Keeping the Blues Alive Award 2017 for Wolf Records

In February 2017 Wolf Records International got a “Keeping The Blues Alive” – Award from the Blues Foundation, Memphis TN.

The Blues Foundation´s Keeping the Blues Alive Award honor those individuals and institutions that have helped to keep the Blues going strong. As Blues Foundation president and CEO Barbara Newman proclaimed:

“Our 2017 Keeping the Blues Alive recipients are all wonderful examples of blues flame keepers, each working in their own sphere of influence to move the genre forward while honoring its past.”

Michael Frank & Hannes Folterbauer

The American Blues Scene Magazine writes:

“Wolf Records has been promoting Magic Slim and other Chicago Blues acts for over 30 years, and they aren´t doing it from Illinois, but Austria.

At the ceremony, I met great friends from France, but also Michael Frank, Bruce Iglauer and Kenny O´Neal.

Here is my speech to the audience:

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I will say thank you to some people without them, there would not be Wolf Records:

At first, Jim and Amy O´Neal, who helped us to bring musicians over to Europe to make tours and recordings. Also Jim helped me to make the first Wolf Records session 1982 in Chicago featuring the House Rockers, Ted Harvey and Brewer Phillips (120.608).

Next I want to say thank you to Brett Bonner from “Living Blues Magazine”, who helped me in different ways.

Also a bis Thanks to Michael Frank from Earwig Records, who recorded for us the great Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis and Howling Wolf´s first guitar player (on Sun Records) – Willie Johnson.

Thanks to the late great “Big Town Playboy” and founder of the Jimmy Reed Sound, Eddie Taylor. He helped Wolf to record himself with his wife Vera Taylor and his Westside-Bluesband, but also the great Big Smokey Smothers and Floyd Jones.

Thanks to the great Chicago-westside bass player, singer and band leader Willie Kent: he brought the best Chicago Blues musicians for Wolf Records in the studio: Hubert Sumlin, John Brim, Pinetop Perkins, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Shaw and many others…

Also he creates together with me the Wolf Sound, which is present on many Chicago Blues Session CD´s. The band members were mostly the same great guys: Billy Branch on harp, John ‘Primer and Johnny B’. Moore on guitar, Willie himself on bass and Tim Taylor on drums.

Also thanks to the great “Country Boy” Morris Holt – the Blues world tell him Magic Slim from Grenada, MS. It was a twenty-seven years long connection of Magic Slim and The Teardrops with Wolf Records. We got three Blues Awards together.

Magic Slim was the only musician I know, who worked together with two Record Companies at the same time during a period of twenty years. I don´t know how Slime could manage this, but I think he wanted to make tours and recordings to get famous in Europe and United States.

Also thanks to Living Blues Award winner Vance Kelly, who stays together with Wolf Records since 25 years!

Last, but not least, thank you to the great John Primer – we produced 9 CD´s together in the last 30 years, also we made some tours in Europe together. His last CD “That will never do” was one of the best Chicago Blues CD´s in 2016. He is beside Lurrie Bell and Buddy Guy the last real traditional Chicago Blues artist.

So we all know, The Blues will never die!!”

Thank you!