By Frank Matheis 2020
This is the second in the “Shoebox Full of Blues” Series. The first featured the uncovered King Biscuit photos (Living Blues magazine Issue #227 Vol. 44 # 5 Oct. 2013. Pg. 68.) All photos are protected by international copyright. Please do now download, disseminate or transfer.
In 2014, right after I wrote the Living Blues cover story about Phil Wiggins (Issue #234 Vol. 45 # 6 Dec. 2014), Phil and I decided to fill a gap in blues history by writing a book about the acoustic blues scene and near Washington, DC, from 1975 to present. The book Sweet Bitter Blues – Washington’s Homemade Blues is now published by the University Press of Mississippi, American Made Music Series, with 50 unpublished photos. The photo collection emerged miraculously in the course of researching for the project. We spread the word in the community that we were looking for photographs that documented the era. One by one we found eleven photographers, through people who knew people. All the photographers and negative-film owners we uncovered and present here had the negatives sitting in tucked-away (shoe)boxes, sometimes for more than 40 years! The resulting find is a true cultural cache. I bought an Epson Photo Scanner and went on a treasure hunt. (Some photographer provided ready images). The photographs shown here are all previously unpublished and not included in our book. Thanks to the image owners, for sharing this cultural treasure with the world.
Paul Kennedy is a Laurel, Maryland, resident and retired photography professor at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. As a regular participant and photographer at Archie’s famous barbershop, he is an important chronicler of the local blues scene. His series captures actual jam sessions, showing the real-life experience at the barbershop where people of all skills levels experienced the spirit of community.When I first saw the amazing photo documentation he had captured at Archie’s barbershop, I asked him why he had never published these or done anything with them, he replied simply, “Nobody ever asked.” That essentially held true for all photographic contributors. Voila, now we did something with them.
Axel Küstner is a German roots & blues chronicler, photographer, researcher and producer, residing in Bad Gandersheim, Germany. In 1978 and 1980, Axel Küstner and sound engineer Siegfried A. Christmann sought to find previously unknown country blues musicians and collect “field recordings,” musicians in their natural surroundings. Axel Küstner took hundreds of photos and they interviewed many dozens of musicians. In Washington, D.C., they recorded Flora Molton and her Truth Band, Archie Edwards, and John Cephas & Phil Wiggins. Axel had these photos in boxes in storage, and this is a small part of his huge documentary treasure.
Dexter Hodges currently lives in Barcelona, Spain, where he has a thriving commercial photography studio. During his time in Washington, D.C. he documented the early years of the local blues scene in images that are now historical treasures. Before Hodges left for Europe, he presented Phil Wiggins with a set of negatives he had taken when the DC Blues Society was first formed. Phil Wiggins had them sitting in a box since then.
Jim Greene is a bluesman and attorney residing in Chicago, Illinois. He was close to the Washington, D.C. scene and friendly with the local players.
The late Myron Lee Samuels was a Baltimore native and longtime Maine resident, who was a musician, a music aficionado and amateur photographer who built an extensive portfolio, which has now been donated to the Blues Archives at the University of Mississippi. His son Josh made his entire box of negatives available to us.
The Travellin’ Blues Workshop. One of the early catalysts to unite the local musicians of the African American community was The Travellin’ Blues Workshop a non-profit organization founded in 1974 by Elliot Ryan, the publisher of the Unicorn Times. The Travellin’ Blues Workshop archival photos, owned by Paddy Bowman, documented the early years of the burgeoning D.C. acoustic blues scene. The former Travellin’ Blues Workshop photographer Elaine Powell took these photos in 1977. Paddy Bowman, a principal in the workshop, saved the negatives and had them, well, you know, sitting in a box for all these years.
