American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Vol. 1 (2003)

In 1962, German concert promoters Horst Lippmann and Fritz Rau were a pair of music enthusiasts who, after bringing a number of top jazz artists to Germany, struck upon the idea of assembling a package tour of leading blues artists for a series of shows in Europe. The inaugural American Folk Blues Festival marked the first time that many music fans outside the United States had the opportunity to see some of America's great blues performers in person, and the tour had a seismic impact in many of the countries where they performed, especially England (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones, who would later form the Rolling Stones, were all in the audience for the first tour's sole British date). After the initial tour's rousing success, The American Folk Blues Festival became an annual event, and Lippman, who also worked in broadcasting, arranged for the festival's artists to appear on a series of German television specials. The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Vol. One was assembled from videotaped performances of headliners from the festival's first four years; included are rare performances from Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Sippie Wallace, Otis Rush, and many more. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi