I started to use that too and my favourite was Georgia Peach Wine. My next door neighbour, however seemed to be constantly drunk and the paper basket in the communal toilet and shower-room was always filled with empty bottles of classic port-wine and muscatel brands like Hunts White Port. The pendant lamp was just a naked light bulb lit by a string. In fact not unreasonable demands as the original rooms were divided into half with masonite walls thus making the rooms totally lacking sound protection. Signs on the walls said that it was forbidden to drink alcoholic beverages in the rooms, or have other visitors than the legal wife. Jim left without a word when he realized this. It was integrated and most of their patrons were black. On a parallel street to South Michigan Avenue lay The New Leonard (544 State Street) with the moderate price of $11.25 per week. Jim tagged along, but I started to understand that he was not a great follower of Martin Luther King. It was too expensive for me and I started looking in the back streets. He had ridden for a while with the Hells Angels. I had befriended Jim from Memphis on the plane. It was a rainy day in New York but the sun shone in Chicago when I left the plane. But many of them had obviously passed their peaks while many of the soul artists were at the height of their powers. I had most records released in Europe with these artists. I had seen Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, Otis Rush, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy at the American Folk Blues Festivals. Of course I liked artists like Jerry Butler, whom I already had seen at the Apollo, or Betty Everett, Gene Chandler, Dee Clark and Major Lance, but my biggest favourite was still McKinley Mitchell.
There had been similar collections from the Chess/Checker labels but this was the hard gospel based soul I liked best. McKinley Mitchell and Alvin Cash had solo albums and then there was the collection with artists like Otis Clay, Johnny Sayles, Willie Parker, the Five Du-tones and last but not least Harold Burrage. The last couple of years a few great LPs had been released on the English President label. At least they recorded in Chicago but maybe lived elsewhere. There were many artists from Chicago that I really wanted to meet and see in action. A couple of days were wasted when I ran around and never really found what I was looking for. I made the mistake to arrive too close to the weekend and didn’t have the opportunity to meet the right people to tell me what was happening. The visit to Chicago was quite successful even if took some time to get to know the city.
Chicago The New Leonard Hotel at 544 State Street, Chicago
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