If you were going to take a look at where British Blues Fever got its start, two names, more than any others, would come up over and over again — Chris Barber and Alexis Korner. Barber was — and still is, for that matter — the leader of a traditional Jazz band, who saw that Blues and Jazz both had common roots. On the advice of John Lewis (one of the members of the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet), he brought Muddy Waters and Otis Spann over from Chicago to England for a series of concerts in the Fall of 1958. Once there, Muddy's presence helped galvanize the movement, and Barber continued to book other acts such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and Champion Jack Dupree, among others. Starting in 1962, the American Folk Blues Festival Tours commenced on a yearly basis, always with a stop or two in England along the way — which helped further cement a national passion for the Blues that was virtually unequaled. For his role in jump-starting the British Blues Explosion, Barber has often been referred to as the "grandfather" of British Blues. Another spark that helped ignite British Blues Fever was a man that came to be known as the "King of Skiffle," Lonnie Donegan. Although he got his start playing with Chris Barber, it wasn't until they did something called a "Skiffle Break" that he really came into his own. The idea was simple enough — send Donegan out on stage with an acoustic guitar and a rudimentary accompaniment of a washboard and a "tea-chest" bass (what we would call a "washtub" bass here in the states) and sing a few folk songs by Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie while — more importantly — Chris Barber and the rest of the band took a break between live sets. Donegan's first record, "Rock Island Line," became a hit in England and the U.S., making him an international star, and leading to the skiffle craze of the late 1950s. If Barber was the grandfather, then, Alexis Korner, in turn, has often been referred to as the father of British Blues. A name barely recognized in the states, his band, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, sported a veritable who's who of talent. Almost anyone who was anyone seemed to have, at one point or another, played in his band. Young Blues enthusiasts of the day — such as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, and Jimmy Page — would come to his gigs, hoping for the chance to sit in (being called up on stage by Alexis was considered an honor, back in the day). Teaming up with Cyril Davies, a multi-talented instrumentalist who had also gotten his start with Chris Barber (as had Alexis), Blues Incorporated was, for a time, Britain's premier Blues band. Dissolving the group in 1966, Alexis remained true to his Blues roots throughout the years, while many of those to whom he had given a start in the business found their way to Rock 'n' Roll, and in some cases, superstardom. Cyril Davies, another major figure on the scene in his own right, left Korner's group to go out on his own after a disagreement about the direction of Blues Incorporated. When Alexis added a saxophone player, it was too much for Davies, who was something of a purist, and felt that it was taking the group in a "too jazzy" direction. Cutting the influential two-sided bluesy rocker, "Chicago Calling" and "Country Line Special" in 1963, it was released to rave reveiws, and was even cited by Kinks founding member Ray Davies (apparently no relation) as the catalyst which led him to start his group. Sadly, a year after cutting "Country Line Special," Cyril Davies would be dead from a heart condition. If there was anyone deserving of credit behind the scenes, it would surely have to be producer and engineer Mike Vernon, the co-founder of Blue Horizon records. Working tirelessly, he is one of the unsung heroes, without which a lot of the material on this program would have never been possible. For that, we give him a Blues Unlimited tip of the hat and our heartfelt thanks. Overall, the British Blues Explosion was fueled by a passion for the music and a reverence for the original artists that bordered on religious zealotry. In a way, it was almost like they held up a mirror and pointed it back at their neighbors across the pond, as a way of gently reminding us of just how important all of this really was. And in no small way, we have them to thank for helping spark our own Blues Revival of the 1960s. But as they say, that's a story that we'll have tell on some other day. The Rolling Stones with one of their early bluesy hits, a cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Little Red Rooster"
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