A Promising Prospect

Judging by his glowering countenance, this old gent hasn’t yet found gold in them thar hills, but I can confess to discovering a strike in a new (actually renewed) web presence. The print version of Adam Lore’s Fifty Miles of Elbow Room made up for its publishing infrequency with a wealth of articles and insight into the highways and byways of vernacular music and culture. Seriously, each of the journal’s extant issues is a many-paged treasure, and I assert that claim having only gotten my hands on two. Adam’s passion and respect for artists running the gamut from Robert Pete Williams to Earl “Goggles” Freeman is palpable not only in his prose and but also in his concerted actions to raise awareness through direct exposure.

I’ve always read his regular posts at Jazz Corner with great interest, whether in their documentation of his listening habits (on enviable original vinyl where I’m usually limited to cd reissues and compilations) or in informative dispatches from his record forays and projects with New York-based musicians. So when a tiny envelope arrived in my mailbox containing a handcrafted holiday card and a tiny cardboard announcement of detailing the URL, I wasted no time in firing up the laptop and dropping by the digital digs.

Things are still in the formative stages, but the site already includes a mail order catalog sure to set certain music mavens to cart wheeling uncontrollably and there’s also the promise of soon to be reprinted articles from 50MoER’s original print run. Swing by and check it out. And while you’re there, crack the wallet and score yourself a copy of the Daddy Grace disc; I discovered it a few months ago in a local shop and have been returning to it with regularity. Adam’s candid plug: “The closing "Jericho March" is over 11 minutes of glorious collective honk that I would rank up there with Otha Turner's Everybody Hollerin' Goat and Albert Ayler's Live in Greenwich Village” is spot on.