March 1963

John Koerner had a busy day and night on March 24, 1963. For starters, he did a ten-hour studio session with friends Dave Ray and Tony Glover that resulted in the wonderful and maverick folk-blues album Blues, Rags & Hollers -- a seminal document in the folk and blues revival of the early '60s. Then he did a set at a local folk club and he followed that up with a visit to a Milwaukee radio station where he recorded an interview and another half hour or so of singing and playing -- quite a day. When producer Mark Trehus acquired the tape archives from Dave Ray's recording studio several decades later, he was delighted to discover a complete and clear tape recording of the radio spot Koerner did that night, and all these years later, here it is, and it's a charming remembrance of a very specific time and place. Koerner played a dozen or so songs that night in his half-traditional, half-revisionist style accompanied by his charging 12-string guitar, harmonica interludes, and plenty of foot stomping. "Duncan & Brady" is an onrushing delight and there's an early version of "Southbound Train" here, too, along with several other gems, and it's amazing to think that only a few hours earlier he had brought the same ragged intensity to bear at the Blues, Rags & Hollers session -- all of which makes this set a great coda to that album. ~ Steve Leggett