BLUES ARCHIVE THE JSP YEARS 8 - JIMMY DAWKINS - WEST SIDE CHICAGO BLUES TRAILER

JIMMY DAWKINS WEST SIDE CHICAGO BLUES A blues music documentary featuring a performance from Chicago legend, Jimmy Dawkins recorded on 15th July 2000 at Dragon Blues, The Welsh R’n’B Festival, Wrexham, Wales. The eighth in a series of contemporary blues video recordings from Blues Archive. Jimmy Dawkins was an important figure in the development of Chicago blues. An uncompromising musician with an immediately recognizable guitar style and sound. He was born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago in the early 1950’s where he worked club dates with bluesmen such as Magic Sam and Jimmy Rogers. An expressive singer and inventive guitar player, he was called upon for many recording sessions in the 1960’s working with artists such as Johnny Young and Otis Rush. Of the fascinating and important series of DVDs we have so far released from the Blues Archive productions this one most of all captures the essence of both person and musician. Here is his music, as with so many other Blues Archive productions it is just another gig, a night on a life led on the road. But what sets artists like Jimmy Dawkins apart together with so many other bluesmen of his generation is that they played at the same high level night after night and didn’t treat a gig in a provincial town any differently to a major concert hall. This kind of gig was Jimmy’s life. Of note here is just how clearly his technique and fingering is caught by the camera and the editing. There is so much here for anyone wanting to play blues guitar. Of course, the social and cultural background and history can’t be replicated and Jimmy talks eloquently here about his life and the unnervingly harsh conditions suffered by black people of his generation. JOHN STEDMAN – JSP RECORDS DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY PAUL REED – BLUES ARCHIVE Available from Amazon Prime Video.

Added 8 Jun 2026