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Friends of the Sixties: The Landmark Ann Arbor Blues Festivals 1969-1970
This is a rough-draft of some footage Stephen Erlewine took back in 1970 at the second pivotal Arbor Blues Festival, where his brother Michael was in charge of food and drink for the blues artists, and also served as interviewer for scores of the performers. This was a life-changing experience and led some years later to Michael founding the All-Music Guide (AMG).
This video originally appeared here.
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The Prime Movers Blues Band (Feat. Iggy Pop): "Watch Yourself"
"A question I get a lot is why did the Prime Movers never record and get famous? The short answer is: it was not in the cards. The longer version is actually pretty funny. Here it is in brief: There were two attempts to hitch our wagon to the stars. For a short time early on, we had the now-legendary 'Jeep' Holland, manager of the rock group "The Rationals" as our manager. For sure, he wanted to get us into the mainstream of popular music and to this end he tried to get us to conform, to wear little suits, and whatever he thought would help us. And we did try, but our natural temperament as a band found us wandering off that trail pretty quickly. Included here is an old video of a staged chase of the Prime Movers by a lot of our women fans. We did have some great fans. This video is appropriately stupid, as you will see. Our second near brush with fame came when a subsidiary of Motown courted us to join them as a White band playing Black music. They drove us around in their limousines, set up cool events like my brother Daniel and I having lunch with the Everly Brothers. Now THAT was very cool, because we loved their music. You get the idea. The shit hit the fan, so to speak, when we realized that the Black music they wanted us to play was not the Chicago blues music we loved and were learning, but some really bad arrangements they came up with for us to play. In other words, we would have to play what they gave us to play. Well that was not about to happen and we walked. We were out of there, instantly - short karma for the fame trip. So here is all the actual video of the Prime Movers that I am aware of." - Michael Erlewine
The Prime Movers Blues Band was founded in the summer of 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The main band members included:
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The Prime Movers Blues Band (Feat. Iggy Pop): "Two Trains Running"
The Prime Movers Blues Band formed in the summer of 1965 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This audio track is from fairly early on, a gig at the Schwaben Inn and Jim Osterberg (AKA Iggy Pop) is definitely the drummer on this track. This video is a tribute to Dan Erlewine, lead guitar player for the Prime Movers Blues Band. Subsequent to the Prime Movers Dan played lead guitar for the Sam Lay Blues Band and was considering playing guitar with the Butterfield band, when he decided he really wanted to build some guitars.
The main band members included:
Michael Erlewine: lead singer, harmonica
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JCC Conversations | Yalcin Yanıkoğlu and Bob Chunn
Yalcin Yanıkoğlu and Bob Chunn have been intimately involved in helping create and evaluate proposed maps with their proprietary software. Chuck asked them to evaluate the Independent Redistricting Commissions maps so citizens can knowledgeably comment on them while there is still time.
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JCC Conversations | Leslie McGraw and William Hampton
Chuck Newman interviews his guests William Hampton, the President of the Ann Arbor Branch of the NAACP and Leslie McGraw whose uncle was lynched in Tennessee for attempting to help blacks register to vote.
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AACHM Oral History: Phase Nine of the Living Oral History Project
Compilation video from Phase Nine of the Living Oral History Project, in collaboration with the Ann Arbor District Library and the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County. With Jennifer and Hershal Brown, Patricia Manley, Bill Henderson, Leah Bass, Mike Bass, and George Goodman.