Albert Collins 1992 Interview  by Tim Van Schmidt

Tim Van Schmidt is a longtime Colorado writer and photographer. Some of his history was as the co-founder of Scene magazine and a weekly column for North Forty News/New Scene Weekly. Tim’s YouTube channel is "Time Capsules by Tim Van Schmidt".  

This is an interview that Tim Van Schmidt back in 1992 on one of my favorite players, Albert Collins, The Ice Man. Albert was noted for his powerful playing and because of his long association with the Fender Telecaster gaining the title "The Master of the Telecaster". He is remembered for his informal and humorous audience-engaging style. Frequently he would leave the stage while still playing to mingle with the audience. He would use an extended guitar cord to go outside clubs to the sidewalk, one story says he left a club with the audience in tow to visit the store next door to buy a candy bar without once stopping his act. Albert has a pretty funny scene in the movie Adventures in Babysitting, playing himself in a Chicago nightclub. The Iceman received his well-deserved  induction into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1986.  

This is the link to Tim’s interview from 1992  
https://youtu.be/aXlvFi3GXa4

Story and all photos by Tim Van Schmidt

It all started in 1959, when producer Berry Gordy Jr. formed Tamala Records - the first major African American owned record label. In short order, it became Motown Record Corporation and so began a tsunami of irresistible hits that dominated the record charts for years afterwards.

Stop in the Name of Love -Front Line- Phil Donaldson, Carlton Pride, Peaches Embry and Audree Dillard

Flash forward to March 6, 2024 and the power of Motown would turn the Fort Collins Senior Center into a happy dance hall thanks to a super group of Colorado musicians calling themselves the FoCo Motown Revue. 

The event was a musical celebration as part of the extensive five-day Founded in FoCo conference focusing on local entrepreneurship. Honestly, I hadn't even heard of Founded in FoCo, but I saw a poster for the FoCo Motown Revue's show in a local coffee shop and I knew that this would be fun. Not just fun, VERY fun.  

John Magnie on the keys

"Shotgun," "Dancing in the Streets," "Tears of a Clown," "Superstition" and so many other great tunes just kept blasting from the stage at the Senior Center, with a little bit of history thrown in for good measure. And, well, I just couldn't keep my seat. Neither could the rest of the crowd, who were easily coerced into forming a "Soul Train line" and otherwise absorbed the upbeat vibes from the stage.

Laying the beat-Jeff Finlin on the drums and Ian Anderson on Bass while Craig Brunner is blowing some soul 

I recently saw an online article that wondered if the music of rock artists like Joni Mitchell and The Eagles would ever hold a place in the "American Songbook" like the standard tunes of previous generations. I don't know about those artists in particular, but the Motown hits the FoCo Motown Revue cranked out have and will stand the test of time.

The talent was endless-Craig Satterfield bending some string, Hugh Ragin and his horn

All you had to do is look around the room. If attendees weren't dancing, they were singing along as though the music was just a part of their DNA. That's proof positive that Motown music is not just a case of nostalgia, it remains a creative engine that makes the heart pump and the feet move. Thanks to the FoCo Motown Revue for that!

Editors note: Thanks, Tim, for sharing! The Motown Revue is something this group of talented players do extremely well. Last year I caught them at the Juneteenth Celebration in Fort Collins. I am hoping they repeat it this June. if they do be sure to catch it, you will be in for a treat!

by Leonard “Boots” Jaffee

Shaker Village was a summer camp in upstate New York were teens could learn Shaker history and crafts, and every once in a while , the owners; Jerry and Cybil Count had a lot of friends that were in the music business. Happy and Artie Traum, folkies and friends of the camp owners used to come up. One day we were having a big celebration in our large barn. and a woman by the name of Odetta, strikingly beautiful, black woman, folk singer who I had heard of and loved her music, showed up. She was visiting and she stayed for the festivities we were having at the end of the workday.

During the party we had a little jail. It was just a bunch of hay bales that were set up in a little box. And if you committed some kind of crime, and to this day I don't know what kind of crime I imposed on Odetta, but if you were accused of a crime you were sent to jail until you did restitution for your crime. So I had asked Odetta to sing "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" for me so she could find her way out of jail. She said she didn't know the song. I knew she had to know the song. Every folky knew that song. But she was just trying to get out of singing. But eventually she sang it. She sang it more beautifully than I had ever heard. And of course we let her out of jail and we became buddies and we hung out for the rest of the night.

At the end of the night, after we ended up talking, we realized she lived in New York, I lived in New York, and we should get together. So we made arrangements, switched phone numbers and addresses. I tried calling her at the end of the summer but Odetta was not very big on phones or mail. If you caught her, you caught her. If you didn't, you didn't. In any case, later on that year I called her and she met me and met my parents. My parents loved her. She loved my parents, she loved me, and a new relationship started. She took me under her wing and introduced me to people like Dave Van Ronk , Phil Ochs, Janice Ian, Eric Anderson, Carole King and she always introduced me to everyone as her son, which continued for the 45 years following that summer.

Boots Jaffee lives in the Poudre Canyon with his life partner, Mish Chris. He is a local legend, having ties to The Grateful Dead, Merle Saunders among others too numerous to list. And of course, Odetta.  Boots sits in on blues harp regularly with HPBS member band Cowboys Dead. Learn more about Boots here.

Boots Jaffee with his mom, Odetta, on the right and his Aunt Jimmi on the left.