Rev Gary Davis
Blind Blake
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee
David Wilcox (the Canadian one)
Lenny Breau
Muddy Waters
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Jelly Roll Morton
...One night in a dark and empty room in downtown Toronto, just past midnight, my buddy, Canadian Blues and Jazz artist Champagne Charlie was teaching me some of my first Ragtime guitar licks...I guess that's when I got serious about the Blues... or maybe it was the Blind Blake LP that I found standing alone on a record stand in a store on Harvard Avenue in Boston when I was 15 years old - for only 59 cents... Whatever the reasons, I have been devoted to singing and studying the Blues for more than half my life.
Early on, I felt that my mission in life is to help perpetuate the Blues, to help others understand the beauty that is in the Blues, and to keep it alive. Over the years I have worked at promoting my musician friends in any way I can. I ran the Fingerboard coffee-house and open stage in Toronto in the late 1970's, as well as organizing a number of small Blues and Jazz concerts to help expose my musical friends to the University of Toronto audiences (while completing my BSc. degree). I also spent a few years as a freelance photographer and writer, covering some of my favortie artists for local newspapers or magazines, including rare interviews with artists who normally refused to be in the press.
In 1981 I emigrated to Israel and in the late 1980's I became involved in Israeli radio, recording a 13 part series on the history and the variety of the Blues for Army Radio (Galei Zahal) which was broadcast twice over a period of 2 years. In the 1990's I helped build the roster of artists at the Haifa Blues festival of 1993 ( as well as performing on stage with guest artist Steve Freund).
From 1995-2000 I helped the Camelot Club in Tel Aviv create a monthly series of guest Blues artists from the USA and wrote a monthly column (in Hebrew) on the Blues which was published in the Camelot music magazine over a 4 year period - I wrote over 40 articles in all.
In 1996 I introduced the Blues to the International Guitar Festival in Tel Aviv (which previously focused only on Classical guitar and Flamenco music and dance), organizing special multi-artist programs and performing on stage at the festival (1996, 1999, 2001).
Since 1997, I have also been involved in the Blues For Peace organization, helping my good friend John Mayer with different projects to promote more awareness of the Blues in Israel and worlwide.
In the fall of 2002 I renewed my radio activity with a monthly Blues show on public national Radio 88FM and a weekly Blues show on internet "Radio Ba Am". I continue to broadcast at Radio 88FM to this day (see Eli's Blues Radio).
In the summer of 2003 I created the SummerBlues Festival at the Givatayim Theater, and was the Artistic Director for 2003 and 2004. At the SummerBlues Festival, I gathered together local Israeli Blues and rock artists for a 3 day festival, as well as one or two guests from the USA, and it has been a real success by local standards, and has just completed its fourth annual run.
In September, 2005, I completed two and a half years of collecting and editing stories from Blues people around the world,
In January, 2006 I published my first book - Touched by the Blues.
Hello, Eli! Thanks for everything you do for the blues, my friend. It was terrific to see you out last night again giving Tempa a listen. I wish you the best of luck with gaining acceptance of your radio program proposal and thanks so much for the copy of your book. I look forward to reading it on my return trip to the US. All the best to you and I'll give Tad your contact information. . . www. myspace. com/tadrobinson
Hi, Hope you check out the new cuts I posted of my new CD , IN MY SWEET TIME, on myspace page. The CD will be available on CDBABY. COM next week. Hope all is ''sweet'' with you! xo, Roxy
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