"Chicago Folk" Collects More Great Photos by Raeburn Flerlage
http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2009/12/09/chicago-folk-collects-more-great-photos-by-raeburn-flerlage
by Peter Margasak
Dec 9, 2009
I've never looked through Chicago Blues, a book of blues photographs
shot in Chicago by Raeburn Flerlage (who died in 2002 at age 87) and
published in 2000. But after spending some time with a new volume of
his gorgeous black-and-white photography I realized that I've seen
plenty of his work without knowing it. Back in the 60s he shot album
photos for labels like Chess, Delmark, Testament, Folkways, and
Prestige. And the terrific new book Chicago Folk: Images of the
Sixties Music Scene (ECW Press) collects his photographs of the
folk-music revival, particularly of concerts at the University of
Chicago Folk Festival during the 60s.
Other photo books have already documented this scene, including one
by John Cohen (who appears in Chicago Folk as a member of the Red
Clay Ramblers Lost City Ramblers) and The Face of Folk Music by Dave
Gahr, but it's awfully nice to have another, especially of pictures
all taken in Chicago. In addition to the U. of C. Folk Festival,
Flerlage shot at the Old Town School of Folk Music, Orchestra Hall
(the book includes some Bob Dylan pics from 1963), the old Kroch &
Brentano's bookshop, and folk clubs like Gate of Horn, Fickle Pickle,
and Mother Blues. Flerlage took performance photos and casual candids
of the usual suspects耑ig Joe Williams, Roscoe Holcomb, Odetta, Bill
Monroe (whose band at the time included Jack Cooke and Del McCoury),
Hobart Smith, Son House苑ut though his subjects were familiar he
usually captured something riveting if not revelatory about them.
The book includes more than 200 photos, most have which haven't been
previously published. A fascinating introductory essay by Ronald D.
Cohen, a history professor at Indiana University Northwest, details
Flerlage's obsession with folk music虐e discovered early on that he
could score free records if he wrote about them苔nd with racial
equality. He eked out a meager living while doing everything he could
to promote the music and the musicians. He was an early supporter of
Pete Seeger's People's Songs movement and spent much of the 50s and
60s working as a midwest distributor for Folkways, the legendary
label owned by Moses Asch. Flerlage comes off as a guy who felt that
he couldn't get close enough to the music he loved, but Chicago Folk
proves that he found just the right place from which to capture it.
.
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