Ann Arbor Blues Festival 1969
In the summer of 1969 I was a blues-besotted 16-year old. Accompanied by my dad, I journied to Ann Arbor, MI to attend the first-ever Ann Arbor Blues Festival. It was an extraordinary event and featured many of the still living blues greats, most now sadly deceased. I took these photos with a very cheap Kodak Instamatic camera, the kind with the film in plastic cartridges. The pictures aren't very good by photographic standards and many of them had undergone some fading and deterioration before I scanned them, but they are one-of-a-kind artifacts and offer a view of some of the greatest blues performers, many of whom are usually only seen in the same stock photos. I've been saving these photos for nearly 39 years. I hope you enjoy them.
Bob Frank
Roosevelt Sykes
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Muddy Waters
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Muddy Waters Band
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Paul Oscher, Muddy's great harp player.
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Yank Rachel& Sleepy John Estes
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Sleepy John Estes
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Big Joe Williams and his nine string guitar,
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T-Bone Walker
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T-Bone Walker close
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T-Bone leading band
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Big Mama Thornton & T-Bone
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Big Mama Thornton
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Luther Allison
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Charlie Musslewhite & Luther Allison
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Fred McDowell with Dick Waterman looking on.
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Fred McDowell
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JB Hutto and Lee Jackson
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Howlin' Wolf
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Howlin' Wolf: on bike
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Me 1969
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Me wearing snazzy glasses.
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Crowd & Stage
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Festival site
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Johnny Shines @ Kent Kove 1970
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Johnny Shines
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Johnny Shines from side
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Johnny Shines 2
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