Junior Wells Neon Rose #1

In 1966, San Francisco Big Five artist Victor Moscoso, was hitting his stride creating psychedelic posters for the Avalon Ballroom. But in those days the promoters owned the copyright and could reprint and resell the posters and not share the revenue with the artists. So Moscoso went to a San Francisco club, The Matrix, and offered them a deal. He would make and give them 200 posters for free but Victor would own the copyright and sell all of the extra posters. The Matrix, delighted to get free advertising, agreed! This was one of the very first of those posters, which Moscoso called his Neon Rose series.

Junior Wells was an American singer, harmonica player, and recording artist. He is best known for his signature song "Messin' with the Kid" and his 1965 album Hoodoo Man Blues, described by the critic Bill Dahl as "one of the truly classic blues albums of the 1960s".

Wells performed and recorded with various notable blues musicians, including Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker, and Buddy Guy. He remained a fixture on the blues scene throughout his career and also crossed over to rock audiences while touring with the Rolling Stones. Not long before Wells died, the blues historian Gerard Herzhaft called him "one of the rare active survivors of the 'golden age of the blues'"

Initially taught by his cousin Junior Parker and by Sonny Boy Williamson II, Wells learned to play the harmonica skillfully by the age of seven. Wells told the following story:

“I went to this pawnshop downtown and the man had a harmonica priced at $2.00. I got a job on a soda truck... played hookey from school ... worked all week and on Saturday the man gave me a dollar and a half. A dollar and a half! For a whole week of work. I went to the pawnshop and the man said the price was two dollars. I told him I had to have that harp. He walked away from the counter – left the harp there. So I laid my dollar-and-a-half on the counter and picked up the harp. When my trial came up, the judge asked me why I did it. I told him I had to have that harp. The judge asked me to play it and when I did he gave the man the 50 cents and hollered 'Case dismissed!’”

Tiny bit of restoration (Stray pen marks removed by Chameleon Restoration)