Norman Blake
Norman Blake •www.somagency.com/NormanBlake/ • Blake left home, quitting school at age 16, to play mandolin in his first band, The Dixie Drifters, on the WNOX ‘radio barn dance’ out of Knoxville, then on TV in Rome, GA. In 1956 he hooked up with banjo player, Bob Johnson, with whom he made some recordings and had several guest spots on the Grand Ole Opry. Norman was drafted, and while stationed as a radio operator in the Panama Canal, he formed a bluegrass band. Once home, Norman taught guitar and commuted to Nashville to play sessions. He found a place in June Carter’s road band which led to recording sessions with Johnny Cash which began a 45 year friendship and musical relationship. Then, in 1969, an offer to be in the house band for Johnny Cash’s television show moved Blake to Nashville. That’s when his talents really became valued by country-folk royalty: he played guitar and dobro on Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline album, he toured and recorded with Kris Kristofferson and then Joan Baez, he teamed up with John Hartford, Tut Taylor and Vassar Clements to make the progressive and influential Aereo Plain album. About the same time, he was invited to take part in perhaps the most important summit of country, folk and bluegrass music of the era, 1973’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken featuring the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
VIDEOS
Norman Blake, Flatpicker
www.youtube.com/v/UEkVkJax2Co
Norman Blake / Church Street Blues
www.youtube.com/v/p_YB9SC7AV4
Norman Blake / Tony Rice / Doc Watson – Salt Creek
www.youtube.com/v/XEZp_Z6SWEI
Tony Rice & Norman Blake – New River Train
www.youtube.com/v/Y36HCn4Ivws
Norman Blake – Nashville Blues
www.youtube.com/v/KKLgXgVRqjk
Norman and Nancy Blake, Boys of the Lough – Sweet Sunny South
www.youtube.com/v/VmdV-ekh3gs
LINKS
• www.allmusic.com/artist/norman-blake-p599/biography
• www.flatpick.com/Pages/Featured_Artist/norman.html
• www.music-city.org/Norman-Blake/discography/
Norman Blake in Who’s Who in AcoustiCana • Roots & Influences
• INTRODUCE The AcoustiCana Journal to FaceBook FRIENDS by clicking on the "SHARE" button at • www.tinyurl.com/acj-like-share • and help them discover this emerging American acoustic musical genre with roots in Old-Time, Bluegrass, Country, Blues, & Americana, and the prodigious group of artists bringing it to the forefront of American Music & Culture today. Thank YOU!
encore un grand avec doc watson