Gayle Dean Wardlow- conversations- Aug 2012
7 videos • 1,149 views • by Randy Meadows Gayle Dean Wardlow talks about the early days of Delta Blues research. Aug 5 2012 Part ONE - Hayes McMullan and Willie Moore with Elizabeth Introduction PART TWO - Record Collecting Beginnings Part THREE Ishmon Bracey, Tommy Johnson, and HC Spiers Part Four- Dockery Farms and Charley Patton Part FIVE - Willie Moore -Willie Brown -Skip James PART SIX - Robert Johnson • ** BONUS- **** Part One A/ Hayes McMullan- Gonna Move to KC - (Unedited raw) Part One B/ Hayes McMullan - Leave Here Walking- (Unedited raw) Part SEVEN-(BONUS)- Robert Johnson Recording Sessions and Death Certificate and MORE! Gayle Dean Wardlow (born August 31, 1940) is an American historian of the blues. He is particularly associated with research into the lives of musicians Charlie Patton, Willie Brown, Robert Johnson, and the historical development of the Delta blues, on which he is a leading world authority. He was born in Freer, Texas, but was brought up from the age of 6 in Meridian, Mississippi. In his teens he began collecting Roy Acuff 78s, and originally began collecting blues records so as to exchange them for Acuff's. However, by about 1960 he had started collecting blues records for their own sake, and realised that very little biographical information existed on the musicians who had created them.[1] By 1963 Wardlow had begun researching a book on Delta blues musicians, mainly by making enquiries in black neighbourhoods, recording oral histories, anecdotes, songs, and remembrances. He interviewed Ishman Bracey, Charlie Patton's widow, and blues talent broker H. C. Speir,[2] and a few years later uncovered Robert Johnson's death certificate. In the process of his research he became a leading authority on country blues. He also amassed the world's largest and most valuable collection of pre-war blues records, many of which are now unique. Wardlow has published many articles on blues history, and the book Chasin' That Devil Music - Searching for the Blues, which was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2006 as a classic of blues literature. His interviews from the 1960s are available to listen to for free at Middle Tennessee State University website. Randy Meadows was born 1966 and raised on Mississippi Gulf Coast , he enjoys searching and researching music history and recordings as it pertains to Delta Blues and British Rock... Gayle Dean and Randy have been friends since 2011. Gayle Dean has worked as an investigative and sports journalist, serving as Sports Information Director at Livingston University, and The University of Alabama. He has also been a journalism professor at various universities. A White Man Chasing the Blues- (The Gayle Dean Wardlow Interviews AUG 5 2012)