Chicago, 1967
Notice the orignal "Applejack" logo between Big Joe's feet. This logo was designed by Don Wilson. My band opened for Big Joe.
You may recognize this photo, it recently appeared in the Martin Scorcese blues book (I beat him by about 40 years). The photo is by Pete Ampft (who bought a great stratocaster from me back in those days), and lettering is by Don Wilson (who also did the cover for the Howling Wolf London Session LP, The Sam Lay in Bluesland LP, a Koko Taylor LP, Michael Bloomfield's "It's Not Killing Me" LP, the Cadets, and many more). Pete and Don called their agency Daily Planet.
The Velvet Underground played this club in the summer of 1966. No, I was not there that night, but I was there another night when I got to jam on the song "East West" with the Paul Butterfield Band, when the band included Michael Bloomfield, Sam Lay, Elvin Bishop, Jerome Arnold, and so forth. Within a year I was playing in the new Sam Lay Band, and then in 1969 I joined the Elvin Bishop Group in California and played on his first album (on the Fillmore label). Between those two periods I was with the White Trash in Madison, Wisconsin, as well as briefly with Sebastian Moon in Madison, Wisconsin.
Big Joe Williams & Applejack Band
Here is a poster advertising a club called Poor Richard's, a converted church just off North Avenue on Sedgwick Street, in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago (north side). This was July 1967.