Arts

Live from Detroit – and ready for download: Vintage Folk Blues Night recordings

Folk Blues Night No. 1.

Hamtramck’s LO & BEHOLD! Records & Books has completed the first volume of its FOLK BLUES NIGHT series. It’s title is Give Me No Trouble in the World I Know and features a handful of local Detroit/Hamtramck traditional artists as well as a couple who took the time to drive up from Detroit’s sister city to the south, Toledo. RELATED LINKS

FOLK BLUES NIGHT is a curated, monthly traditional music showcase at LO & BEHOLD! This release marks the first long playing record in a series of LP’s, all of which I recorded live during the monthly event. The store received the 2013 Knight Arts Challenge People’s Choice Award along with a challenge grant.

Pressed on audiophile 180gram vinyl, this album comes in a hand-pasteover cover and features a newsprint zine detailing the records selections.  Recorded direct to two-track stereo with two vintage ribbon microphones, this record looks, feels and sounds like some back-alley, modern version of the classic Alan Lomax and Smithsonian Folkways records.

And if you don’t have a record player, you can download this and other volumes in this series for free or name your denomination donation (which goes toward the match of this grant) on the Folk Blues Night Bandcamp page.

Richie Wohlfeil, owner of LO & BEOLD, is a long-time Detroit/Hamtramck resident known primarily through his work as drummer/guitarist for bands like The Detroit CobrasDanny & The DarleansThe Potions, and his duo series with longtime collaborator Adam Pierce called Locations