OMG i just saw john hammond play a tiny bar, he was amazing he really has soo much soul and passion for the music. he also sounded amazing, i would highly recomend his new CD with Tom Weits or how ever u spell it!!! :H and he was soo cool after i spoke to him about all sorts of stu, like the songs he played and dylan and what not!!
Awesome. That guy is pretty cool I must say. I forget what his album with Tom Waits was called, but I really enjoyed it. I nearly saw him when he came out to Australia last year, but alas I missed my chance
If you think John Hammon, Jr. is awesome (which he is...), check out his dad! Several decades ago John Hammond, Sr. loaded up a recorder into the trunk of his car, drove to Mississippi, and discovered and recorded most of the legends of the Blues for the first time. John, Jr. is a virtual encyclopedia of the Blues. Dig deep... check out some of his influences... Son House... Honeyboy Edwards... Robert Johnson... Muddy Waters...
"Several decades ago John Hammond, Sr. loaded up a recorder into the trunk of his car, drove to Mississippi, and discovered and recorded most of the legends of the Blues for the first time." You're thinking of John Lomax, and his son Alan Lomax. They are indeed worthy of high praise. The elder was the first folklorist who realized that audio recording would be a far superior way of documenting folk music than written notation. Among other things, he "discovered" Leadbelly. Alan did the same thing on his own later, recording Muddy Waters, Son House, and everybody else he heard. All those recordings are in the Library of Congress. John Hammond Sr was an aristrocatic black sheep of his family who loved jazz and became a record producer and executive for Columbia records, where he signed, among other people, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. How's that for a career? John Hammond his son (he's never used the Jr) does a solo act second to none.
