Fat Possum Records have posted 'Memphis 69' on YouTube - a film of the 1969 Memphis Country Blues Festival and you'd be well advised to give it a watch. Including performances by country blues masters Fred McDowall, Sleepy John Estes, Bukka White and Furry Lewis along with the Bar-Keys backing Rufus Thomas the film catches the time when the confluence of the the roots of black blues and r&b met the white blues wave with appearances from John Fahey, Johnny Winter, Jo Ann Kelly, Sid Selvedge and the Insect Trust.
It shows a coming together, a shared communion through music of different races and cultures that could have signified a new American. The venue used had hosted a Ku Klux Klan rally only weeks before so came loaded with that racist view of America. The young white faces in the audience evidence a freshness and hope. Filmed over 3 days and two nights in June 1969 it captures a time long lost but one well worth revisiting to reflect on that opportunity and what was lost.
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