JUST A DREAM

LINER NOTES: Jim Greene can tell you exactly how he first fell in love with the blues. When he was seven or eight years old and living at 63rd and Ellis in Chicago, Jim saw a crowd of adults enraptured by a blind street musician. He joined the crowd, and as he listened he watched the reactions of the grownups. He saw them caught up in the music, swaying, shouting, moving, throwing quarters and half dollars, which an elderly woman scooped up for the man, whose name was Blind Arvella Gray. Jim saw those people were moved by the power of the music, and decided then and there that he wanted to have that power when hew grew up.

If Blind Arvella Gray had been a preacher, Jim might be saving souls today.

Jim grew and his musical experiences expanded. He heard the electric blues that poured out from the taverns around his neighborhood; then, like so many other teenagers of his generation (Jim was born December 11, 1951), he heard Jimi Hendrix and, at seventeen, was inspired to get an electric guitar of his own.

Jim moved to Washington D.C., and started attending electric blues jams. He experimented with forming an electric blues band, but it never seemed right.

Around 1982 Jim saw Gaye Adegbalola playing solo at a small after-hours club in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Gaye would later be a founding member of our band, Saffire-The Uppity Blues. She was playing acoustic guitar and singing by herself, with no drums, no bass, no band. Jim told her of his love of the blues and his desire to get more involved.

In the mid-eighties Jim heard about a blues workshop held at a college in nearby West Virginia and he eagerly signed up. He thought this might be just what he needed to further his study of the blues.

Jim met many other blues lovers there, teaching and learning and jamming the blues. He was especially delighted to meet two instructors who played just the music that he admired, and who lived near him. John Cephas and Phil Wiggins played guitar and harmonica, respectively, in the popular acoustic duo Cephas and Wiggins. John took Jim under his wing, expanded his knowledge of the guitar and taught him a great deal about how to be a performer. At the workshop Jim also met Gaye again and Ann Rabson and Andra Fay McIntosh. Ann lived just down the road from Jim, which inspired a little piano/guitar and guitar/guitar jamming in the woods of Stafford County, Virginia. Jim started coming to our gigs and entertained us on our breaks with his strong voice and wonderfully adept guitar work.

Jim was playing gigs alone or with other musicians, and hanging out with John Cephas both at John’s home near Bowling, Virginia, and on the road.

Jim spent 1988 and 1989 in Southern California and continued to develop his personal style of playing and singing. He played solo and in the Blues Ambassador with Earl Thomas.

These days when he isn’t touring Europe, Jim is back in the Chicago area, where he can be found performing music in local clubs.

– SAFFIRE – The Uppity Blues Women, 1995 –

ALBUM CREDITS:
Diamond Jim Greene: vocals, National, six-string guitar on 3, 15 and twelve-string guitar on 6

Special Guests:
Keith Dunn: harmonica on 1, 5, 8, 10, 13
Willem van Dulleman: National on 8 and 16, six-string guitar on 11
and twelve-string guitar on 5

Recorded and mastered at Bloomline Studio, Gravendeel, Holland, May 1995
Engineer: Leo de Klerk
Producers: Gerard Robs and Kees van Wijngaarden
Photos and cover design by Henry van Kleeff

Special thanks to: Hammie van Hall, Jan Mittendorp of Crossroads, Ray Sanders of Evanston, IL, Willem van Dullemen, Keith Dunn, Michael de Jong, Ron Meis, Saffire, Rien Wisse, Cees van den Assem and The Moulin Blues Festival (Ospel)

This CD is also dedicated to the loving memory of Jim Greene’s mother Mrs. Cora Belle (George) Greene

Representation in Europe by Crossroads Blues Agency, Kalverstraat 146, 7311 SM Apeldoom, The Netherlands, fax 31 (0) 55 787815

Black Magic Records, Balladelaan 262, 3813 CG Amersfoort, The Netherlands, Fax 31 (0)3 33 808075

Distributed by: Munich Records, Vadaring 90, 6702 EB Wageningen, The Netherlands, Fax 31 (0) 8370 22959

Black Magic Records 1995 Made in Holland