Sliding Delta with Martin Huckett, Greenwich Theatre, London (GB) - Apr 29, 2018

Unusual and unexpected local gig. Entitled The Delta Blues Story, it was a presentation on the Delta Blues (ie from the Mississippi Delta area) consisting of various blues numbers interspersed with commentary. The performers were Martin Huckett commentary/vocal/percussion, ?Chris ? vocal/bottleneck guitar (National Resonator), Roger Browning guitar/vocal and Maggie ? vocal. The guitar playing was very good, the singing somewhat staid (as so often when the music is performed out of its original context, geographical/social and temporal) and the commentary was necessarily simplified for the audience but, on the plus side, was good on the social origins (slavery, Dockery’s Plantation). Regrettably there were errors such as claiming Papa Charlie Jackson and Blind Lemon Jefferson as delta singers and this reflected an attempt to explain the blues as originating entirely from this area which is manifest nonsense. But the evening was still a considerable pleasure with terrific songs from the oeuvre of Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Fred McDowell, Mississippi John Hurt, Jim Jackson, Leroy Carr, Big Mama Thornton, W C Handy (the last three being incongruous).