Urban Lightning

With the exception of the late Amos Milburn, all of the artists presented here have proved to be survivors. None of them is young any more and each has suffered years if not decades of neglect and hardship. But on the brighter side, Charles Brown and Floyd Dixon are now receiving the sort of recognition and honours that equal and perhaps in some ways surpass the fame they enjoyed in their heyday. As for H-Bomb Ferguson, bis own resurgence has ensured that his wigs are made from the best materials.
Ah, Beale Street. lf you‘re into the blues, there are locations that conjure with the imagination. In Chicago, it‘s Maxwell Street, in Detroit, Hastings Street, in Los Angeles, Central Avenue. But for longevity and romance, incident and especially music, most bluesfans would set their feet on Beale Street‘s weaving sidewalk in any decade between the 20s and the 50s. Not that many white people did until the latter decade, for the area was as lawless as it was libidinous. Authorities left Beale Streeters to their own devices, sending in the wagons after dawn to clear away the bodies accrued from another night‘s misadventures…..