Jesse Fuller - “San Francisco Bay Blues” [Arhoolie Foundation]

 New additions to our digital archive: Dietrich Wawzyn’s documentaries on American blues and hillbilly music.

In 1963, Chris Strachwitz accompanied German filmmaker Dietrich Wawzyn on a trip throughout the United States to document American roots music. The results of this trip were short documentaries made for German television featuring American blues and country musicians. “50 Sterne in Musik: Blues” includes Willie B. Thomas, Mance Lipscomb, Black Ace Turner, Alexander Moore, Lightnin' Hopkins, Buster Pickens, Barbara Dane, Jesse Fuller, and Lowell Fulson. “50 Sterne in Musik: Hillbilly” includes J.E. Mainer and his Mountaineers, the Hodges Brothers, the Lewis Family, the Willis Brothers, the Goodtime Washboard Three, and Blind James Campbell and his Nashville Street Band. These documentaries are now available on archive.arhoolie.org.

In this clip, Jesse Fuller plays “San Francisco Bay Blues” on guitar, harmonica, kazoo, and fotdella (a string bass instrument played with a foot pedal–Fuller’s own invention). From “50 Sterne in Musik: Blues” (1963)

Arhoolie Foundation 

in memory of my brother Steve (who introduced me to Jesse and this a favourite song and partly why I wanted to go to San Franscisco) . . . so I DID!