Far superior to the contrived 1973 collaboration Triumvirate by Mike Bloomfield, John Hammond, Jr., and Dr. John, the confluence of enduring talent typified by Bukka White, Skip James, and Son House at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival is a testament to resilience as an essential component of the blues. As each man takes his turn, only acoustic guitar in hand, the threesome’s collective and individual poise gives rise to a relaxed confidence, the performances tacitly giving the lie to any necessity for high volume (as proffered by a certain swath of musicians from subsequent generations of the music’s practitioners).
