse on Bo Carter, to drool over the only National 12 string ever made and to learn from it all.

The learning was there to be made the most of, if you listened with an open mind. Subtle licks and riffs, voicings (“Oh, that’s how he does it”), techniques like hammering on with the slide from Sam Mitchell, amplified Chicago harp from Ian Briggs, lap style slide from Mike Messer, amazing harp techniques from Johnny Mars, developing a rock-steady thumb from John Jackson and Mike Roach. Above all, to ‘feel the groove’, to get to that place we all aim for when we are playing for ourselves or others.

The staff concert showed us where to aim; Michael and Ian’s laid-back style, Sam and Phil’s professional ‘winging it’, Johnny and Mike’s ‘going for it’ and John Jackson’s enjoyment in performing. And the student concert did show a wonderful range of material, variety and depth of performance, (from Tampa Red, Willie McTell, Robert J, to self-penned, an a-capella ‘John the Revelator’ and a very interesting ‘If You Gotta Go, Go Now’), as well as the learning from the classes, especially ‘Creole Belle’ from the finger picking beginners (yes, they were finger picking good).

And so the end, with new friendships, a sense of achievement, a sense of a band of brothers and sisters (it’s not all old blokes, you know), something for the future, (the John Jackson Bursary for young people) and tired but renewed, home to bed to catch up on a week’s sleep!

John Anderson

Reprinted from Issue 1 of the European Blues Association Newsletter (November 2001)

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Last updated March 2007