Terry Abrahamson is the only artist in history to have work presented at the Smithsonian Institution, Chicago’s DuSable Museum of African American History, the Blues Hall of Fame, Boston Celtics home games, Johnny Cochran’s funeral, the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival on NPR and The Oprah Winfrey Show and before the US Supreme Court. Terry won a Grammy for co-writing “Bus Driver” with legendary Bluesician Muddy Waters, one of five Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees and six Blues Hall of Fame inductees to perform Terry’s work. He is a 2014 Chicago Blues Hall of Fame inductee.
Terry’s photomemoire, “In the Belly of the Blues,” and “The Blues Parade” - his kids’ illustrated history of the Blues - are both part of the permanent collection of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In February 2020, the Chicago Public Library chose “The Booksibition” of “The Blues Parade” as an anchor for its African American History Month celebration.
Terry’s Blues photographs have been exhibited at museums and libraries and at the Chicago Blues Festival, and will soon be part of a Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame
exhibit at the Boch Center/Wang Theater in Boston. His produced stage plays include “The Brat Race,” “Hannukatz the Musical,” “The New Orleans Jazz Funeral of Stella Brooks” - an anchor presentation of the 2010 Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival - and his prescient 1990 production, “Doo Lister’s Blues” about the conspiracy to suppress political content in Black pop music of the 1960’s, which the Chicago Reader praised as “reminiscent of August Wilson.”
A Chicago native and first-hand witness to American music history, Terry is a frequent speaker on the history and legacy of the Blues, its role as the first voice to rise from the cotton fields in defiance of White Supremacy, its role as the historic spirit of Black Lives Matter, and on his own days and nights onstage and backstage with the legends of America’s oldest and most resonant artform.
Most recently, Terry created a workshop for Provincetown Family Week 2022 celebrating the tools of whimsy, imagination and swagger, as used by the Blues, to find our voices, celebrate our identities and share them with the world. As part of the event, each child in attendance got their own Blues name, and helped write a Blues song.
Terry’s radio show, “In the Belly of the Blues” can be heard on Northwestern University’s WNUR at wnur.org.
Terry and I have shared a lot of fun, mostly in Truro, Cape Cod, where we were frequently the guests of Convisero mentor Ted Kurland. I have rarely met a more exuberant and enthusiastic person. We found common ground in our music tastes, and recently, Terry composed this song,“My Body Is Mine”to support our efforts to elect Patrick Schmidt in his race for the House from Kansas. This video is performed by Blues Legend, Ms. Teeny Tucker. This song helped galvanize the successful vote against Kansas republicans’ efforts to curtail abortion rights, and was allied with our efforts with Planned Parenthood.