John Hammond Jr on his roots and his Dad | Blues Blast Interview | Don’s Tunes

John Hammond Jr. (John Paul Hammond) poses for portrait backstage at the Newport Folk Festival in July, 1963 in Newport, Rhode Island. (Photo by David Gahr)

John Hammond Jr. : “I knew that my father knew (of) Big Bill Broonzy because I’d gone to see him and when I was seven, but I had no idea that he knew (of) Robert Johnson, yikes! So, anyway, there was a guy at Columbia who made up a tape for me of all these Robert Johnson records. I think there were nine songs and like I was in heaven (chuckle). In any case, it just cemented my passion.

“So, I learned all those songs and played them on stage, and I was completely into it. And I was a blues fanatic. I was just in the right place at the right time so many times. I played New York. Gerdes’ Folk City was my first show there, and that went over really well there. I shared the bill with Phil Ochs for a week and we were both signed up to Vanguard Records.”

The year was 1962. John was 20, and of the artists playing the Greenwich Village/Harvard Square coffeehouse scene at the time, he was light years ahead of most in his musical abilities. Where did his extraordinary talent come from? It wasn’t from hanging out with his father.

“I don’t know. I can’t explain myself. I was just ready to play. I went to two prep schools and a progressive school in New York, the Little Red School House, and then I was just not a good student because I didn’t live with my father. I stuttered so badly that every new exposure to new kids was always a really humiliating experience for me. I finally found something I really wanted to do, and I just went for it big time.

“I got a guitar in 1960, and I started playing professionally in ’62. I just played and played and played. I knew all the songs I wanted to do. You know, some records. I don’t know how to explain it really. This was what I wanted to do. I found something that I really wanted to do. I didn’t have a great educational experience, and I went from school to school.

“I was playing at Gerdes (Folk City in Greenwich Village), and there was (Vanguard Records cofounder) Maynard Solomon in the audience, and he thought I was really good or something. So, I was offered a contract. I was too young to actually sign it, but they made arrangements. I’d just turned 20 and made my first record in December of ’62 at the Broadway Masonic Temple. That was number one, and it was released the next year. And I played at the Newport Folk Festival which was a big deal in ’63, and I was on the Blues Workshop with John Lee Hooker, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Dave Van Ronk, and Mississippi John Hurt. It was like yikes, holy cow. I was outside of my body. It was an outrageous scene."

Don Wilcock / Blues Blast Interview