COLLECTION (27CD)
BIOGRAPHY
He also went to blues and R&B shows and saw Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, and the Staple Singers with his grandmother in tow; they were the only white people at that performance.
Mitchell first recorded in Memphis in 1962 just to have something to listen to. He and some friends recorded Furry Lewis, Gus Canon, Will Shade, Charlie Burse, Laura Dukes, and Catherine Porter. This was the start of a career devoted to recording blues musicians.
In 1963, he located and recorded the early Atlanta legends, Peg Leg
Howell and Buddy Moss. Also in 1963, he worked in Chicago for Delmark
Records and, with Michael Bloomfield, produced concerts at the Fickle
Pickle, bringing in both unknown blues artists and re-locating such
bluesmen as Washboard Sam. Recordings of these concerts have been issued
extensively.
In the summer of 1967 Mitchell traveled with his wife Cathy and a
Wollensack tape recorder and borrowed a 35mm camera from the University of
Minnesota to document blues musicians in Mississippi. After returning to
Minnesota Mitchell turned the trip into a master's thesis that also became
his first book in 1971, Blow My Blues Away. They had recorded legends Fred
McDowell and Houston Stackhouse, and at the time unknowns R.L. Burnside
and Othar Turner.
Beginning in 1976 Mitchell took a job for the Bureau of Cultural Affairs
in Atlanta to oversee the Georgia Grassroots Music Festival. Mitchell was
able to travel across the state and document folk musicians native to the
state and hire a staff to do field work. He curated the Festival for three
years and in that time recorded such musicians as James Davis, Precious
Bryant, James Lee Ziegler, and Willie Guy Raines.
From 1979 to 1981 he worked as a field researcher for the Columbus Museum
of Art in Columbus, Georgia, for In Celebration of a Legacy, a project
initiated by folklorist Fred Fussell. A book by that name by Mitchell and
a double record album from his field recordings were published by the
Museum and re-published and currently available from the Chattahoochee
Historic Commission.
In Atlanta in 1984 George Mitchell created the National Downhome Blues
Festival which was held at the Moonshadow Saloon. The three-day festival
was the largest gathering of old-time blues musicians before or since. A
one-hour program of performances and interviews held on these three days
was broadcast on PBS; in addition a 4 record LP was released by
Southland.
After field recording Mitchell focused on his other passion, photography.
He taught high school students in Atlanta helping them produce the
photography book Sweet Auburn: the Many Faces of Atlanta's Most Historic
Avenue.
NEW!
MISSISSIPPI JOE CALLICOTT
2003-Ain't a Gonna Lie to You @FLAC