Coda To Episode 15: Koerner Ray and Glover. The Roots Of Blues, Rags and Hollers. Wow & Flutter

Wow & Flutter is a special bonus for subscribers to Return To Vinyls +. In the early 1960s the Minneapolis folk scene was centered around coffee shops in Dinkytown, a neighborhood near the University of Minnesota. The most popular was the Ten O’Clock Scholar, where Bob Dylan got his start. According to Dylan’s book "The Chronicles" that included playing with “Spider” John Koerner. Koerner joined singer guitarist Dave “Snaker” Ray along with blues harmonica player Tony “Little Sun” Glover as a trio and appeared in various combinations starting in the mid-1960s. Folk music had white-washed the music of traditional singers like Lead Belly into contemporary pop folk songs. The folk scene had degraded in most places into Hootenannies where the audience sang along to happy banjo music. Koerner, Ray and Glover, along with a few other local folk musicians like Leo Kottke fought against pop influenced folk music and went looking for the roots of folk and rural blues. They found it in the coffee houses and bars in Dinkytown and the West Bank of Minneapolis. From there Koerner, Ray and Glover brought it to folk festivals and their record albums on folk label Electra Records — "Blues, Rags and Hollers." Their music still rings true today.