Kole works as the Madison Blues Society Board Secretary. His interest in blues is steeped in his avid curiosity and active learning about blues music & musicians.

Kole Kleeman is a recent transplant to Madison. He lived here from 1984-1987 and fell in love with the Blues scene. It was his first time seeing bands such as Paul Black and the Flip Kings, Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. He loved Madison so much that he moved back after 40 years.

Kole writes, “Madison is a magical place with all the venues, festivals and bands coming through. I was first exposed to the Blues while a student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Like Madison, there was a big connection between Carbondale and Chicago at the time. I was mesmerized by the harp player, Greta Mitchell and the Skid City Blues Band. It was there where I met “Big Larry Williams” Albritton, a local legend in southern Illinois who had a 53-year career in singing and drumming with
various bands worldwide.

Big Larry had such a soulful voice that made you want to dance and sometimes cry. Big Larry had taken my young college friends under his wing, and we formed a band in Carbondale called Big Larry and Code Blues. I was invited by the band to sing the Albert Collins song “If You Love Me Like You Say.” A few years later, “Big Larry Williams” went on to Chicago to replace Larry “Big Twist” Nolan of Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows (Alligator Records). Big Larry knew a lot of people in the business and would share great stories about Etta James and Koko Taylor, to name a few.

At that time, I was a professor of media studies and would travel down south to Memphis and the famous Clarksdale, Mississippi researching the Blues and Civil Rights icon Emmett Louis Till. During those trips, I encountered some of the south’s legendary Blues musicians such as Robert “Bilbo” Walker, Super Chikan and Cedric Burnside, grandson of Hill Country Blues artist R.L. Burnside. Driving through the poorest town I’d ever seen in the Mississippi Delta Glendora on his way to the Emmett Louis Till Intrepid Center, I recall seeing a sign announcing the hometown of Sonny Boy Williamson.

During this trip, I really learned firsthand about the history of the Blues by going down south and realizing you could just feel what it would be like for slaves picking cotton in the heat of the Delta… and the only respite… going to Church on Sunday and singing their hearts out.”

“I learned firsthand about the history of the Blues by going down south and realizing you could just feel what it would be like for slaves picking cotton in the heat of the Delta… and the only respite… going to Church on Sunday and singing their hearts out.”

Kole Kleeman