Junior Wells - 'Hoodoo Man' live [Colourised] 1966

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What an introduction from Roosevelt Sykes... "Here he is the wiggling worm Junior Wells"
Another rare one here, a brilliant performance of Hoodoo Man blues with the legendary Otis Rush filmed in Manchester on the 30th September during the 66' American Folk Blues Festival on the 3rd night of the tour. The show was broadcast by Granada TV in December later that year as a show called 'Nothing But the Blues'. Bob Juke kindly sent me a copy of the full 1966 Manchester show, so I've upscaled it and upped the frame rate before colourising it.

I don't make anything colourising and putting these videos together so please support the channel with the link here if you can its greatly appreciated! https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/bluesincolour

It was filmed in Manchester on the 30th September during the 66' American Folk Blues Festival on the 3rd night of the tour. The show was broadcast by Granada TV in December later that year. Well's is also filmed doing a version of this a week later on the tour at the Liedertafel in Mainz, Germany. (I've also colourised that version here: https://youtu.be/E7PNT_SWnvs).

Like I mentioned earlier Bob Juke kindly sent me a copy of the full 1966 show, so I'll be posting more in the next few weeks.
'Bob Juke' has a great channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@bobjuke4216 it's an absolute must if you're into Blues & Jazz so subscribe!!!

Junior Wells: Vocals & Harmonica
Otis Rush: Guitar
Little Brother Montgommery: Piano
Jack Myers: Bass
Fred Belows: Drums

Roosevelt Sykes: Introduction

Hoodoo Man Blues was on the debut album of Junior Wells (the LP also being called Hoodoo Man Blues), and was recorded with the Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band, an early collaboration with guitarist Buddy Guy. It was recorded on the 22nd-23rd September 1965 and released on LP by Delmark Records in November 1965.

The album of Chicago blues music was solicited by Bob Koester, the founder of Delmark Records, who liked Wells' music enough to give the musician considerable freedom on the album despite concerns of commercial response. The resultant innovative album became Delmark's best-seller, establishing Wells' career and receiving critical acclaim as being among the best albums Wells ever produced and among the greatest blues albums ever made.

Record producer Bob Koester, the founder of Delmark Records who is credited with discovering Wells along with producer Sam Charters, recalls that at the time he was considering releasing an album by Wells, he was anxious about both the audience for Wells' music and the expense of studio time and sidemen, but that he liked the music too much to resist. Wells was given the liberty to select his own sidemen and tracklist, without the usual limitation of songs two or three minutes long, and the album that resulted became Delmark's best-seller.

Koester remembers particular complications working with Guy, who was incorrectly believed to be legally entailed with Leonard Chess of Chess Records. Chess approved Guy's participation on the album but refused to allow Guy's name to be listed in the credits until it was realized that his participation was not contractually disallowed. Guy was, at the time of release, credited as "Friendly Chap", a name proposed by Peter Brown, who later founded Down with the Game Records in the UK, with the explanation that "A buddy is a friend, a guy is a chap". For parts of the session, Guy's guitar amplifier was not working, and his guitar was wired instead through the Leslie speaker of the studio's Hammond organ. Koester said, "I've always been amazed at how rarely reviewers commented on the guitar-organ tracks".

Koester also recalls that 15 minutes of "releasable music", including a duet between Guy and Wells, was lost, with the tapes probably having been used later to record a rehearsal.

Wells related to The Chicago Tribune in 1993 that the song from which the title of the album was drawn almost didn't make the album. He had recorded "Hoodoo Man Blues" on a 78 rpm record years before (1954), but when the song was presented to radio personnel for possible rotation they had rejected it violently, throwing it on the floor and stomping on it. Wells, too disappointed to want to try again, credits Koester's encouragement with the song's inclusion on the album.

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