Center for Black Music Research
Organizational records and ... ASA/GSA Collection of "Bo D... Finding Aid, or Guide to the CollectionTitle: ASA/GSA Collection of "Bo Diddley Track" blues program materials, 1993–2009
ID: 3000/ASAGSA_3001
Primary Creator: American Society on Aging
Other Creators: Gerontological Society of America
Extent: 2.0 Boxes
Arrangement: Chronological
Date Acquired: 00/00/1993. More info below under Accruals.
Subjects: Aging, Musicians, Black
Forms of Material: Blues (Music)
Languages: English
Materials from each year are varied and no materials exist for some years. Sometimes the sessions are recorded by the official recording company for the meeting; sometimes the recordings are made by attendees representing the organizers of the program track; sometimes no recordings were made. After 2003 some sessions have posters printed at the primary printer for blues concert posters, Hatch Show Print in Nashville.
Musicians presented at the sessions include Sunnyland Slim, Charles Walton, Bo Diddley, Miss Lavelle White, Mama Laura Mae Gross, Earl Gaines, Roscoe Shelton, Clifford Curry, Robert "H-Bomb" Ferguson, "Weepin' Willie" Robinson, Wylie Trass, Eddie "Bluesmaster" Watson, Deacon Jones, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Mary Lane, Tommy Brown, and Sandra Hall.
In 1993 two gerontologists and blues lovers, Michael Marcus and John Migliaccio, decided that there should be sessions at meetings of the two major gerontological societies, the American Society on Aging (ASA) and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), to recognize elderly blues musicians and to present them and their concerns.
The "Bo Diddley program track" was named for the major musician who was the presenter at the second session, in San Francisco in 1994. A committee of blues fans among the gerontologists has attempted to keep the track going at one or both societies since 1993 by locating local musicians in the cities where each meeting was held and inviting them to talk at the session. Often the daytime session is followed by an evening concert in a blues club.
Repository: Center for Black Music Research
Accruals: Donations continued from 1994 to the present. More donations expected from future programs.
Access Restrictions: None
Use Restrictions: None
Physical Access Note: Includes VHS video, audio cassettes, CDs, DVDs
Technical Access Note: VHS player, audiocassette tape player.
Acquisition Source: ASA, GSA program facilitators
Related Materials: Caleb Dube papers have interviews and ethnographic study of blues musicians in Chicago.
Finding Aid Revision History: Added subjects, exported EAD and MARC. March 10, 2015, Laurie Moses.
Other Note: Program track facilitators belong to the donor organizations, and facilitate donations. Communications are made through them as well. Michael Marcus and John Migliaccio are the founders of the track.
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