There were American radio stations in the '40s and '50s broadcasting in Germany. American popular music became popular after the war coming into the country along with the Marshal Plan. The blues was made popular almost by one single man in the early '60s — Horst Lippman from Llippman & Rau. They started the American folk/blues festivals in, I think, 1962, bringing over American blues performers on a yearly basis.
The artwork on their '60s tour posters itself is legendary. I highly recommend watching the two volumes of the American folk/blues festival DVDs. They are in fact much better in my opinion than the Scorsese blues film series. Because they are more simple and authentic — they just show great historic footage from all the performers — from Sonny Boy Williamson to John Lee Hooker to Muddy Waters.
They were all there during the '60s, filmed by German television. And what the American folk/blues festivals did to kick off the British blues boom is a piece of music history. Mick Jagger loves to tell the story how Fritz Rau – Lippman’s partner and a pretty hot-tempered guy – kicked The Stones out of the venue when they tried to hang around during sound check and meet the performers that were their idols during the UK shows of the AFBF tour.
Alexis Corner – father of the British blues – was probably more popular in Germany than in the UK. The UK market is more trendy, Germany more conservative. Germany for many British R&B singers is the last territory where they find plenty of work after their stars descended during the '70s when disco and the following eras drowned the British blues boom. People like Chris Farlowe, Long John Baldry, The Yardbirds, Eric Burdon still could get a gig in Germany during the '80s and '90s – long after work dried up in England and the US for these guys.
Why do you think the blues seems to be more popular in Europe right now than in America where they come from? It seems like a high percentage of your roster are North Americans; are they signing with you because there just isn't the interest in their work back home or are there other reasons?
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