John Rockwood: Rockwood on the Blues-Portraits in Words and Pictures

2006-01-22T05:58:34Z

John Gibbs Rockwood
Rockwood on the Blues: Portraits in Words and Pictures

Introduction by John Sinclair

In John Rockwood's remarkable photographs you can see the blues in the faces and postures of its leading modern artists almost as well as you can hear it in their music. So many of these giants are no longer with us, yet their spirit and vibration remain with us today in their recordings and in images like these captured on film by the ubiquitous Mr. Rockwood.

Many of John's photographic subjects--Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Buddy Guy--are well known by blues lovers all over the world. Modern-day legends like Bo Diddley, Professor Longhair and Stevie Ray Vaughn add to the list of celebrated artists, while others not as well recognized by the record-buying public but equally well regarded by blues connoisseurs are present in all their glory: James Cotton, J.B. Hutto, Roosevelt Sykes, Floyd Jones, David 'Honeyboy' Edwards, Katie Webster, Frank Frost, Houston Stackhouse, Sunnyland Slim, each caught in characteristic action and preserved here for our delectation and delight.

What makes this collection uniquely Rockwood's is the inclusion of portraits of several painfully obscure bluesmen--Washboard Willie, Jake The Shake Woods, Roman Griswold, Big Jack Reynolds, Little Walter Mitchell--native to Detroit and Toledo, the photographer's home territory, or in other habitats equally remote from the modern blues mainstream, like the northeastern Mississippi hills of Othar Turner or the Deep South chitlin' circuit traveled by saxophonist Grady 'Fats' Jackson.

Rockwood has been shooting the blues with his camera for more than 30 years, traveling all over the United States to snap his favorite artists in their homes and haunts or on stage at festivals and nightclubs wherever they might appear. For the past dozen years he's also functioned as a blues producer and record label owner with Blue Suit Records, cutting excellent albums by Eddie Burns, Honeyboy Edwards, Sir Mack Rice, the Griswold Brothers, Big Jack Reynolds, Detroit Junior and others.

John Rockwood's photos have graced the covers and liners of LPs and CDs and the pages of magazines and books by others for a good many years, but now we have them here within the covers of a single volume to study and enjoy for a long time to come. The author's short texts which accompany the photos shed additional light on his subjects and the milieu which has produced them and add measurably to our pleasure.

Rockwood on the Blues is a welcome entry to the list of books which celebrate and document America's stunningly original art form and the brilliant blues artists who have brought it to life for us. May it be only the first of many such collections by Mr. Rockwood to bring his work to public attention.

. --New Orleans
April 3, 1999

(c) 1999, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.

Macklin Finley: Street Rat

2006-01-22T05:36:35Z

Macklin Finley
Street Rat
Grosse Pointe: Greenroom Press, 2000

Introduction by John Sinclair

I first met Mack Finley at the Clover Grill in New Orleans. The Clover, conveniently situated at 900 Bourbon Street, corner of Dumaine, just three blocks toward the Mississippi River from the former J&M recording studio on Rampart & Dumaine where Dave Batholomew and Cosimo Matassa made some of the greatest recordings of the 20th century, is what you might call a classic American diner with a twist: it's owned and operated by some of the most flamboyant characters in North America, who cook up and serve the most satisfying plates of eggs with hash browns or grits to be found anywhere, and big juicy hamburgers grilled to perfection under the protective cover of an automobile hubcap.

Sort of a Crescent City/Motown junction in that regard (and several others), the Clover is managed by our mutual friend and poetic colleague, Brad Sumrall, who introduced me to Mack Finley as a fellow expatriate from the Motor City. One night Brad took Mack and me to his hometown, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where we performed an evening of music and verse in the decrepit, broken down lobby of a former downtown hotel, now taken over as living and working space by artists and wierdos of every description. We were backed up by a motley collection of skilled and amateur musicians playing everything from tenor saxophone to the guts of an old piano propped up vertically against the wall where it could be pounded upon by an exuberant would-be player.

During his brief sojourn in the Crescent City, during which he was gainfully employed as an interviewer of gutter punks for some sort of post-modern demographic study, Mack also appeared as the ultimate French Quarter street rat who read his poetry for tourists and passers-by on Bourbon Street. One year, during the Mardi Gras festivities, Mack performed his works on the street for three days straight, stopping only to puff a quick joint, have a drink and a bite, or relieve himself in the colorful commode at the Clover, and netted from his artistic labors the unbelievable sum of $7,500 every penny of which was quickly confiscated by government authorities seeking satisfaction of a long-ignored tax debt.

I really enjoy Mack Finley's poetry, both on the page and delivered on stage in his distinctive performance style. He casts the experiences and materials of life into verse, quite graceful verse, and he finds out things while he's composing, which is a little-heralded but most happy by-product of the writing process. You wave the first word, as the great Charles Olson put it, and the whole thing follows. I started out to write a poem one night about how much I missed my former companion because she d been gone so long, in the words of the Professor Longhair song, and by the time I was in the middle of the verse I was asking her to marry me! I had no idea! And the great thing is, we ve been happily married ever since. Or, as Mack says:

Declaration of self is the foundation of personal free.
Declaration of self realizes self in all.
Self in all, demands all in self.
It is simple.
The thought of it is no more harrowing than a smile.

That's right: It is simple. Mack's work will bring a smile to your face, a flash of perception to your brain, and maybe put a little lilt in your step. It might even make you want to dance. Go ahead, it's all right and can t nobody stop you.

New Orleans
January 21, 2000

(c) 2000, 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.

Liner Notes

John Rockwood: Rockwood on the Blues-Portraits in Words and Pictures

Macklin Finley: Street Rat