Sights & Sounds
VIDEO
The Archie Edwards Blues Barbershop
With a soundtrack full of acoustic blues, Michel Baytop and Eleanor Ellis discuss Archie Edwards, the tradition blues jams and storytelling at Archie’s Barbershop, the cultural importance of blues, and how and why the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation came to be. The video was produced by Peter Kent and Mark Cohen.
Phil Wiggins – The Key of Blues
In an interview conducted at Archie’s Barbershop, Phil Wiggins and Eleanor Ellis discuss the history of Piedmont blues and some of the Piedmont artists from the Washington area. The video includes live music excerpts that also include Rick Franklin and acoustic jam participants. Produced by Heather Renee McCown, 2013.
A Facebook video shot and edited by Eleanor Ellis featuring Archie Edwards talking about the blues songs he is listening to with customer Kevin Canning.
This 1998 PBS video explains Piedmont blues, a form of guitar music evolved from African American culture, “rags” played with banjos, fiddles, and percussion. The video features interviews and music by several Piedmont blues players from North Carolina. Produced and directed by Jim Bramlett of UNC-TV, the video aired as an episode in the PBS Folklways series.
Baytop and Franklin: Searching for Frank
Washington area blues artists Michel Baytop and Rick Franklin discuss their appreciation for Memphis legends Frank Stokes and Dan Sane and the acoustic guitar duet tradition. They play some excerpts from their “Searching for Frank” CD, which was conceived as a tribute to the types of guitar-based music Stokes and Sane and other street singers would have played in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Last Jam at Archie’s Barbershop
When they learned the original Archie’s Barbershop was sold for redevelopment, musicians and friends gathered for an epic jam on January 26, 2008. They came to pay tribute to bluesman Archie Edwards and the tradition of weekly blues jams he had hosted at his barbershop in Northeast Washington, DC, from the late 1950s until his passing in 1998. The Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation has been keeping the weekly jam tradition going since then, first at the original barbershop until the jams moved to Riverdale Park in 2008 and then to Hyattsville, Maryland in 2019. This video, produced and edited by Michael Swartzbeck, captures that epic last jam at the original Archie’s Barbershop.
NOTE: Excerpts from the last jam video are also available. They include songs led by Mike Baytop, Joel Bailes, Donna Fletcher, Rick Franklin, Richardson Joyce, Waymon Meeks, Sheryl Sears, and N.J. Warren – each backed by a large band of musicians and singers.
Eleanor Ellis – The Sun’s Gonna Shine
Eleanor Ellis accompanied the renowned, late gospel singer/guitarist Flora Molton for many years. Here, she performs her own powerful adaptation of Flora's "The Sun's Gonna Shine," an antiwar anthem that remains timely today.
N.J. Warren, a beloved member of the Archie’s Barbershop community, passed away on October 15, 2009. The original music by N.J. Warrren in this tribute video was recorded by Mark Kinniburgh, and photos were taken by various Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation members and friends.
Audio
A song from Archie Edwards' Blues & Bones CD:
Songs recorded live at the Barbershop:
(link to SoundCloud Page)
Eleanor Ellis, Rick Franklin, Pearl Bailes, and Mike Baytop knew Archie Edwards. They got together one Sunday afternoon to reminisce about Archie and his friends from Archie's Blues Barbershop, discussing his quirks, his family, concert tours, concerts, and more.
Photos
Our new photo gallery is still under construction...stay tuned!
Please support our cause with a tax-deductible donation
