# Dick Waterman > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dick_Waterman > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dick_Waterman.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Waterman > Source revision: 1345892446 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American writer (1935–2024)}} '''Dick Waterman''' (July 14, 1935 – January 26, 2024) was an American writer, promoter and photographer who was influential in the development and [recording](/source/sound_recording_and_reproduction) of the [blues](/source/blues) from the 1960s. ==Life and career== Dick Waterman was born in [Plymouth, Massachusetts](/source/Plymouth%2C_Massachusetts), on July 14, 1935.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/arts/music/dick-waterman-dead.html|title=Dick Waterman, Promoter and Photographer of the Blues, Dies at 88|newspaper=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|access-date=November 7, 2025}} He studied journalism at [Boston University](/source/Boston_University) in the 1950s.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mmone.org/dick-waterman/|title=Dick Waterman|first=Stephen|last=Crafts|website=Mmone.org|date=May 2, 2023|access-date=November 7, 2025}} He moved on to write for ''[Broadside Magazine](/source/Broadside_Magazine)'' and later became its feature editor. In 1963 he began to promote local shows with blues artists, including [Mississippi John Hurt](/source/Mississippi_John_Hurt), [Booker "Bukka" White](/source/Bukka_White) and [Mississippi Fred McDowell](/source/Mississippi_Fred_McDowell). In 1964 he went to Mississippi on a quest that eventually led to his "rediscovery" of the blues singer [Son House](/source/Son_House).{{cite web|url=http://loc.gov/folklife/events/BotkinArchives/2004thru2005PDFandVideo/WatermanFlyer.html |title=Botkin Lecture Flyer: Between Midnight and Day (The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress) |website=Loc.gov |date= |access-date=2013-12-07}}[http://www.theoxfordenterprise.com/news_insert.htm Sunday alcohol sales high on Oxford agenda] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101208222908/http://www.theoxfordenterprise.com/news_insert.htm|date=December 8, 2010}} Following this, he founded Avalon Productions, the first booking agency specifically formed to represent blues artists. Within a few years, he was representing House, White, Hurt, [Skip James](/source/Skip_James), [Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins](/source/Lightnin'_Hopkins), [Arthur Crudup](/source/Arthur_Crudup), [Junior Wells](/source/Junior_Wells), [J. B. Hutto](/source/J._B._Hutto), and many others. He also promoted concerts by folk and rock acts in the Boston area. In the late 1960s he met a young female guitarist and singer named [Bonnie Raitt](/source/Bonnie_Raitt) and encouraged her to begin what has become a long, fruitful music career. As the older blues artists died, Waterman's responsibilities shifted to care of their estates and providing for their heirs. He moved to [Oxford, Mississippi](/source/Oxford%2C_Mississippi) in the 1980s and began a second career publishing the photographs of blues, folk, country and jazz artists that he had been taking since the early 1960s. His book ''Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive'' contains about 100 of his photographs from the 1960s onwards. In 1993, Waterman was instrumental in placing a new headstone on the grave of [Mississippi Fred McDowell](/source/Mississippi_Fred_McDowell) with funding from Bonnie Raitt through the [Mount Zion Memorial Fund](/source/Mount_Zion_Memorial_Fund). Waterman delivered a tribute to McDowell, an early mentor of younger musicians including Raitt, at the dedication ceremony on August 6, 1993, in [Como, Mississippi](/source/Como%2C_Mississippi).{{cite web|url=http://www.smokestacklightnin.com/Bios/Mississippi%20Fred%20McDowell.htm |title=Mississippi Fred McDowell |website=Smokestacklightnin.com |date= |access-date=2013-12-07}} In 2000, he was inducted into the [Blues Hall of Fame](/source/Blues_Hall_of_Fame), as one of the first non-performers to be so honored.{{cite web|author= |url=http://musicguy247.typepad.com/my-blog/dick-waterman-blues-hall-of-fame/ |title=Musicguy247: Dick Waterman - Blues Hall of Fame |website=Musicguy247.typepad.com |date= |access-date=2015-08-16}} In 2014 in Memphis he received a Keeping the Blues Alive award for Photography; in October 2017 he received a Brass Note on Beale Street in Memphis.Tammy L. Turner, ''Dick Waterman: A Life in Blues'' (Jackson: [University Press of Mississippi](/source/University_Press_of_Mississippi)), 2019 Waterman died on January 26, 2024, at the age of 88.{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Harrison |title=Dick Waterman, a steward and chronicler of the blues, dies at 88 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/02/01/dick-waterman-dead/ |access-date=4 February 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=1 February 2024}} The cause of death was congestive heart failure. ==References== {{Reflist}} ==Books and articles== * Turner, Tammy L. ''Dick Waterman: A Life in Blues''. Jackson: [University Press of Mississippi](/source/University_Press_of_Mississippi), 2019 ==External links== *[http://www.dickwaterman.com/ Dick Waterman website] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Waterman, Dick}} Category:1935 births Category:2024 deaths Category:Concert photographers Category:Photographers from Massachusetts Category:Photographers from Mississippi Category:People from Plymouth, Massachusetts Category:20th-century American photographers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Dick Waterman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Waterman) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Waterman?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.