Dick Waterman
Dick Waterman (July 14, 1935 – January 26, 2024) was an American writer, promoter and photographer who was influential in the development and recording of the blues from the 1960s.
Life and career
[edit]Dick Waterman was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on July 14, 1935.[1] He studied journalism at Boston University in the 1950s.[2] He moved on to write for Broadside Magazine and later became its feature editor.[2] In 1963 he began to promote local shows with blues artists, including Mississippi John Hurt, Booker "Bukka" White and Mississippi Fred McDowell.[2] In 1964 he went to Mississippi on a quest that eventually led to his "rediscovery" of the blues singer Son House.[3][4]
Following this, he founded Avalon Productions, the first booking agency specifically formed to represent blues artists.[2] Within a few years, he was representing House, White, Hurt, Skip James, Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins, Arthur Crudup, Junior Wells, J. B. Hutto, and many others.[2] He also promoted concerts by folk and rock acts in the Boston area. In the late 1960s he met a young female guitarist and singer named Bonnie Raitt and encouraged her to begin what has become a long, fruitful music career.[3][4]
As the older blues artists died, Waterman's responsibilities shifted to care of their estates and providing for their heirs.[2] He moved to Oxford, Mississippi in the 1980s and began a second career publishing the photographs of blues, folk, country and jazz artists that he had been taking since the early 1960s.[2] His book Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive contains about 100 of his photographs from the 1960s onwards.[3]
In 1993, Waterman was instrumental in placing a new headstone on the grave of Mississippi Fred McDowell with funding from Bonnie Raitt through the Mount Zion Memorial Fund.[2] Waterman delivered a tribute to McDowell, an early mentor of younger musicians including Raitt, at the dedication ceremony on August 6, 1993, in Como, Mississippi.[5]
In 2000, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, as one of the first non-performers to be so honored.[6] In 2014 in Memphis he received a Keeping the Blues Alive award for Photography;[2] in October 2017 he received a Brass Note on Beale Street in Memphis.[7]
Waterman died on January 26, 2024, at the age of 88.[8] The cause of death was congestive heart failure.[2]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Dick Waterman, Promoter and Photographer of the Blues, Dies at 88". The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Crafts, Stephen (May 2, 2023). "Dick Waterman". Mmone.org. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
- 1 2 3 "Botkin Lecture Flyer: Between Midnight and Day (The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress)". Loc.gov. Retrieved 2013-12-07.
- 1 2 Sunday alcohol sales high on Oxford agenda Archived December 8, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Mississippi Fred McDowell". Smokestacklightnin.com. Retrieved 2013-12-07.
- ↑ "Musicguy247: Dick Waterman - Blues Hall of Fame". Musicguy247.typepad.com. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
- ↑ Tammy L. Turner, Dick Waterman: A Life in Blues (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi), 2019
- ↑ Smith, Harrison (1 February 2024). "Dick Waterman, a steward and chronicler of the blues, dies at 88". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
Books and articles
[edit]- Turner, Tammy L. Dick Waterman: A Life in Blues. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2019
External links
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