On the 100th birthday of Willie Dixon, one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived, here's a story and a video . . .

 

I've always loved the blues, and before I left my first company (NYTV) in 1994, I suggested we produce a fund raising video for the recently formed Blue Heaven Foundation. The crew agreed, believing we all owed "the blues" that much.

 

Since it as a pro-bono gig and we needed to get to Chicago, we combined the blue shoot with a corporate video shoot for AT&T there. Over several days, we met and interviewed a bunch of great artists, who were generous with their time, stories and music.

 

We also got to document the original Chess Studios, the place where everything from "Hoochie Coochie Man" to Johnny B. Goode" was produced.

 

The details of the AT&T job are long forgotten, but this experience — and the blues — will stick with me for the rest of my life . . . And special thanks to Kathy Fuller, John Elkowitz, Ed Kaz and the Video Farm for their work on this . . . Enjoy!

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Funded by New York Television, Inc., with special help from Kathy Fuller.

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