Just received an interesting email from my friend Dartanyan Brown. Apparently the Blues Festival this year in San Francisco may not happen. Not sure what the anwser is. However, I would disagree with the promotor about big names no longer around. I would think that there are a lot of great acts out there that just haven't been promoted good enough. I think, just wondering through this blog would at least give you an idea that there are plenty of great blues performers still alive and kicking. Perhaps when you feel that you need to headline a Rock band for your blues and jazz fest that perhaps you need to go back to the basics. Afterall, the blues was in pretty bad shape in the 70s, and it survied. What did you do back then, when "The big names in blues" couldn't even buy a gig????? I know a lot have come and went, but there was a time 30 years ago, when people didn't know who they were, and all the big names before them were gone too.
I think it is that whole can't do attitude that permiates our society today. Instead of solving the problem, lets just complain and moan, poor me, and then tell everyone that there is nothing that can be done, our problems are too big to solve. To be honest I am sick of it. My whole career in blues has been nothing but people telling me I can't do this, or you can't do that, or nobody is going to join a blues society, or a blues jam on a thursday night is stupid, or trying to help promote players that played in the past, while a worthy cause, it just going to fail. Seriously people go back to what works. Go back to what you did when you didn't know any better, and see what happens. If we want to save the blues that is what it is going to take. Start small, take baby steps, and step back and watch it grow.
To read the article in the San Francisco Chronicle Click HERE.
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