[unclear: Tom Paxton Not Coming]

But !

The original [unclear: hoochie] coochie man, and arguably the finest exponent of the style of music loosely termed the Chicago Blues, Muddy Waters, will play three concerts in New Zealand during the course of an Australasian tour. According to Cashbox, the tour will take place during the first two weeks of May. Waters and his entourage will play Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch under the auspices of hip entrepreneur, Robert Raymond, who is as usual extremely secretive about the details. Hence no definite dates, but it's understood that Raymond may follow this tour through with one by Chuck [unclear: Bens].

Waters rose to prominence in the early fifties, becoming the Chess Label's biggest-selling recording artist, with a little help from virtuoso mouth-harpist, Little Walter Jacobs. His voice is raw and rasping, a legacy from his days in Chicago's bars where he and his band successfully competed against the drinking audiences. His harsh ethnic styling, developed exclusively by and for those conditions, meant that he was never really popular outside Chicago until the blues boom of the mid-and-late sixties.