Raeburn Flerlage was an all around presence in Chicago for many years.He was a radio announcer, political activist and record reviewer with interestsin classical music, social justice, jazz and the folk-blues revivalin noparticular order of priority. He turned to photography later in life, shootingalbum covers for the Folkways label and photographing artists for Down Beat and other publications.
Flerlage’s previous book, Chicago Blues (2000), was devoted to his photographs of the city’sthriving blues scene in the late 1950s through the ‘60s. The new, posthumous Chicago Folk: Images of the Sixties MusicScene (published by ECW) includes afew blues performers such as Reverend Gary Davis and Sunnyland Slim, but islargely given over to the white folkies whose underground scene swelled into amovement by 1960 and became one of the streams that fed the development of ‘60srock.
Flerlage photographed some famous faces who cameto town such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, along with manyacts that have largely been lost in memory. Some additional annotation mighthave been helpful, shedding light on figures who have slipped into obscurity.According to editors Ronald D. Cohen and Bob Riesman, the pictures in Chicago Folk were previouslyunpublished, culled from Flerlage’s enormous collection. His concert photosoccasionally suffered from the vagaries of dim lighting and unfortunateplacement. More interesting are the other shotsthe in-store performances atrecord shops, the spontaneous gatherings in the halls outside the University of Chicago Folk Festival and, especially,shots taken in small clubs, which give a more vivid sense for the atmosphere oftheir time and place.
