![]() Just when you think he can’t sing a bluesier note, he sings it. Setting new standards and a fresh direction for the blues, says Blues In Britain, and creating a beautiful fusion (Keys And Chords). We brought in Reverend Gary Davis, Jesse Fuller, Sleepy John Estes, and later, in 1963, we had Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James.“Setting new standards and a fresh direction for the blues…”Īt the crossroads of blues and American roots music you’ll find Brooks Williams. Acts at that time would have to play a minimum of two or three weeks, so I had them all day and all night for almost a month. "I lived a couple of blocks away, so they would stay at my house. I got married and divorced while I was over there, and after my divorce, I stayed there." Ricks said he got to know so many of the classic acoustic bluesmen on good terms because the performers would typically have "residency" shows at the Second Fret in Philadelphia. (To be fair, Allison and Memphis Slim both found more work in Paris.) "I wanted my kids to be able to learn a foreign language," he said, "and it was good for me, 'cause there were like five blues people in all of Europe. because he found the racial atmosphere too oppressive at home, as did people like Memphis Slim and, later, Luther Allison. Unlike other bluesmen who came up in a less progressive era, Ricks didn't leave the U.S. Every year in the first week of August, eminent names of national, european and global blues scene come to Kastav, Croatia to honour Jerry's inheritance. It's being held from 2008 and is still ongoing. ![]() The biggest blues festival in Croatia, Kastav Blues Festival, is established in honour of ‘Philadelphia’ Jerry Ricks. He died on December 10, 2007, aged 67, in a hospital in Rijeka, Croatia. He suffered a stroke that year, and a benefit concert featuring Shemekia Copeland and David Bromberg was held in the US to help pay his medical bills. ![]() In 2007 Ricks and his wife moved to Kastav, Croatia. Many Miles of Blues followed on the same label in 2000. His first American releases did not arrive until 1998, when Rooster Blues released his Deep in the Well. He returned to live in the United States in the early 1990s. His first solo album, in 1984, was recorded in Zagreb, at that time in Yugoslavia, and he also recorded albums in Hungary, Austria and Switzerland. In Germany, he recorded several albums with Oscar Klein, and in Italy recorded with Giulio Camarca. He lived in Europe for most of the 1970s and 1980s, only returning to the US in 19, when he recorded with Hall & Oates on Whole Oats and Abandoned Luncheonette. ![]() briefly to do field work in Arkansas for the Smithsonian Institution, he moved to Europe in 1971. In 1969, Ricks toured with Buddy Guy on a State Department-sponsored East African tour. He recorded with Mississippi John Hurt in 1964. He worked as a booking manager for the Second Fret Coffee House in Philadelphia from 1960-1966, coming into contact with many key figures in the blues revival, including Son House, Lightnin' Hopkins, Libba Cotten, Jesse Fuller, Mance Lipscomb, and Lonnie Johnson. He started playing guitar in local coffee shops in the late 1950s. Ricks was born and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, playing trumpet as a child. ![]()
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