Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969 (CD)
Various Artists
Amoeba Review
08/04/2020
A 50th anniversary celebration of the Ann Arbor Blues Festival of 1969 – the first American all-blues festival - this new live recording is a double album of incredible performances, originally captured by student promoters of the event on a Norelco tape recorder. The album features “living history” performances by artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Big Mama Thornton, B.B. King, Lightnin' Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell and many more artists, who shared a sense of community at the festival. The single, Muddy Waters' “Long Distance Call,” with its plaintive harmonica and spontaneous applause and whistles, embodies the perfect blues-soaked summer atmosphere. For the true blues fan, it doesn't get much more authentic than this.