Henry Townsend Dies

 Blues guitarist Henry Townsend, a Mississippi native who fled to St. Louis as a boy then stayed for a prolific career that spanned eight decades, died Sept. 24th of pulmonary embolism in Grafton, Wis., where he was being honored. He was 96. Townsend, who wrote and published hundreds of songs and accompanied musicians on hundreds more, began recording in 1929 and continued every decade since. Townsend, living in the same brick bungalow he shared for 40 years with his late wife, Vernell, who performed with him, was in Grafton to be honored as the last surviving artist with the old Paramount Records. Townsend was born in Shelby, Miss., grew up in Cairo, Ill., and left for St. Louis as a 9-year-old to avoid a whipping from his father, after he had "blown some snuff," he told The Associated Press in an interview in June. He said his father played a button box accordion, but young Henry loved the guitar, and bought himself one. He also learned the piano. While working as a shoe shine boy in St. Louis, he came to know a generation of piano players who had grown up on ragtime and were teaming up with guitarists to experiment with the blues. He decided on a career in blues guitar after hearing budding bluesman Lonnie Johnson perform in the old Booker T. Washington Theater in St. Louis. In the 1930s, Townsend played with blues greats Roosevelt Sykes, Walter Davis and Robert Johnson at neighborhood parties and fish fries. Townsend recalled they'd "jam up and down the street" on top of a coal-hauling truck during the Depression to help raise rent money for people being evicted. Townsend and other blues musicians deemed worthy of studios' investment survived the Depression. But they fell into near oblivion when the juke box replaced live music, and the materials needed for the war effort slowed down the record industry. It wasn't until the late 1950s, when the old blues "race records" were rediscovered during a growing folk revival, that Townsend, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Williams and others found renewed popularity. In the 1960's, he led a few sessions, but they didn't receive much attention. Toward the end of the '60s, Townsend became a staple on the blues and folk festivals in America, which led to a comeback. He cut a number of albums for Adelphi and he played shows throughout America. By the end of the '70s, he had switched from Adelphi to Nighthawk Records.Townsend, who won a National Heritage Award in 1985 that recognized his being a master artist, never stopped performing. In 2000 his autobiography, "A Blues life" was published.

Etta Baker Dies

 Etta Baker, an influential blues guitarist who recorded with Taj Mahal and was awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, died Sept. 24th. She was 93. Baker was raised in a musical family in western North Carolina. She made her first mark in music in 1956, when she appeared on a compilation album called "Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians." The recording influenced the growing folk revival, especially her versions of "Railroad Bill" and "One-Dime Blues." She worked for 26 years at a textile mill in Morganton before quitting at age 60 to pursue a career as a professional musician. Baker became a hit on the international folk-festival circuit, playing Piedmont blues, a mix of the clattery rhythms of bluegrass and blues. She won a 1991 Folk Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Mahal, who recorded an album with Baker in 2004, was among those who found inspiration from her rhythmic finger-picking. Baker toured well into her 80s, but finally quit because of heart problems. Baker also is to appear on blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd's next album due out in November.

Dick 'Huggy Boy' Hugg Dies

 Dick "Huggy Boy" Hugg, a pioneering rhythm and blues disc jockey whose career spanned five decades in Los Angeles radio, has died. He was 78. Hugg had been battling poor health for the last several years. Born in Canton, Ohio, Hugg made his way to Los Angeles shortly after World War II to pursue a career in radio. The young man, who would become famous for his smooth baritone voice and playful banter, soon found it. By the early 1950s, Hugg was broadcasting a late-night show from the window of Dolphin's of Hollywood record store, then a hot spot for R&B music. Hugg is credited with exposing white teenagers to Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Throughout a radio career that took him to as many as nine local AM and FM stations, Hugg's programs were so popular with Latino audiences that he often jokingly referred to himself as "the Dick Clark of the Chicanos." One of his more famous radio signatures was: "Remember.. Others imitate, but none can duplicate the sound found here.. The Huggy Boy Show must be the best. It's outlasted all the rest." After making as much as $100,000 a year at his peak in the 1950s and early '60s, Hugg struggled financially during the '70s and '80s. Forays into the record and television business never succeeded. With the help of disc jockey Art Laboe, Hugg landed a job in 1983 at KRLA-AM (1110), which then had a loose "Oldies" format. Hugg stayed until 1998. Hugg's career in radio ended in 2002 after a stint at KRTH-FM (101.1).

Jesse Mae Hemphill Dies

 Jessie Mae Hemphill, whose award-winning blues career lasted decades and was heavily influenced by her upbringing in rural Mississippi, died here on July 22nd. She was 71. The cause was complications of an infection that may have resulted from an ulcer, according to Olga Wilhelmine Mathus, the founder and president of the Jessie Mae Hemphill Foundation. Wihelmine, a blues singer who spearheaded Hemphill's nonprofit foundation, also produced her last album, "Dare You to Do It Again", on her 219 Records label in February 2004. Ms. Hemphill began playing guitar at age 7 or 8, and later moved on to other instruments. She lived in Memphis for 20 years and played the clubs on the city’s famous Beale Street before finding an international audience. "She had a creative, unique sound that was what people call country blues," said University of Memphis blues scholar and bluesman David Evans, who toured as a guitar accompanist with Hemphill. It was Evans who produced her first three albums -- "She-Wolf", "Feelin' Good" and "Get Right Blues" and encouraged Hemphill to start her professional career in the 1980s. Ms. Hemphill won the W. C. Handy Award for best traditional female blues artist in both 1987 and 1988. In 1991 she won the Handy Award for best acoustic album. In 1993, Ms. Hemphill had a stroke that paralyzed her left side, leaving her unable to play guitar. She retired from touring and returned to Senatobia, Miss., where she lived with her dog, Sweet Pea. She recorded one final album a decade later, titled "Dare You to Do It Again."

Floyd Dixon Dies

 West Coast jump blues and R&B pianist/vocalist/songwriter Floyd Dixon died Wednesday, July 26, 2006 in Los Angeles, California, of kidney failure. He was 77. The critically acclaimed performer - best known for his 1954 song "Hey Bartender" (popularized by The Blues Brothers) - stood alongside Charles Brown, Ray Charles and Louis Jordan as one of a few artists who helped transform swing music into Rhythm & Blues. Dixon was one of the true heroes of early R&B and jump blues. He first recorded for Supreme Records in 1947 and then for Modern Records in 1949. He switched to Aladdin Records and had his first hits, "Telephone Blues" and "Call Operator 210" in 1951 and 1952 before hitting it big in 1954 with "Hey Bartender" for the Cat label. Floyd Dixon was born in Marshall, Texas on February 8 1929. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was 13. A self-taught pianist, Dixon began his career by singing mostly cool, after-hours piano blues in the Charles Brown mode. Soon enough, however, Dixon charted his own territory with a more rocking, jumping style. From traditional, slow blues to booming R&B, pop and proto-rock and roll, Dixon's created a sound and style that was his alone. After Dixon won a few talent contests in Los Angeles, bandleader Johnny Otis encouraged him to
record. Dixon recorded his first single, "Dallas Blues," while still working his day job at Orenstein's Drug Store. He went on to record hits for a number of labels, including Modern, Supreme, Aladdin, and Specialty. By the time he released the classic "Hey Bartender" 1954, Dixon was an established star in the West Coast R&B scene. He toured constantly and at various times shared the stage with
the likes of Ruth Brown, B.B. King, Charles Brown and Ray Charles. It was an early tour with Charles that Dixon encouraged Ray to switch from his suave Nat King Cole approach to a more gospel- inspired delivery. Charles took his advice, and the result for Ray Charles was an unsurpassed string of R&B hits. Although he continued to perform and record sporadically through the 1960s and early 1970s, Dixon nearly dropped out of music altogether, living a secluded life in Paris, Texas. He was invited to perform in Sweden and quickly developed an international following. With reissues of his older material beginning to surface, European interest in Dixon continued to rise. In 1980, he joined the European Blues Caravan tour with old friends Charles Brown and Ruth Brown. Dixon performed occasionally on the West Coast during the 1980s and even spent time on the road with the then-unknown Robert Cray and Little Charlie & The Nightcats. In 1984 he received a "Billboard" Blues Award for "Hey Bartender," recorded by the Blues Brothers. The following year, he received a "Billboard" Country Award for the song, recorded by country singer Johnny Lee. In 1993 Dixon received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's Pioneer Career Achievement Award. This helped him secure gigs at major outdoor blues festivals, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Sacramento Blues Festival and the Chicago Blues Festival. In 1996 a new album, "Wake Up And Live!," was released on Alligator Records. The album won the 1997 Blues Music Award from The Blues Foundation for "Comeback Album of the Year." The CD reintroduced Dixon to old fans and brought him many new ones. He never stopped performing, and he recorded another CD, "Fine, Fine Thing," for the HighJohn label in 2005. In June 2006, Dixon recorded a live CD/DVD with fellow pianists Pinetop Perkins and Henry Gray, scheduled for a fall release on HighJohn.

National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2006 Recipients

 The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today announced the 2006 recipients of the NEA National Heritage Fellowships, the country's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Eleven fellowships, which include a one-time award of $20,000 each, are presented to honorees from nine states. These awardees were chosen for their artistic excellence, cultural authenticity, and contributions to their field. They represent a cross-section of ethnic cultures including Hispanic, Hawaiian, Alaskan, and African American artistic traditions expressed through art forms ranging from hula dancing and cedar bark weaving to blues piano and gospel singing. The 2006 NEA National Heritage Fellowship recipients are:

Charles M. Carrillo; santero (carver and painter of sacred figures); Santa Fe, NM
Delores E. Churchill; Haida (Native Alaskan) weaver, Ketchikan, AK
Henry Gray; blues piano player, singer; Baton Rouge, LA
Doyle Lawson; gospel and bluegrass singer, arranger, bandleader; Bristol, TN
Esther Martinez; Native American storyteller; San Juan Pueblo, NM
Diomedes Matos; cuatro (10-string Puerto Rican guitar) maker; Deltona, FL
George Na'ope; Kumu Hula (hula master); Hilo, HI
Wilho Saari; Finnish kantele (lap-harp) player; Naselle, WA
Mavis Staples; gospel, rhythm and blues singer; Chicago, IL
Treme Brass Band; New Orleans brass band; New Orleans, LA

Joe Weaver Dies

 Pianist and vocalist Joe Weaver died on July 5 following a stroke. He was 71. He and his high school pal, guitarist Johnnie Bassett, started the Bluenotes and won local talent competitions. Their first hit was "1540 Special" on the Deluxe label. The Bluenotes became the house band for Fortune Records and also recorded their own tunes; "Baby I Love You So" was their biggest hit. Weaver backed the Miracles on their first recording for Berry Gordy, leading to many sessions and live gigs with Motown acts like Martha Reeves, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye. After the heyday of Motown, Weaver went to work in a Ford factory, retiring after 31 years, and came back to music, making three tours of Europe (as recently as last Autumn) and a new CD in 2000, "Baby I Love You So", on the Black Magic label. In 2002, Weaver got together with two old friends, Stanley Mitchell of Stanley and the Hurricanes and solo singer Kenny Martin, both '50s hitmakers out of Detroit, to form the Motor City Rhythm and Blues Pioneers. The R&B Pioneers released a self-titled CD that year on Blue Suit.

Johnny Jenkins Dies

 Influential guitarist Johnny Jenkins died in his home town of Macon, Georgia, on June 26. He was 67. He was a left-handed guitarist who helped Otis Redding in his early career and influenced Jimi Hendrix with his acrobatic style. In the late 1950s and early '60s Jenkins toured the South with his band, the Pinetoppers. He was legendary on the college circuit for stunts like playing his guitar behind his head. Hendrix, whose aunt lived in Macon, saw Jenkins perform; vocalist Arthur Ponder, who sang with Jenkins, recalled Hendrix as a "little guy who would follow us around a lot. Next thing we know, he's Jimi Hendrix." Jenkins discovered Otis Redding at the Douglass Theater, Macon's leading venue for black performers, and it was at the end of a Jenkins recording session at Stax in Memphis that Redding made his first hit record. Redding died in a plane crash in 1967. Phil Walden, who had begun as an agent booking bands to play at colleges, formed Capricorn Records in 1969 and signed Jenkins. Walden, who died in April this year, was convinced that Jenkins could have been the greatest thing in Rock'n'Roll, but Jenkins didn't want to fly, which limited the amount of promoting he could do. His only album on Capricorn was "Ton Ton Macoute!" in 1970, with members of the Allman Brothers Band, which got good reviews. Capricorn went out of business in the 1980's, but Walden produced a Jenkins comback album, "Blessed Blues", in 1996. Jenkins' last two albums, "Handle With Care" (2001) and "All in Good Time" (2003), issued on Mean Old World Records.

Big Bill Broonzy Box Set Released

 Two CDs capturing live performances by Big Bill Broonzy will be released in the U.S. as a box set by Munich Records on September 19. Featuring the long awaited recordings of two shows from February of 1953, Big Bill Broonzy: Amsterdam Live Concerts 1953 contains 25 songs and between-song storytelling, plus extensive liner notes about Broonzy's legacy and his little-known second life as a European, and dozens of previously unseen photos.

 After an afternoon performance in Holland in 1953, Broonzy was taken to a pub in old Amsterdam. When he was asked to sing a few more songs he refused, to the surprise of his Dutch friends. When they asked for the reason, he explained that he was afraid he'd be arrested for being black. After it had been explained to him that there was no reason to fear that in the Netherlands, Bill played for over an hour. Thus was Big Bill's experience of Europe, but especially the Netherlands, where he was made to feel welcome and would live different life than he knew in the States. He met and fell in love with a Dutch girl, Pim van Isveldt. Together they had a child named Michael who still lives in Amsterdam.

 Although these performances were recorded in the early '50s, Louis van Gasteren, who was a sound engineer at the time and went on to become one of the Netherlands' most acclaimed filmmakers, ensured the integrity of the recordings. Locked away in van Gasteren's safe for more than 50 years, they are finally surfacing now after a few failed attempts at releasing them between the '50s and '80s. The first concert took place on February 26 at the Ons Huis club in the Rozenstraat in Amsterdam and the second on February 28, in the middle of a sold-out European tour.

 Also included in the box set are never before published photos from the private collections of Michael van Isveldt, The Maria Austria Institute and the Netherlands Jazz Archive.

 Broonzy was born in Scott County Mississippi in 1901. Learning guitar from his uncle Jerry Belcher, he played country dances and picnics. Bronzy served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and in 1924, following his discharge plus a short return to Arkansas, he moved to Chicago, where he joined such musical contemporaries as Memphis Minnie, Tampa Red, Jazz Gillum, Lonnie Johnson and John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. In 1938, Broonzy performed as part of John Hammond's famous "Spiritual & Swing" concert at Carnegie Hall - his first show for a white audience. He recorded more than 260 blues songs as he traveled between Chicago and the South. With the arrival of electric artists like Muddy Waters, Broonzy's brand of folk blues was pushed aside. He found adoration in Europe, where he first toured in 1951. The material from Amsterdam Live Concerts was recorded on tour in '53. In 1957, Broonzy was diagnosed with throat cancer, and died in August 1958.

Clifford Antone Dies

Clifford Antone, owner of the namesake blues club credited with launching the careers of Stevie Ray Vaughan and other musicians, died May 23. He was 56. Fats Domino, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King all performed at Antone's, and it became famous as the home club of then-rising Texas stars Vaughan and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in 1990. Antone was 25 when he founded the club, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. "My friends and I in Port Arthur just wanted to hear the blues," he said last year. "We figured the only way we could hear it is if we bring it to us." He said that "between '75 and '85, I don't think there's any question we were the best blues club in the world." In 1987, he started Antone's Records, a label that featured many of the nightclub's top acts. Antone went to prison on federal charges of drug trafficking and money laundering in 2000 and was released in 2003. The charges stemmed from a plot to distribute more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana and launder roughly $950,000 in drug proceeds.

Little Buster Dies

 Edward James Spivey-Forehand, a self-taught blind blues singer and guitarist
who was a key player in helping the blues flourish on Long Island, died
Thursday in a Nassau County nursing home. He was 63. Forehand was born in Hertford, N.C. His father, Edmund J. Spivey, was a barber and his mother, Martha Lee Forehand, was a stay-at-home mom. He was the fourth of 11 children. He started losing his sight to cataracts when he was about 9. He joined his father in Philadelphia for unsuccessful surgeries but, homesick, he returned home and later went to a state school for the blind and deaf in Raleigh, N.C. Forehand left for New York in 1959 with his childhood friend, drummer Melvin Taylor, and 25 cents in his pocket, his wife said. Forehand became a staple on the Long Island blues scene, playing five nights a week from the Steer Inn in Freeport to Hansom House in Southampton during the '70s. He later toured in Europe, Japan and Canada. Forehand made a name covering such standards as "I Got You," "Knock on Wood"
and "The Thrill Is Gone." But at 52, after 30 years atop the Long Island bar band circuit, Little Buster released his first album of his own songs, "Right on Time." In 2000 Fedora released "Work Your Show."

Willie Kent Dies

 Willie Kent, 70, died March 2nd at his home in the Englewood neighborhood. The
cause, according to friends, was cancer. Born in 1936, in the Mississippi Delta town of Inverness, Mr. Kent worked at gas stations in Florida and Memphis, Tenn., before coming to Chicago. It was in the smoky clubs here that he would take a childhood love of music, ingrained after turning an ear toward a Helena, Ark., radio station's "King Biscuit Time" Delta blues music show, and turn it into a six-decade career
as one of the blues' most prominent bass guitarists, earning him repeated W.C. Handy Awards and countless rousing receptions. After arriving in Chicago, Mr. Kent hung out in clubs and started playing music by sitting in with a friend's band. He switched from guitar to bass when the band's bassist showed up for a gig too drunk to play, and he quickly found himself in demand, backing up Chicago blues greats such as Little Walter, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. In the 2002 interview Mr. Kent stressed the simplicity of what he was trying to do on the four strings of his bass. "So many people now [are] playing so much funk, it doesn't even sound like the blues," Mr. Kent told the Tribune in 2002. "I don't do a lot of solos, I don't do a lot of funk. I try play a no-nonsense sound."

Wilson Pickett Dies

 Wilson Pickett, the soul pioneer best known for the fiery hits "Mustang Sally" and "In The Midnight Hour," died of a heart attack Jan. 19th in a Reston, Va., hospital. He was 64. Pickett - known as "the Wicked Wilson Pickett" - became a star with his soulful hits in the 1960s. "In the Midnight Hour" made the top 25 on the Billboard pop charts in 1965 and "Mustang Sally" did the same the following year. Pickett was defined by his raspy voice and passionate delivery. But the Alabama-born Pickett got his start singing gospel music in church. After moving to Detroit as a teen, he joined the group the Falcons, which scored the hit "I Found a Love" with Pickett on lead vocals in 1962. He went solo a year later, and would soon find his greatest success. In 1965, he linked with legendary soul producer Jerry Wexler at the equally legendary soul label Stax Records in Memphis, and recorded one of his greatest hits, "In the Midnight Hour," for Atlantic Records. A string of hits followed, including "634-5789," "Funky Broadway" and "Mustang Sally." His sensuous soul was in sharp contrast to the genteel soul songs of his Detroit counterparts at Motown Records. As Pickett entered a new decade, he had less success on the charts, but still had a few more hits, including the song "Don't Let The Green Grass Fool You." Pickett suffered through some tough times. In 1991, he was arrested for allegedly yelling death threats while driving a car over the mayor's front lawn in Englewood, N.J., and less than a year later was charged with assaulting his girlfriend. In 1993, he was convicted of drunken driving and sentenced to a year in jail and five years' probation after hitting an 86-year-old man with his car. In 1987, he was given two years' probation and fined $1,000 for carrying a loaded shotgun in his car. Besides his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1991, he was also given the Pioneer award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation two years later. In 1999 he released the critically acclaimed comeback "It's Harder Now."

Doug MacLeod Fans Organize Grass Roots Effort To Win Blues Award

 Fans of acoustic blues legend Doug MacLeod have launched a "grass roots"
effort to support his nomination for two Blues Music Awards in 2006. The Blues Music Award (formerly known as the WC Handy Award), presented by The
Blues Foundation (www.blues.org), is the most prestigious award in Blues music. Mr. MacLeod has been nominated in two categories: "Acoustic Artist of the Year" and "Song of the Year" for "Dubb's Talkin' Politician Blues". A new web site ­ dubbheads.com ­ has been created to promote The Blues Foundation and organize the voting drive for Mr. MacLeod. "He's the real thing. Doug has been bringing us passionate blues storytelling and incredible acoustic guitar work for years now. We figured it was high time more people knew about him" said Phil Matuzic, one of the movement's organizers and self-confessed "DubbHead". Membership in DubbHeads is free to all blues fans. A free DubbHeads t-shirt will be given to the first 50 people to join The Blues Foundation and cast their vote.

Phil Elwood Dies

 Phil Elwood, one of the best friends jazz and blues ever had, died Jan. 11th of
heart failure. He was 79. Elwood covered jazz, rock, blues and comedy, the entire panorama of nightlife, for the San Francisco Examiner beginning in 1965. He continued his career at The Chronicle after the two papers merged in 2000 and retired in 2002. He was an endless fount of jazz lore, an unflagging enthusiast of the music and a world-class raconteur blessed with an extraordinary memory. He was also one of the first people to broadcast jazz on the FM dial. His weekly radio program, "Jazz Archive," began in 1952, when very few people even owned FM radios. His show continued on Berkeley's KPFA until 1996. Over the course of his distinguished career, Elwood covered anything that moved on stage. In his 2002 farewell column for The Chronicle, he noted the breadth of acts he covered in just his first weeks on the job. "I reviewed Stan Kenton one night and Lena Horne the next," Elwood wrote. "I heard Charlie Byrd at El Matador, and Tom Lehrer at the hungry i; also Art Blakey, Chico Hamilton, Denny Zeitlin. Kay Starr, the Mills Brothers, Cannonball Adderley, Joe Bushkin and bassist Vernon Alley, and Duke Ellington at Basin Street West. My first seven weeks (21 reviews or features in print) ended Aug. 31 with a Beatles show at the Cow Palace that afternoon and Judy Garland at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos that night." After his retirement from The Chronicle, Elwood continued to write a column for the Web site Jazz West. In 2002, he received the Beacon Award from the San Francisco Jazz Festival and was the subject of a tribute concert, underwritten by See's Candies.

Blues Legend Recorded In Dallas

 Blues legend Robert Johnson's whole life is shrouded in mystery, from his alleged pact with the devil to how he died to where his body is buried. But at least one riddle -- the Dallas site of his landmark 1937 recordings -- has finally been solved. For years, historians guessed Mr. Johnson cut "Hellhound on My Trail" and other blues classics at 508 Park Ave., a three-story art deco building that still stands two blocks east of Dallas City Hall. Yet nobody knew for sure. The only person who recorded Robert Johnson, producer Don Law, died 23 years ago without ever writing
down the location of the Dallas session -- or so the experts thought. But now, San Diego blues fanatic Tom Jacobson has tracked down a long-lost 1961 letter that says 508 Park is indeed the spot where Mr. Johnson recorded 13 songs that changed the course of the blues and influenced the likes of Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. "It's a big deal for us," says Dr. Michael Taft, head of folk
culture archives at the Library of Congress, which acquired the letter in December. "I'm not going to say the building should be a shrine. But it's a very important site because we know so little about Robert Johnson. To finally be able to say this is the building he recorded in, that's a way of bringing Robert Johnson back to life." According to a letter, 508 Park Ave. was the recording site for 13 of Robert Johnson's songs. Some theorized the site was 508 Park Ave, since that was where Don Law and Brunswick Records were based in 1937. Legend has it that everyone from Charlie Parker to Bob Wills recorded in the building, which was originally a Warner Bros. film distribution center for the movie theaters on Elm Street. So, in 1998, Mr. Jacobson -- a 57-year-old San Diego blues freak and photography expert -- traveled to Dallas to see the old building where Mr. Johnson probably recorded. Later, he went to New York City to meet Frank Driggs, who produced and wrote the liner notes for King of the Delta Blues Singers. There, in Mr. Driggs' basement, sat piles of rare recordings and documents he'd taken from Columbia Records because he said his bosses didn't care about blues history. The two men spent three days digging through the cellar before literally tripping over a stack of rare test pressings of the Robert Johnson sessions. Mr. Jacobson bought the recordings from Mr. Driggs -- as well as the 1961 letter in which Mr. Driggs asks Mr. Law to describe Robert Johnson, and Mr. Law scribbles his answers in the margins. The old yellow document confirms some of the few stories that exist about Robert Johnson -- like the night in San Antonio he asked Mr. Law for money to pay a prostitute ("She wants 50 cents and I lacks a nickel") and how he was so secretive about his guitar technique that
when other musicians watched, he played facing the wall in a corner of the room. The letter says the blues legend was paid all of $25 per song. It could also play an important role in the future of 508 Park, which has sat vacant for years in a part of downtown that's yet to see urban renewal. Glazer's, a Dallas beverage distribution firm, has owned 508 Park Ave. since the 1950s. The company has been trying
to sell it for years, to no avail, says R.L. Glazer, chairman of the board.

Lou Rawls Dies

 Lou Rawls, the velvet-voiced singer and longtime community activist who started as a choir boy and went on to record such classic tunes as "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," died Jan. 6th of cancer. He was 72. Rawls' trademark was his smooth, four-octave voice – the "silkiest chops in the singing game," Frank Sinatra once said. Rawls' used it in a wide variety of genres, including commercials. For millions of television viewers and radio listeners, Rawls was the familiar voice that said, "When you've said Budweiser, you've said it all.". A longtime community activist, Rawls played a major role in the 1980s United Negro College Fund telethons that raised more than $200 million. In the '60s he often visited schools, playgrounds and community centers. Rawls was raised on the South Side of Chicago by his grandmother, who shared her love of gospel with him. Rawls also was influenced by doo-wop and harmonized with his high school classmate Sam Cooke. The two friends joined groups such as the Teenage Kings of Harmony. When he moved to Los Angeles in the 1950s, Rawls was recruited for the Chosen Gospel Singers, then moved on to The Pilgrim Travelers. He enlisted in 1955 as a paratrooper in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. Sgt. Rawls rejoined The Pilgrim Travelers three years later. Rawls performed with Dick Clark at the Hollywood Bowl in 1959. Late that year, Rawls was singing for $10 a night plus pizza at Pandora's Box in Los Angeles when he was spotted by Capitol Records producer Nick Venet, who invited him to audition. He was signed by the label soon after. The album "Stormy Monday," recorded in 1962 with the Les McCann Trio, was the first of Rawls' 52 albums. That same year, he collaborated on Cooke's hit "Bring It On Home to Me." In 1966, Rawls' "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing" topped the charts and earned Rawls his first two Grammy nominations, and he opened for The Beatles in Cincinnati. During that period, Rawls began delivering hip monologues about life and love on the songs "World of Trouble" and "Tobacco Road," each more than seven minutes long. Some called them "pre-rap." His "raps" were so popular that 1967's "Dead End Street" won him his first Grammy for best R&B vocal performance. The singer won three Grammys in a career that spanned nearly five decades and included the hits "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)," "Natural Man" and "Lady Love." He released his most recent album, "Seasons 4 U," in 1998 on his own label, Rawls & Brokaw Records. But his main legacy is "You'll Never Find," recorded after Rawls signed with Gamble and Huff, architects of the classic "Philadelphia Sound." Rawls also appeared in 18 movies, including "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Blues Brothers 2000," and 16 television series, including "Fantasy Island" and "The Fall Guy." Rawls was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2004 and brain cancer in May 2005.

Songwriter Jerry William Dies

 Jerry Lynn Williams, the little-known writer of such songs as Eric Clapton's
"Running on Faith," Bonnie Raitt's "Real Man" and B.B. King's "Standing on the
Edge of Love," died Nov. 25. He was 57. In 1989, five of his songs - "Pretending," "Anything for Your Love," "Running on Faith," "No Alibis" and "Breaking Point" - were included on Clapton's "Journeyman" album. The same year, his "Real Man" and "I Will Not Be Denied" were on Raitt's "Nick of Time," which won three Grammy Awards. Williams also contributed five songs to King's 1992 album, "King of the Blues," and wrote Clint Black's "The Hard Way" and Delbert McClinton's signature song, "Givin' It Up for Your Love." Williams made four blues-rock albums of his own, but none of them sold well. A maverick, Williams spent nearly four decades bouncing between Los Angeles, where he wrote, recorded and performed, and Texas and Oklahoma, where he ranched. The songwriter was recommended to Clapton in 1984 when the singer needed material for what is regarded as his comeback album, "Behind the Sun." Williams wrote the album's "See What Love Can Do," "Something's Happening" and "Forever Man."

2006 Keeping The Blues Alive Recipients Announced

 Twenty individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to Blues music will be honored with The Blues Foundation's 2006 Keeping The Blues Alive (KBA) Award during a recognition brunch Saturday, January 28, 2006, in Memphis, Tennessee. The KBA ceremony will be part of the International Blues Challenge (IBC) weekend of events that will feature the semifinals and finals of the 22nd IBC competition as well as seminars, presentations, and receptions for Blues societies, fans, and professionals. For the complete list of Recipients click here.