And This is Maxwell Street is a new three-CD set of music and interviews made live on Maxwell Street in 1964. A wonderful 45 minute cinema verite film documentary, And This is Free, was made in 1964 which included some of this music. Thought lost, this CD consists of the heretofore mostly unused recovered audio recordings from that project. This CD set is available in North America through Roosterblues Records and in Europe through Catfish Records. The group that found, compiled, and produced And This is Maxwell Street is IT Studio. Their website has lots of details about the film and this CD set.

As of October 31, 2000, eight blocks and 37 historic buildings remain in the old Maxwell Street neighborhood, including three hot dogs stands, lots of street vendors, and several other businesses. Blues musicians still come down there to play on Sunday afternoons. 69 year old Jimmie Lee Robinson is one of them. He played with Johnny Young (one of the musicians in 'And') down on Maxwell Street in the 1940s. One of the places they played was by Orginal Jim's Hot Dog Stand which still exists. Unless we get help, soon all of the area will be destroyed by the University of Illinois and the City of Chicago. Please don't allow them destroy this world Blues landmark area. - Steve Balkin, Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition

Review 1 by Craig Ruskey, Delta Snake Daily Blues October 29, 2000

Review 2 by William S. Repsher, NewYork Press October 31, 2000

Review 1 by Craig Ruskey, appearing in the Delta Snake Daily Blues (October 29, 2000).

I'll make no bones about it and begin by saying "And This Is Maxwell Street" is, without a doubt, the most important release I can remember in 28 years of buying books, records, CD's, and anything else related to Blues. Shortly before he passed away earlier this year, Cub Koda stated that these recordings "should require a major re-write of Blues history" - Cub knew great music when he heard it.

There have been few times as fans of Blues when our paths crossed with something of utmost importance in the form of records or CD's. The last time anything of this magnitude was released was when Delmark first issued the 'live' Magic Sam material; Sam's Alex Club recordings from Chicago in 1963/64, and his stunning set at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969. Other than that, the only other time in recent memory, was when Rounder put out the original "Robert Nighthawk Live On Maxwell Street - 1964." Simply put, there isn't a lot around that manages to capture the essence of Chicago's heyday in a 'live' setting. It's understandable. The fact is, Blues to us is something completely different than to someone decades older who happened to be around when it was peaking. When someone retells a story of having seen Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, or other greats when they were in their prime, we look at it in its historical context. To those who were around, it wasn't historical, it was a part of their culture. Thankfully, someone had the foresight to realize the importance of these performances!

When "Live On Maxwell Street - 1964" was originally issued by Rounder in 1980, what many of us failed to realize at the time was that we were given an incomplete picture of those recordings. The original LP was plagued with enough problems (ditto the reissue CD in 1991), as there were mistitled tracks, incorrect credits, and questionable personnel, but many of us were in shock that it even existed, and we rushed out to find it. Only later did it become public knowledge that there was more we never had a chance to listen to. Robert Nighthawk's Maxwell Street recordings now make their triumphant return, and what Rooster has managed marks a time in our lives when we can say that something of major significance has found its way to us! In these times of multitrack recording, overproduction and studio-slick CD's, it's refreshing to hear music this real, this raw, and this powerful, and just as it was played back on the streets of what old timers called 'Jew Town.'

In the later months of 1964, Mike Shea was working on his documentary film "And This Is Free" about Chicago's Maxwell Street area, its musicians, and inhabitants. Recording and filming took place every Sunday, weather permitting. Shea filmed much of what went on in the streets of the Maxwell Street market, but when interest in his documentary wasn't what it warranted, the project went into limbo and everything filmed or recorded found its way to storage. In the 1970's, what remained of the original film was supposedly destroyed or thrown out. Fortunately, the audio tapes were stored separately and managed to survive the ravages of time. Finally, the 'Rooster Blues' label has stepped forward and they now show us the whole picture of what Mike Shea was doing. They have used the original tapes to remaster from, and in addition to remastering it with top-notch sound, they have issued everything useable, so this time, we can truly raise a glass in celebration! The package includes over 120 minutes of music on two discs, while a third contains 45 minutes of interviews between Mike Bloomfield and Robert Nighthawk, and the entire story of what is here lies in a 60 page booklet loaded with new information and a good sized helping of great pictures.

This is a slice of the past, and it's a large slice, too. Robert Nighthawk holds court for about an hour, while others like Carey Bell, Big John Wrencher, Arvella Gray, and another small handful take effective rides playing Blues, traditional, or Gospel numbers. Backed by a small band, Nighthawk seems completely relaxed and we find him in what sounds like his natural element. Pulling brittle runs, soothing slide passages, and distorted rhythms from his guitar, he pushes them out through a small amplifier and he's as tough as nails. The tracks featuring Nighthawk include Dr. Clayton's "Cheating and Lying Blues" where everything is brutally wide open as the guitar work slashes throughout the five minutes, and his voice in strong form. He drills Bill Doggett's "Honky Tonk" with slide phrases that fit comfortably along a smoldering background, and he's downright forceful taking Elmore's version of "Dust My Broom" at a good clip. The "Peter Gunn Jam" resembles "Hideaway" at times, and Nighthawk's take of Junior Parker's "I Need Love So Bad" simmers along for seven minutes with more wicked guitar travels. There's no filler, this is just rough Chicago Blues stripped naked. John Lee Williamson's "Take It Easy, Baby" pushes along at breakneck speed with tough support from John Lee Granderson's guitar and Jimmy Collins laying a train-like backdrop on the drums. Nighthawk also shines on his coupling of "Annie Lee/Sweet Black Angel" which he'd waxed for the Aristocrat label more than a decade before, but here, he's not bound by the number of grooves on a record, and the playing is even more expressive on this eight minute slow burner. The changes in Nighthawk's playing deserve particular mention, as throughout this excellent package he switches from gritty leads to muscular chords and whizzes into more of his trademark slide work in an effortless barrage of ideas!

Johnny Young comes front-and-center with his tough "The Sun Is Shining" and he's in top form on the doubled "All I Want For Breakfast/Them Kind Of People." His voice was one of strength on just about anything he cut, and it's no different here. Big John Wrencher, a tough one-armed harmonica player and regular to the Maxwell Street area smokes through Little Walter's "Can't Hold Out Much Longer." There's another pair of Wrencher originals; the rousing "Lucille" and his plaintive "Love You Tonight," which is especially strong. Carey Bell, a young man in his late 20's at the time, leads a handful of tracks, but standouts are his driving take on "I'm Ready" and the slow "Carey'n On," where he pulls out the chromatic harp on both. His stamp is all over this pairing with the wonderfully creative playing he's known for. He rocks through a few other instrumentals with some fierce tone, and on "Cruisin' In A Cadillac," he tears it up! Little Arthur King is believed to be the guitarist on the instrumental "Red Top/Ornithology" that's full of quick lead bursts and chunky chords for its rather brief two minutes, and Big Mojo Elem steps up doing a nice job with J.B. Lenoir's "Mama, Talk To Your Daughter" (Carey Bell identifies this as Elem, but historians are in doubt).

Arvella Gray, a blind street performer, was another to frequent the cluttered Maxwell Street neighborhoods with his trusty National and he gives a couple of stirring takes on "Corinna, Corinna" and the traditional "John Henry" which includes references to the area where he could often be seen. James Brewer, another blind guitarist who made regular trips to Maxwell Street, does a soulful rendition of "I'll Fly Away" backed by a group playing tambourines and guitars, and is excellent on this and "When The Saints Go Marching In." Carrie Robinson uses Brewer's band in the stunning "Power To Live Right," while a solo and unknown harmonica player does an hilarious job with the deep roots of "Long Gone John" and has his audience laughing right along. James Brewer's wife Fannie is gripping in her performance of "I Shall Overcome" which closes out the more than two hours of music captured in this brilliant set, which brings us to the final disc of the three; close to 45 minutes of interviews conducted by Mike Bloomfield with Robert Nighthawk. While considered evasive by writers, Bloomfield manages some interesting questions which elicit brief, yet informative responses from Nighthawk. Talk of influences, recording sessions, and more prove interesting as the two sit together. This view of Nighthawk is moving to say the least, and it adds considerably to what we'd known of him in the past.

The Robert Nighthawk catalog is small considering he recorded over a period of four decades. What 'Rooster' has added with this incredible set of music is enormous. The recordings are crisp and clear as hawkers, street preachers, banter and cheers from the crowds, and car horns weave their way into the atmosphere giving you the impression of having been there when it all went down. Steps above any of the previous and incomplete looks we had of this seminal music, 'Rooster Blues' has finally cleared the cobwebs and brought it forth with the care it so richly deserves. This is essential listening!

Copyright © 2000 by Craig Ruskey. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission from the author.

Born in 1959 in Massachusetts, Mr. Ruskey has been listening to, and studying Blues for 28 years. A guitar player for the last 20 years, he has been honored to sit in with many he has considered heroes; Johnny Littlejohn, Jimmy Rogers, Magic Slim, Sunnyland Slim, Pinetop Perkins, and others. He spent a few years touring with Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson and the Magic Rockers. He now concentrates on writing about the music he loves, and contributes reviews to a number of online sites including the 'Delta Snake' and 'Blues On Stage.' His work will also be in 'Blues Access' magazine in the coming months.

Review 2 by William S. Repsher, NewYork Press, October 31, 2000

While the blues have arguably been the purest form of music to come out of America, there is no doubt that the musicians, by and large, are the most overlooked, shat-upon group of artists to have ever been exploited in the music industry. Whether it was British rock stars ripping off their songs and styles wholesale, or their audiences themselves being too stupid and/or lazy to seek out the real thing, scores of blues artists have come and gone over the past 80 years with lives lead in either total obscurity or middling success, while their pale, limp-wristed imitations travel in private jets and live in mansions.

Chicago didn't serve so much as the home of the blues as it was the last stop for millions of poor Southern blacks in the 30s and 40s looking for the promise of a better life in the industrialized North. And in Chicago, there was Maxwell Street, a melting pot of a weekend street market, a bit like Beale St. in Memphis, where blacks and whites mixed freely, and music of all sorts was played informally on street corners, literally anywhere a guitar could be plugged in. In the liner notes to And This Is Maxwell Street, blues legend Charlie Musselwhite recalls how it was: "The most I remember getting was $25, I think. It was all nickels and dimes and quarters mostly. We had a big old pile of change... If you went in the door that went out into that back porch, there was a lady's kitchen there and she would let you run an extension cord in there and somebody would give her a few bucks. We would count up the money on her kitchen table."

In 1964, Mike Shea covered the then-thriving Maxwell Street scene in his documentary, And This Is Free. Shortly after Shea died in 1995, his son Patrick approached Ian Talcroft, a producer and recording engineer at Studio IT, with a tape of Johnny Young singing "All I Want for My Breakfast" from the original documentary. It was the first time anyone other than the Sheas had heard the song since 1964. Shea had 69 other tapes_all the audio for the documentary_and these have led to the official release of And This Is Maxwell Street, a three-CD set, featuring two discs of music and one of Michael Bloomfield interviewing the legendary Robert Night Hawk, who figures prominently on both music discs.

Allow me to cut to the chase here and say that And This Is Maxwell Street is a phenomenal collection of live blues that signifies a perfect moment in time, much like James Brown's Live at the Apollo did for soul music. The main difference is that Brown was a bona-fide superstar playing to a paying audience, while the musicians on Maxwell Street were either little-known local heroes or unsung legends busking a weekend crowd for coins dropped in their guitar cases. This doesn't make Brown any less honest; it just points out how criminally neglected the blues have been shamefully, far more at home than abroad, when music this pure and powerful can so easily be lost in the passing of time.

It's not just the music, but the sound of the crowd: screams punctuating guitar solos, preachers and salesmen bawling out their pitches, shouts of "hell yeah" and "all right," whistles, polite clapping and laughter. One song is simply titled "Back Off Jam" because Night Hawk had to tell the crowd to "back off" as they got too excited and were crowding the band. When Night Hawk cuts into the brutal slow jams "Annie Lee/Sweet Black Angel" and "The Time Have Come," there is tense silence around the music. You can practically feel the crowd standing in awe. While Maxwell Street is hardly his show alone, his songs do demand special attention and, if anything, serve as a reminder that not every blues genius got a Chess box set; maybe it's more in line with the blues that he gave it all away on Maxwell Street and asked nothing in return.

Elsewhere, Big John Wrencher, aka One Armed John, shines on "Can't Hold on Much Longer," wherein he blows harp into a microphone one-handed, as he had lost the other in an automobile accident. Carey Bell, the only artist still living from the documentary and the most commercially successful, made his first recordings on Maxwell Street; his harp playing on "Carey'n On," where he replicates a train whistle and engine, is astounding. It should be noted that the influence of Night Hawk is unavoidable here, as he plays guitar on nearly every song. The few times he doesn't, the artists tend to either handle more traditional or gospel fare. Arvella Gray, who was blind and without the first two fingers on his left hand, plays a version of the traditional "Corrina, Corinna" on his steel-bodied dobro that stands up to Dylan's and Big Joe Turner's more popular versions.

As much I'd like to tout the other artists, it all comes back to Night Hawk, again and again, as his rhythm guitar is the heart of Maxwell Street. The interview disc starts out promisingly enough with Night Hawk simply jamming away solo before Bloomfield rains on his parade with some rote questions and standard-issue answers. I imagine this disc could interest blues purists, but I could have gone on listening to 40 minutes of Night Hawk simply feeling out rhythms on his guitar and have that impart far more wisdom than any sincere interview. This is not to slight Bloomfield, who was only 21 at the time and went on to well-deserved fame before his untimely death in 1981. Night Hawk would die three years after Maxwell Street at the age of 57 in his hometown of Helena, AR, just west of the Mississippi, another of those mythical crossroads of American music where black and white merged so freely.

Having never been there, I wouldn't know what his tombstone looks like, if he even has one. But after all these years, And This Is Maxwell Street will serve as fitting a legacy as any for a man who never got what he deserved.

William S. Repsher

For more information visit these websites <http://www.openair.org/maxwell/preserve.html> and <http://www.maxwellstreet.org>.

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