Forty years. Quite an achievement for a 38-page black and white magazine about blues founded by a bunch of mostly college kids in a basement apartment and peddled out of the trunks of cars. But here we are, 40 years later. We’re not so little anymore, we are color throughout, printed by the world’s largest printer, and distributed on newsstands around the world.
It has been a real treat to bring the history of LB to life through these last four issues. Judging from the response we’ve gotten about the “Decades” series our readers have enjoyed it too. We may even have had an impact on historical CD sales from all the folks saying they were hitting the stores to beef up their blues collections based on Jim DeKoster’s “Best of the Decades” lists.
The theme of this special 40th anniversary issue was sparked by a letter I got in the fall of 2009 from a man in prison in Florida who, besides wanting us to “front” him a subscription till he got out of jail, claimed to know the whereabouts of bluesman Billy “The Kid” Emerson. Emerson was on the cover of LB #45/46, our tenth anniversary issue. Soon after that issue, Emerson dropped out of the blues world and pretty much hadn’t been heard from since. I thought what fun it would be to catch up with him after all these years.
As time went on I realized there are dozens of musicians we have covered in our 40 years but have not revisited in decades. I decided to choose 12 artists we had covered at least 15 years ago and catch up with them. It was great fun to pull all of this together and also gratifying to realize that it still means something to these musicians that they were on the cover of LB. Like featured bluesman Jimmy Johnson sang in 1979 in his recording of Twelve Bar Blues, “Cover of Living Blues is where I hope to be!”
After 40 years the list of people to thank is far too long to print, but special recognition needs to go out to the founders Jim O’Neal, Amy van Singel, Diane Allmen, Bruce Iglauer, Andre Souffront, Paul Garon, and Tim Zorn; subsequent editors Peter Lee, David Nelson, and Scott Barretta; publishers William Ferris, Charles Wilson, and Ted Ownby (and Ann Abadie); and the wonderful graphic designers and office staff. In my nearly 24 years at LB I have had the privilege to work with nearly all of these people, as well as the wonderful web of freelance writers and photographers who supply all of our content. My humble thanks to all of you for the first-rate work that you do. And to my fellow staff members, Mark Camarigg, Susan Bauer Lee, and Katie Drayne Blount, a special thanks—I couldn’t do it without you.
After over 200 issues, nearly 2000 articles and stories, and over 10,000 reviews, our goal was, and still is, the same—to capture and archive the words and lives of the artists who create that most American of all musical forms, the blues. Here’s to 40 more years!
Brett J. Bonner
