OXFORD, Miss (CelebrityAccess) — Dick Waterman, the influential blues promoter and evangelist, who helped to revive careers of artists such as Bukka White and Son House, and who played a pivotal role in the careers of contemporary blues artists such as Bonnie Raitt, has died. He was 88.
A longtime friend shared that Waterman died in Oxford, but additional details about his passing were not available.
Waterman, who was raised in Plymouth, Massachusetts, did a stint in the army before relocating to Cambridge, where he attended Boston University and became enmeshed in the local folk scene. In 1962, he began submitting stories to The Broadside, an influential publication on the Boston folk scene.
In 1963, he began promoting blues shows in Boston area clubs, working with legendary artists such as Mississippi Fred McDowell, Mississippi John Hurt, and Bukka White.
Inspired by tales from Bukka White, Waterman and two friends traveled to Mississippi in 1964 to find the legendary and reclusive delta blues artist Son House. House was eventually located in Rochester, New York, having retired from music. Waterman would go on to serve as Son House’s manager, helping to introduce him to new audiences during the folk revival of the 1960s.
Waterman went on to found Avalon Productions, one of the first booking agency focusing on blues musicians. Waterman would go on to represent a who’s who of blues legends, including the likes of Son House, Skip James, Junior Wells, Bukka White, and John Hurt.
In 1969, Waterman befriended a young Bonnie Raitt and he encouraged her to pursue a career in music after she paused her studies at Radcliffe to spend a semester with Waterman and other musicians in Philadelphia.
“About ‘69 or so, I met Bonnie Raitt who was going to college,” Waterman told an interviewer in 2015. “I got her a contract with Warner Brothers. That kind of moved me into a different level. I was now into big band, pop, rock ‘n’ roll kind of stuff.”
Waterman also launched a successful career as photographer, capturing images of blues, folk, and jazz artists. His work was displayed in A Gallery For Fine Photography in New Orleans, and a selection has been collected by Insight Editions in The Last Unpublished Blues Archive, which was published in 2004.
Along with representing blues and folk artists during their lives and careers, Waterman also helped to protect their estates after their passing, overseeing their legacies on behalf of heirs.
In 2000, Waterman became one of the first non-performers to be inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame and in 2014, he was presented with a Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Photography from the Memphis-based Blues Foundation.
