FERNANDO JONES, Chicago, 1991.

In 1991, the bluesman Dave Foster and myself landed at O’Hare Airport in Chicago where the sweltering heat hit us like a freight train. Thankfully we were soon picked up by Dave’s friends and taken to their lovely home where we would be staying for the next two weeks.

The large, rambling house was located in Wicker Park. We were shown to the guest room in the basement and immediately noticed a very large bag of aromatic herbal leaves on the table. Dave and I looked at each other, smiling at this most welcome gift from our hosts, and Foster said, “Bloody hell, there’s enough there to last a month, never mind two weeks.” Four or five days later you can probably guess what we’d run out of.

On the first day of the Chicago Blues Festival, as I picked up my photo pass (incredibly, Dave would flash his pack of Chesterfield King’s cigarettes instead of a festival pass and would gain access everywhere), I noticed this dude collecting his press documentation. I took a photograph of him and Fernando Jones introduced himself and invited me and Dave to the launch of his new book, about the blues, later that evening in a nearby book shop. Fernando was also a great musician and I took some nice shots of him playing his guitar in front of a most appreciative audience.

After the event had finished, Fernando gave us the address of a bar a couple of miles away and said he’d like us to come over for a few drinks. He had some things to do and we arranged to meet him in an hour or so.

We flagged down a cab and gave the driver the address of the bar. The cabbie said, “You guys got any guns?” Dave and I shook our heads and were told, “Well, you’re gonna need ‘em where ya’ll going and I ain’t takin’ you motherf***ers,” and then he drove off. We never did see Fernando Jones again.
But we did see some of our blues heroes, and discovered new ones at the festival. When it was over we spent the nights in steamy, smoky clubs listening to even more legends who had recorded for Delmark and Alligator records.

(See Guitar Player in a Bookshop, Chicago 1991 in the Music gallery.