Hoodoo Man Blues Essay and Interview with Bob Koester

August 14, 2015 by Bill Hart

The second in a series of essays I have contributed to the National Recording Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress, this piece focuses on a blues recording from the mid-‘60s that is almost always on lists of “essential” blues records. And for good reason: Hoodoo Man Blues captures, like almost no other, the sound and feel of what real electric blues, played live, sounds like. It features Junior Wells and a young Buddy Guy (who was un-credited on original issues of the record).The essay is brought to life by the insights of Bob Koester, the founder of Delmark Records, who not only released the recording, but produced it.

Mr. Koester was gracious enough to contribute his time and knowledge to the piece. Koester is legendary in his own right and a living encyclopedia of blues history. Because our discussions of Hoodoo Man Blues led to so many other rich veins of music history, an interview with Bob Koester appears as a separate piece here on The Vinyl Press. The interview covers more ground and is broader in scope than the Library of Congress essay but complements and can be read in conjunction with it.*

Enjoy the essay on Hoodoo, the text of which is reprinted here, along with a link to the piece as it appears on the National Registry. The Registry is maintained by the National Recording Preservation Board of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Bill Hart

August 14, 2015

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*The views expressed in the interview and the essay do not represent the views of the Library of Congress.

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