Death Of The Blues AGAIN!

I do believe the blues has nine lives. However, I also think the people in the media just want to kill us off as quickly as possible. After all, it is much more fun to bemoan the death of the blues then to actually do a little research. Ah, but that is the life of the typical reporter. Even reporters in Chicago are not immune to the death of the blues. Serena at the Central Iowa Blues Society has a sharp eye and sends me some great articles from time to time. I am not sure if it is the same one that Karen wrote about on her blog Today's Chicago Blues. However, you can click HERE for the latest tome on the death of the blues from the Encore webpage.

It is the typical blue is dead article, and it follows the same story line. The old blues guys are dying, and no one is replacing them, and the old clubs are closing, and THE BLUES IS DEAD! This is pretty typical of the type of reporting that goes on about the blues these days. I am not saying that times are good, because they are not. The blues audience is getting older, but this has happened before. If you are lucky enough to catch film footage of the South side of Chicago and the blues clubs in the early 70s you would see that things were bad for the blues then. Most young people were listening to soul, funk, and disco. Blues was not even on the radar of anyone under 40 years old in 1970. Bands broke up, musicians quit playing, and record companies went out of business. It was bleak times, and yet the blues are still around. by the early 80s blues was popular again.

So why are things so bad now? First, young people are not into the blues right now. Give it time they always discover the blues. Second, certainly some of our beloved blues performers are gone, but they were not the originators of the music. The blues has been around since reconstruction, and has ebbed and flowed for over 100 years. If we take 1860 as a mythical starting date and consider every 20 years a new generation, then the current generation coming of age is the 6th generation of blues performers. I think it is safe to say that the blues is in pretty good shape. Third, lack of clubs. There are not a lot of places to play right now, but my old friends, Jimmy Pryor, and Rick Lussie, use to tell me what it was like in the 70s when no clubs played the blues. They would find a dive like Vickies Poor House and play for a few bucks. Then Jimmy to make money would play Country music out at the Pines, and slip in blues songs for his all white audience. Fourth, high gas prices. It is tough to make a living when you have to pay twice as much for fuel as you did a year ago. This is the real burden facing blues performers, because club owners are paying less for bands than they did 10 years ago, and gas prices are a lot higher then they were back then. Add up those costs, and the lack of venues and it is a bleak picture.

At this point I think the best solution is to support your local blues performers. Get out to their shows, and buy their cds. STOP STEALING THEIR MUSIC! I heard a first hand story from a local blues artist who was going to sell a CD to a fan, and the friend of the fan stopped them and told them they would burn them a copy!!!! RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE ARTIST!! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I don't mind you stealing from a large megalithic corporation, but a freaking small businessman, who needed that extra 10 bucks for gas to go home!!!!! Whats wrong with you people. BTW, all blue performers are SMALL BUSINESS PEOPLE! BB King, Eric Clapton, and a few select others have nice major label deals, but the rest of the blues cats that are alive and kicking record with small independent record companies that put a lot of blood sweet and tears into their music. When you download someones music off the net for free, then you are hurting the blues far more than some dumb reporter writing for some corporate newspaper.

There are a lot of young blues cats out there paying their dues, and their day is approaching fast. Just one or two of them catches the imagination of the college kids, and thing will improve quickly. I am doing my part by teaching college kids the history of the blues, and it has become one of the more popular classes on campus. You can do your part too. Turn on your kids to the blues, or donate your CD collection to the local library. Call up your local radio station and ask them what it will take to get a blues show. If you have a local blues show on radio, then call up the DJ and thank him for keeping the blues alive. If you have a local blues bar. Go down their once a week, and thank the bar owner for keeping the music alive even though it is probably driving him to the poor house, but he keeps on doing it because he loves the music. During bleak times it is up to you to keep the music alive. Don't let some corporate hack of a reporter tell you the blues is dead and accept it as fact. Let them know the blues is alive and well, and still kicking A$$!!!!

The Blues Is Dead Again:-)

Wow! These guys don't stop do they! What is it with the media and its desire to kill the blues. Karen over at Today's Chicago Blues Blog has a link to another article giving the grim prognosis of the future of the blues. I mean certainly some of the older players have left us, and its tragic, but that is life. The blues, which started during reconstruction has gone through generations of players, as this generation passes, there is another ready to pick up the mantle. Perhaps if the media just peruse this website, they would see a ton of great blues acts of all ages. However just like politics it is far easier to parrot the talking point, or the conventional wisdom, then actually do some research. If a reporter called me and wanted to know the state of the blues today, I would say doing alright, could be better, but it is alive and well. Simply compare the blues scene of today, to what is was like in the mid to late 70s. Then the blues really was on life support all over the US. Disco's and DJs almost sucked the life blood out of live music in the 70s, but we all survived, and we will all survive this. The blues is so saturated in the blood of American popular music that it is here to stay. It won't go away, so you reporters just better get use to it. Stop the sob stories, and start doing some work for a change.

Blues And Snake Update

If you had the chance to read my post about Blues and Snake (click here) then you probably enjoyed one of my rants on lazy reporting, and bands riding on the coattails of blues. However, I need to make a correction. I received a comment from one of the guys in the band who explained that the reporter made up a lot of the story, and that they never claimed to be a blues band. That they did have some sort of influence from Howling Wolf, but they consider themselves to be a hardcore band.

I do feel sorry that I was hard on the kids, after all I should know that reporters make up quotes, misquote, and are generally pretty lazy. I not saying all reporters are that way. Dana Larson, who is the editor for the Pilot Tribune, here in Storm Lake, has always done a great job anytime I have talked to him for a story. Yet, almost every interview i have had over the years has ended up garbled, and messed up. So much so, that I have just grown to distrust almost everyone, but Dana.

Sometimes bad reporting has ruined reputations almost beyond repair. I think one of the greatest tragedies of bad reporting goes back to the death of Mama Cass. Almost everyone thinks that she died from choking on a ham sandwich. However, that is not true. What happened was a reporter pressed the medical examiner to speculate on why she died. The medical examiner knew a half eaten sandwich was found in the room, and speculated that she died of a heart attack while choking on the sandwich. Of course, he later found out that she didn't choke, but died from a heart attack. After all Cass was a big woman, and was in ill health. Unfortunately Mama Cass became the but of a ton of jokes, because people made fun of the fact that a fat woman died choking on a sandwich even though IT WASN'T TRUE.

Finally, I need to address one comment about musical snobbery that came from one of the blues and snakes fans that left a comment on the board. It is not musical snobbery to defend the blues. It is also not a case that I know more about blues then anyone else and I am flaunting it. What I am doing is trying get the truth out about the blues. there is so much BS about blues, that it tires me, when people called it the "devils music" or "depressing music" or when a band thinks they can get a gig, or sell more cds by claiming they are blues, when they have no clue what the blues are. I would say that wouldn't you get angry if I were to call myself a hardcore band, and try to pass myself off as that???? Of course you would say that my music is not hardcore! Yup! Just like I would say that the music you listen to is not blues! I don't think I am being a snob about that. I also will continue to battle the misconception that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to play the blues. Perhaps this is a trivial matter to many of you, but it is important to me. Robert worked hard to learn and play his instrument. EVERY blues performer worked hard, and practiced for years to learn to play the blues. It sells Robert and every blues performer that followed him short, to believe that the blues is so easy that all you have to do is go down to the crossroads late at night and sign a paper selling your soul, and you are a bluesman. If you do a search on Robert Johnson on this site, you will see a lot of posts about this issue. I write about it, because I am tired of hearing the story. It has nothing to do with the blues, and the connection be the devil, or Legba, or Satan, and the blues is a minor part that receives far too much press, and legitimacy from lazy reporters who have watch the movie Crossroads, once to many time.

Bottom line, to the band Blues and Snake, keep up the good work. I think you guys are a great band. To anyone else offended get a life:-)