Year of the Blues Images calendar, 2010

I've enjoyed this item created by blues 78 collector John Tefteller, who was written up along with other 78-collecting fanatics in the NYTimes a couple weeks back, for its reminders of American cultural history and notation of dates including Mardi Gras, Purim and the start of Daylight Savings Time as well as birth and/or death anniversaries for everybody from the still famous (Bessie Smith, b. April 15, 1984) to the eternally obscure (Jaydee Short, b. Dec. 26, 1902). The unpretentious but telling sepia drawings that graced original advertising for the 78s and now the calendar provide a picture of life that's distinctly different from what we know now  (a man burying his mule to specifics of a voodoo ritual) but very recognizable, too (a woman at a table with an empty bottle before her, brooding clouds of thought big as a bouffant 'do). Some of the songs have been reissued on Yazoo anthologies, but if you don't have those, here's another chance to discover Robert Wilkins, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ida Cox, the Mississippi Sheiks and diverse other ancestors of rap, rock and soul. howardmandel.com
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