Dick Waterman came to Boston to study Journalism at Boston University in
the 1950s
Dick
Waterman
came to Boston to study
Journalism at Boston University in the 1950s. Attracted by the merging
folk music scene in the area, he began to write for “Broadside
Magazine” and eventually became the feature editor, writing the
cover article for each issue.
In 1963, he began
to promote shows in the area including blues artists
Mississippi John Hurt and Booker White.
In the Spring of 1964, he went to Mississippi with Nick Perls and Phil
Spiro on a quest that eventually led to the rediscovery of
Eddie “Son” House,
a legendary blues singer who had vanished from the Delta music scene over
20 years earlier.
Finding Son House was a turning
point in Waterman's life. He started to find bookings for Son and this led
to the founding of Avalon Productions, the first booking agency
ever formed to represent blues artists. Within a few years, he was
representing Son, Mississippi John
Hurt, Skip James, Booker White, Lightning Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, Fred
McDowell, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup
and many others.
With the emergence of the
Chicago blues scene, Waterman added amplified bands to his roster,
bringing this music to a national audience.
Junior Wells
was the first Chicago band that he represented and he was soon followed by
Buddy Guy, Luther Allison, J.B. Hutto
and Magic Sam. He
was also promoting concerts in the Boston area including
James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Bruce
Springsteen, Randy Newman
and many others. By the late 1960s, he had met
Bonnie Raitt
and convinced her to begin a music career that would ultimately lead to
huge commercial success and many Grammy awards. Together, they worked to
preserve the blues
heritage
of many traditional artists by bringing higher visibility and greater
income to these music veterans.
As the older blues artists
died, Waterman’s responsibilities shifted to taking care of their estates
and providing for their heirs. In some cases, he has administered to their
publishing catalogs and tried to place the songs with newer projects to
generate income. Waterman moved to Oxford, Mississippi, in the 1980s and
eventually left the live music scene and began a second career through the
photographs that he had been taking since the early 1960s. He found that
his vast unpublished collection of blues, folk, country and jazz artists
are in demand with music fans that have never seen
John Hurt, Son House, Maybelle Carter, Roy
Acuff, Muddy Waters
and hundreds of others that Waterman photographed over the years. Dick
Waterman’s photographs are currently shown in such respected venues at
A Gallery For Fine Photography
in New Orleans and The Govinda
Gallery in the
Georgetown section of Washington.
In October, 1999, he learned
that he had been elected to the
Blues Hall of Famein the Non Performer
category. This honor was presented to him in February, 2000, at a ceremony
in Washington. Bonnie Raitt presented his award. Other inductees were:
Mississippi Fred McDowell (album), Z.Z. Hill (single), Stevie Ray Vaughan
(performer), Johnny Otis (performer), Sam Charters (literature).
In a career that
has spanned over 35 years, Dick Waterman has been successful as a field
folklorist, manager, agent, promoter, writer and photographer. His Blues
Hall of Fame recognition was unanimously recognized throughout the music
industry as well deserved and long overdue.
Dick Waterman appeared at the
1997 Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon.
Here's what their website had to say about him:
"Blues historian and
photographer Dick Waterman discovered and brought out of retirement the
legendary delta bluesman Son House in the early 1960s, later represented
Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Luther Allison, Magic Sam, and Otis Rush, and
managed Bonnie Raitt from the early days of her career through the
mid-1980s. Waterman, who now lives in Mississippi, serves on the Executive
Board of the Blues Foundation, working as an advocate for the estates of
deceased bluesmen like Mississippi Fred McDowell."
heritage
of many traditional artists by bringing higher visibility and greater
income to these music veterans.