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HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
MY TOMMY
Yes, tomorrow is My Tommy Castro’s birthday, and since he’s in Europe, send him your birthday wishes via FaceBook. Tonight my sweet Mistress of the Blues, Ms. Teresa Lynne is back with her Dreamboats, and they’re still out promoting their new CD which is tremendous. Teresa managed to snag both Chris Cain and Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin as guest artists, and their contributions are tremendous. Tomorrow night is Just Gypsies, and a couple of these guys used to play with Dan Treanor, so they’re not new to us, just a new band with a new name. Welcome back, guys! Saturday is a very special night as this will be the second consecutive year that our baby Jessica Rowand Rogalski celebrates here birthday with us. And this is one on the biggies. Happy 40th Jessica! See you Saturday. Next Wednesday, 4/20, we’re having a special night with non other than Cedric Burnside. I’ll be sending out more details on the day of show, so stay tuned. I’d like to let some other voices in here this week, starting with a letter by Colorado Blues Society’s president, Chick Cavallero. The letter was originally published in the most recent Holler, and I thought it a good idea to repost it here. Before that, I will tell you that I lost four touring artists in the month of April because they couldn’t get enough gigs to make the tour worthwhile. I hate to see that happen... FIRST I want to say Thanks and congratulations to the Lionel Young Band for winning the whole ball of wax in Memphis this year! And I was equally proud of Big Jim Adam & John Stillwagen (Finalists). Another Kind of Magick (semi-Finalists) and The Taylor Marvin Band (Youth SC). Great job Everyone! Now onto my ‘sermon’…
We often say “thank you for supporting live music” and I wanted to touch on that a bit. Let’s face it, if you are reading this you are obviously a blues fan. And being a member of CBS is certainly one way of supporting the blues. But an even more important way is supporting our local blues community, the local venues that bring us great shows every week and the local bands that create those shows. These venues and bands are the glue that holds the Colorado blues scene together. The festivals and national acts are great, like most of you I get excited when that festival schedule starts filling up, but without our local scene we would have a hard time keeping the blues alive. Every year we seem to lose some great blues venues, this past year Denver lost The Q Worldly BBQ and Blues on Blake, Rafferty’s in Greeley closed, an experimental Blues & BBQ venue in Loveland didn’t make it. It worries me when venues playing the music we love aren’t making it, which is why we ALL need to get out and support these venues and the bands that play them. Try and make a point of getting out and seeing a live show, at least once a week. Trust me; it beats the heck out of the junk that is on TV. Why waste your time with so called ‘reality’ TV that is anything but ‘real’? Live music IS reality! What you see at a live show will never be reproduced; it is unique to that club and that band on that particular night.
Continued Next Column...
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Fri 4/15 - Just Gypsies Sat 4/16 - Mojomama
Sun 4/17 - Jazz Jam w/Mark Diamond ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wed 4/20 - Cedric Burnside
& John-Alex Mason ($10 Cover) Thu 4/21- Terablu Fri 4/22 - Laurie Dameron Band Sat 4/23 - Willie "Big Eyes" Smith ($10 Cover) Sun 4/17 - Blues Jam w/Heavy Cats Mark Your Calendars Fri 4/29 - Otis Taylor - Trance Blues (Tix $20 - Call)
These bands and venues need our business to survive, and I do mean our business. I know there are folks who frequent some great clubs ( only if there is no cover-charge) and never spend a dime in them! Sadly some of these ‘blues fans’ have been doing it for years. To me, that’s not much different than stealing. Live music isn’t free. Bands can’t play for free. Heck, a $5-$10 cover for an evening of entertainment is pretty darn cheap. I think every venue that has live music should charge a cover, even if only a nominal one. A bad movie will cost you three to four times what a good band will. If the venue isn’t charging a cover, then make a point of buying something to eat, or a few drinks, and toss a few bucks into those “tip jars” every band has on stage. Keeping the venue alive as well as the bands is the only way we can keep this music alive. Clubs pay these local Blues bands anything from $200 on up to ‘maybe’ a $1000 for the best of the best. Without a cover, 50 people spending 5 or 6 bucks just doesn’t do it for a venue to survive. And the money the band is paid get’s split between 3-6 performers. After expenses, these guys aren’t making a whole lot either, often scrambling to break even. Even National acts find themselves playing 250+ gigs a year to make ends meet. Let’s face it, the performers that play the Blues aren’t doing it to get rich, otherwise they’d be playing rock or country which sells a whole lot better. No, they play the Blues because they love the music, but remember they all have families to support too. So please, do your best to support live music and keep the Blues alive. We ALL need to patronize our local blues venues. It’s the responsibility of all of us to keep the venues going and booking acts, if we don’t, the music we love will be disappearing. Spending money on the blues is one of the rare times in life you will actually get some value back on your money. Hope to see you soon at a blues club near you...and don’t forget to bring your wallet. And one last thing. I received this via email a couple of days ago, and it struck me so hard, I thought I’d share it. It was sent by my Aunt Ramona.
KINDNESS Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever. Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive. Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend. by Naomi Shihab Nye, from Different Ways to Pray, 1980
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