Can white folk sing the blues?

Well, way back in the late 60's I was MC at the Adelphi Folk Club in Swansea and Alec Campbell was the guest.

The bar was downstairs and the guy in front of me was buying two or three shorts of what - I didn't take much notice. He was wearing a long overcoat and there was grease around the collar and he had what we term now as a designer beard although then it was the fact that he hadn't bothered to shave for a week or two!

Anyway, he asked if he could give a song and I said that if we had enough time I would call him up. He said his name was Tom. Just before Alec Campbell came on to do his first set I called Tom up and he put his drink on the mantlepiece and launched into an accompanied blues number. It was absolutely spell binding!! When he had finished there was a stunned silence for a moment before the audience showed their approval with terrific applause, during which time Tom picked up his drink and walked out of the room. I haven't seen him from that day to this.

Alec Campbell said there's was no way he could follow that and requested that it would be fitting to have an interval so that he and everyone else could recover from the obvious emotion that Tom had engendered with his song.

Tom was white!