Raeburn Flerlage was an all around presence in Chicago for many years. He was a radio announcer, political activist and record reviewer with interests in classical music, social justice, jazz and the folk-blues revival—in no particular order of priority. He turned to photography later in life, shooting album 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’s thriving blues scene in the late 1950s through the ‘60s. The new, posthumous Chicago Folk: Images of the Sixties MusicScene (published by ECW) includes a few blues performers such as Reverend Gary Davis and Sunnyland Slim, but is largely given over to the white folkies whose underground scene swelled into a movement by 1960 and became one of the streams that fed the development of ‘60s rock.
Flerlage photographed some famous faces who came to town such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, along with many acts that have largely been lost in memory. Some additional annotation might have 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 According to editors Ronald D. Cohen and Bob Riesman, the pictures in Chicago Folk were previously unpublished, culled from Flerlage’s enormous collection. His concert photos occasionally suffered from the vagaries of dim lighting and unfortunate placement. More interesting are the other shots—the in-store performances at record 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 of their time and place.
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