I've been receiving review copies of DVDs from Delmark Records in Chicago for the last couple of years now. While there have been some interesting experimental Jazz concerts, and a few other Jazz discs, the ones I've liked the most have been the recordings of Blues gigs from bars around the city. While a couple of the bars, like Buddy Guy's Legends, are large and well appointed, most of them look like they could be a local bars in any working class neighbourhood in North America.

It's only when the camera pans across the walls of these bars to show the autographed pictures of those who have played at them over the years that the difference between these places and other local watering holes becomes clear. There aren't many neighbourhood bars in many cities that can boast of having had Sonny Boy Williams, Junior Walker, Carey Bell, and Luther Alison perform a gig in their bar, let along play there on a regular basis. The picture walls of these bars are hall of fame galleries of Blues practitioners dating back to the late forties when the post war electric Blues scene in Chicago first started.

They're a far cry from the large venues where today's pop stars perform. You're about as likely to find fancy dressing rooms and special foods laid out here for those playing as you're the Grand Wizard of the Klan walking in the front door. For although the crowds are pretty much mixed these days, they're still located in the old neighbourhoods and pull in a fair number of people from the surrounding streets. Follow the camera through the door and wend your way through the crowd to the small stage, and you've stepped into a world where the old divisions don't matter; everybody is here for the same reason, to listen to the music.
The Natural Rhythm Social Club is located on the South Side of Chicago and in August of 2007 Delmark records brought their recording equipment and cameras out to record Byther Smith and his band for the DVD Blues On The Moon. Released last week, this collection of 12 songs is some of the most intense Blues music I've heard gathered in one place before.

Now if the name Byther Smith means as little to you as it did to me when I first read his name on the cover of the DVD, don't feel too badly as he seems to have flown under everybody's radar until recently. Born in Monticello, Mississippi in 1933, Smith arrived in Chicago as part of the post war migration North in the 1950's. He had been a bass player prior to coming to Chicago, but soon switched to guitar and began playing gigs around town.