Topic: McTell Book

[Norfolk Slim]

The problem, surely, is that genuinely exciting new information is generally not available, and any massive new insight into a dead blues musician is near impossible, given that us enthusiasts already know most of what there is to be known through familiarity with their work and influences.

I liked the book- but it is certainly the story of the search for information, and the wider background to the emergence and formative influences of McTell (and by reference, other players from similar backgrounds) rather than a "this is his life" story.

[Gumbo]

Here's a quote from one of Michael Gray's blog entries (August 9, 2007) that's worthy of wider dissemination and should be of particular interest to Weenies.  Quotes this good seem usually to be apocryphal.  I hope this one isn't...   

...one of those who talked to Willie towards the end of his life was Bruce Utah Phillips, and though this bit of the interview Mr. Phillips gave me (in May 2004) ended up pruned out of the book, he reported this:

"I was curious about what this music, when it was in the jazz houses and the jook joints: what did it sound like? [I asked Willie:] 'When you were young, what d?you sound like?' And he said 'You want to hear what we sounded like when we were your age, you listen to early Elvis Presley.'... I don?t think he was joking, either."

How did this ever get cut from the book?

This is a fascinating quote, and it's not simple to find the blog entry (there are no archive links) so here ya go

http://handmemytravelinshoes.blogspot.com/2007/08/elvis-willie.html

[LB]

That quote was in the copy of the book I read. In fact some of those sections were the most enjoyable for me of the whole book because they connected to the source.

[TonyGilroy]

I love the fact that Phillips met McTell. Two of my all time musical heroes.