Tim Moyer's comments on PBS system

[Tom Ellis <tomsmics@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I couldn't disagree more with Tim Moyer's comment that the point of the 5th
PBS series film was that the English musicians brought the blues to an
American audience that had ignored it.  As someone who was running a radio
show in 1967, and who was playing music in 1966, listening to a lot of
blues, this just isn't what happened.  The British "invasion" was headed by
the Beatles, Herman's Hermits, Peter & Gordon, and a lot of other acts that
had little touch with the blues.  The Stones radio hits were not blues
covers.  Only the Animals were successfully repackaging blues music for
radio play. Cream was NOT a blues band.  Hendrix (who returned to the
States from England) was not a blues band.

I think that if you spoke to the American bands of the time, including the
Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, Butterfield, Airplane, Creedence, the Doors,
etc., the ones that were playing and active, you would find all of them
VERY aware of the blues and that they integrated a LOT of blues tunes into
their shows.  Newport '65, Folk and Rock Festivals all over the US, and an
active club scene in most major cities saw blues performers everywhere.
The blues is a very big tent, and most performers or blues styles found
within it were well represented at clubs and festivals across the US. 

The American "audience" had not ignored the blues, as least not from the
standpoint of exposure through the American bands.  Whether they had every
really "known" the blues is debatable then, and now, but to imply that the
British were responsible for some new form of blues "awareness" in the US
is a total misread of history.....TOM ELLIS/Tom's Mics