Famous Coachman was one of Detroit’s leading blues disc jockeys from the mid-1970s until his death near the end of the 20th century, hosting and producing his Saturday night Blues After Hours Show from 2:00-5:00 am and then adding a gospel segment and going from 2:00 until 6:30 am with Blues & Music After Hours on WDET-FM, Public Radio in Detroit. I hosted the show before Coachman from midnight to 2:00 am during 1989-91 and became very good friends with the veteran deejay, record man and blues promoter, the proprietor of Coachman’s Records at 9222 Kercheval on the far east side of the city. One of his steady listeners, “DJ in Mt. Clemens,” contacted me by e-mail and then sent a batch of Coachman cassettes he’d taped off the air in the early 1990s. Mike Boulan converted them to digital sound files at No Cover Studio and I started editing them into one-hour episodes for broadcast on Radio Free Amsterdam, of which this is the first installment with an opening cut by Eddie Burns, a long sequence of recordings by Muddy Waters, and Junior Kimbrough at the end, very uncharacteristically with no Coachman commentary except at the beginning when he commemeorates my last show at WDET and welcomes my successor, and my own personal radio idol, “Frantic” Ernie Durham, to WDET.
John Sinclair Foundation Presents
GOOD NEWS
ROOTS & BRANCHES 22
Famous Coachman, WDET-FM, Detroit, July 1991 [18601]
Famous Coachman Conversation with John Sinclair & Ernie Durham
Eddie Burns: Detroit
Muddy Waters: Look What You Done
Muddy Waters: Got My Mojo Worksing
Muddy Waters: Good News
Muddy Waters: I’m So Evil
Muddy Waters: She’s Nineteen Years Old
Muddy Waters: Close To You
Muddy Waters: Walking Through The Park
Muddy Waters: Blues Before Sunrise Takes with Studio Talk
Muddy Waters: Take The Bitter With The Sweet
Muddy Waters: She’s Into Something
Muddy Waters: Southbound Train
Muddy Waters: I Got Troubles
Junior Kimbrough: Junior’s Juke Joint
Junior Kimbrough: I Feel Alright
A JOINT PRODUCTION
Hosted by Famous Coachman for Radio Free Amsterdam
Produced by Famous Coachman for WDET-FM, Detroit
Recorded to cassette airchecks by DJ of Mt. Clemens
Digital transfers by Mike Boulan at Straight Ahead Studio, Oak Park MI
Produced, edited, assembled & annotated by John Sinclair
Executive Producer: Steve Pratt
Special thanks to DJ of Mt. Clemens for sending the cassettes
© 2010, 2018 The John Sinclair Foundation
