Dick Waterman RIP

I was sorry to hear of the death of Dick Waterman at the age of 88. Dick was a writer, photographer and manager of many blues artists and did much to draw attention to many of the great blues artists of the fifties and sixties. From the early sixties onwards he promoted shows by Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White and Mississippi Fred McDowell and went on to rediscover Son House and represent other blues artists including Skip JamesEven more memorable was a visit to Dick's house in Oxford, Mississippi, in 2008. I was travelling through the South with my late girlfriend Maxine and had been to Tutwiler, famed as the place W C Handy found the blues. I was with a group of Woodies who were also visiting various blues locations. One of them, Alan Lloyd, had arranged a visit to Dick's house and Maxine and I set off to his house. The only problem was that we didn't have an address. By a complete fluke we came across the car containing the other Woodies on the outskirts of town which led us to his house. There we were made very welcome and were charmed by his stories and his many excellent photographs. I wrote at the time: 'From Tutwiler we went to Oxford, where one of the group, Alan, had arranged for us to visit the home of Dick Waterman, one of the pioneers of blues recording and management. We spent a fascinating couple of hours looking at his photographs of Son House, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Bonnie Raitt (who he managed for 20 years), the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and many more taken over the last 45 years. Dick is a great storyteller and seems a happy man, newly married as he is to Cindy at the age of 73. A fascinating man with so much to tell, and boy did he tell it.' RIP Dick. Top picture shows the Woodies group: L-R Paul Waring, Alan Lloyd, Brian 'Bunter' Clark, Bill Haynes, Ken Major, Maxine, Nick Cobban, Dick Waterman. Picture below shows Maxine with Dick and the second photo shows a few of his examples of blues art.

Another recent death is that of Melanie, an American singer/songwriter, at the age of 76. Melanie came to fame in 1970 with 'Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)' which was inspired by the Woodstock festival. She went on to have success with 'Brand New Key', 'Ruby Tuesday' and 'What Have They Done To My Song Ma'.