Mick Hartley

Big Bill Broonzy , live, 1956:

A classic Fifties coffee bar scene - cellar, cigarettes, candles - with the Greenwich Village vibe enhanced by that woman in the audience (0:23 and throughout) who bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Bob Dylan. On a tour of Europe Broonzy "met and fell in love with a Dutch girl, Pim van Isveldt", so maybe that's her. 

Broonzy was perhaps the best known of those early blues artists who went on in later life to make a career in the folk scene, steering away from the gritty urban blues and heading for the beatnik coffee houses: 

In 1949, Broonzy became part of a touring folk music revue formed by Win Stracke called I Come for to Sing, which also included Studs Terkel and Lawrence Lane. Terkel called him the key figure in this group. The revue had some success thanks to the emerging folk revival movement. When the revue played Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, Broonzy met a local couple, Prof. Leonard and Lillian Feinberg, who would find him a custodial job at ISU when a doctor ordered Bill to leave the road for his health later in 1949. He remained in Ames until 1951, then resumed touring.

After returning, the exposure from I Come For to Sing made it possible for Broonzy to tour Europe in 1951. Here Bill was greeted with standing ovations and critical praise wherever he played. The tour marked a turning point in his fortunes, and when he returned to the United States he was a featured act with many prominent folk artists such as Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. From 1953 on his financial position became more secure and he was able to live quite well on his music earnings. Broonzy returned to his solo folk-blues roots, and travelled and recorded extensively. Broonzy's numerous performances during the 1950s in British folk and jazz clubs were a significant influence on British audiences' understanding of the blues, and significantly bolstered the nascent British folk revival and early blues scene. Many British musicians on the folk scene, such as Bert Jansch, cited him as an important influence. John Lennon of The Beatles also cites Broonzy as an early, important influence.

Key to the Highway, one of his best-known songs, from 1940-41.