Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Phil Huffman Tapes
- Dates:
- 1959-1969
- Extent:
- 18 Reels
- Language:
- English .
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Collection includes recordings of house parties at the home of Phil and Midge Huffman in Berkeley, California. Artists include Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Mance Lipscomb, and the Clancy Brothers.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Phil Huffman, a social worker based in Berkeley, California, took an active interest in the folk and blues revival of the late 1950s/1960s. He met the concert promoter Mary Ann Pollar in the late 1950s, and soon after the home he shared with his wife, Charlotte (Midge), became a gathering place for musicians passing through the Bay Area, including Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. After concerts organized by Pollar, musicians and friends would gather at the Huffman house for parties.
Phil Huffman was born in Fresno and later lived in Auburn and Berkeley. Midge Huffman was also a social worker. Huffman began recording performances at his house in 1959 and continued through the 1960s.
In Hear Me Howling: Blues, Ballads, and Beyond (Adam Machado, 2010), Midge Huffman describes a typical party at the Huffman house: "Sonny and Brownie would stay two or three weeks at a time, and there would be a party every night. Brownie would stay up all night. Sonny would go to bed early. About four in the afternoon they would drift together and start to play. They'd play a very deep, soft blues. Then around seven or eight, people would arrive, and it would become a blues party. Every night we'd have ten to one hundred people."
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Jeff Inglis, 2025.
- Custodial history:
-
Phil Huffman kept his tapes in storage until his death. Midge Huffman later gifted the tapes to family friend Jeff Inglis in the 1980s.
- Physical description:
- 1/4" reels.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-05-21 00:31:58 +0000 .
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
-
10341 San Pablo Ave.El Cerrito, CA 94530, US
- Contact:
- (510) 525-7471