• • lSCODSlll delta blues festival English literature student in 1968, I had sub­ Birth of the blues mitted a paper on blues poetry and lyrics to a With all due respect to the Round Table and favorite instructor and asked if there might be beloit college fieJdhd l ifse of.history- 1 worked as co-editor one a chance to produce a convocation cluster on semester-It may be true, semantiCally, that the blues. He was enthusiastic and told me to start beloit wisconsin firs·t "Folk and Blues Festival" was held in July planning . .., 19 72 [The Beat Goes On, Belozt Magazme, The 1968 event consisted of a lecture on September 1996] . But it was the First country blues by myself, a lecture on urban Wiscon~in Delta Blues FestivJ.l, several years blues, a panel discussion, workshop, and two earher, that educated many_J!Young p ople in performances. The first featured the leg- the·audience, se ndin them to hear an appre- endary Son House, often called the father of ciate blues musician. fo lk blues and mentor ofRobertJohnson and Under the Beloit Plan, there was no "s m- Muddy Waters. Also on the program was Letters mer school program' but rather eaG)1 calen ar Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, sometimes called year was divided into three trimester , e ch the father of rock and roll because his song three and one-half _!llONths lo g, w1 h t\\o-~(ee k "That's All Right Mama" was the first piece breaks. Each term, the Co~lege..s onsorrea one recorded by Elvis Presley, in 1954. Fred major musical event. Jefferson AI pl,ane flew McDowell , a superb bottleneck guitarist, was into town in the summer of 1967; the 1ext year, also on hand. The final component was a con- Cream fi ll ed the gym with more o d than cert in the Field House featuring Chicago bar- three guys should have be n al'fow d o weave monica master Junior Wells. Roy Zipris helped together. produce this convocation. Enter Leroy Pierson, '70, ne o tluat later In January 1970, the social board voted to generation of middle-class white bo s who spend $6,000 to bring a popular rock band to loved the blues. Lee Had The Idea. i 1s earl of Beloit for a two-hour concert. I told the faculty payit)g a lot of money for one rock bancr, why supervisor that with that money we could put not spread that money around to a nl!l . oer ofi on <t major bl ues festival that could provide th e great blues musicians then enjoying their inval able national promotion for Beloit recent discovery and popularity among the Co .lege. At a special meeting, the board decid­ white folk music world? Thus, the First e to go w 1 what oecame known as the Wisconsin Delta Blues Festival was proposed, Wi c n '·n a Blues Festival in March. \ soon to be a reality as a three-day festival. T e h tw p>resented the best blues artists of The work was done by several of us, mostly th era, inclu , ing Son House, Fred McDowell , by Lee, who arranged the program and deal 1/. , obert Wilkins, Furry Lewis, Johnny with the musicians and agents. SHine , Ro ert Pete Williams, Mance The ~lghlight of the program was the per- Lipscomb, R osevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, fo man of an ancient Son House: too feeble J.B. Hutto, L zy BiB Lucus, Johnny Young, to truly J? lay properly, he was backed up on gui- 'Eddie Taylor, arey Bell, and Jimmy Dawkins. tar. Despite his physical limitations, House was Friday and S· turday Fi eld House shows ran stttnning. That a rare treat, what an experi- wel over fiv hours:- Bonnie Raitt came to ence, to se ~ , ~s tert, and appreciate the music o.P--""""'-'.une her ide guitar skills by shadowing this man, w se · usical roots go back to tlie GDowell, •1d Rolling Stone, Down Beat, Blues very origi of he d Ita blues in the early years World, Billbo rd, Living Blues and the Chicago of this i:: enturyl Tribune all p blished reviews. It was -+,eroy Pier · n who first revealed he These eve ls and the r ~ l ationships formed power a11d richnes of\ this · it;tdigenous at them have . ·. !". ·~>·~ ' l(ofound impact on American usic to p eloit g:-neration t: t my life. I've oet!n a proressi nal blues guitarist may have previous! tho-ugH that the blues and vocalist, based in St. L uis, since 1970. In meant only Janis Joplin o Canned Heat. J.':ee''s "£: 87 I toured the Middle ast and Africa for efforts should not be ign , ieq " r obscured by the United States Infor tion Agency. In faulty memory or incomplet history. 1989, I performed -in Was ington, D.C., in a L. Roy Zipris, '71 program produced by he Smithsonian Philadelphia Institution, and after hat event I met and spoke at length,wjth_Steptl n Wade ['74], the I did indeed put on the first blues festival at hot banjo picJ,<e ~ : who carr· ed on the festival Beloit, but there were two distoinct events, one traditioJ?. in Beloit'duiing t e early '70s. in June 1968 and one in March 1970. In the late '60s, each Beloi student was oy jodie Pierson, '70 required to attend a certain number of eve . St. Louis selected from several offerin s ,coll ectiv; y called a convocation cl t€-T. 1\h e w ere i'n_ten­ sive weekends filled w·t l lt'tur s, discussions panels't demonstrations, and pe !Qouan"e ; ttil · focused on one issue or discipline. As an -'------' 16 Beloit Magazine/January 1997 A ROUND TABLE SUPPLEMENT .