My first recollection of Chess Records, Specialty, Black & White etc. goes back to the days when Rhythm & Blues was on the verge of becoming BIG, 1952/3. Around the corner the was a small record store which sold 45s used from juke-boxes. All of these records of people I had never heard of on labels I had never heard of. Alas, I ignored them; my schoolmate Bernie, however, apparently did not...he went on to lead a blues band (and does today), host a blues radio show, and was instrumental in a local annual blues festival. It would be another six or seven years before folk music and blues became a part of my life.--John