From
phoenixnewtimes.com
Originally published by Phoenix New Times
2005-11-10
©2005 New Times, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/Issues/2005-11-10/music/revolver_print.html
Dig
Deeper
Singing those less-blues blues
By Brendan Joel Kelley
"The
blues is dying out here," my friend Dale Baich
told me recently when we were bullshitting about music. I was taken aback by
his statement, but when I thought about it, I hadn't hit up a blues show in
quite some time -- like many people of my generation and younger. I had also
noticed that the shows themselves were much fewer and farther between than a
few years ago. Still, I was shocked to hear someone as versed in the blues as
Dale make such a wistful declaration.
Dale, a
soft-spoken intellectual and federal public defender who represents death-row
inmates, produced a record by local blues legend Big Pete Pearson, and is a
blues aficionado like few people I know. He even traveled to interview the late
R.L. Burnside at his
The
blues has always had a strong presence here in the 'Nix -- largely because of
the Rhythm Room and its proprietor Bob Corritore, who's also a producer and
harmonica player. But if you look at the Rhythm Room's schedule of late, you'll
see it populated by bands like Nashville Pussy, Neva Dinova,
and
Lately,
even Big Pete Pearson himself is worried about the blues scene dying off. He
used to play out five or six nights a week; now it's two, maybe three if he's
lucky. He's had to branch out to special events like business conventions and
private parties just to keep financially afloat. "I don't know where the
crowds have gone," he said to me recently.
The
dwindling number of venues hosting blues shows is a major factor. "Look at
the number of clubs that have closed down," Baich
told me. "You could go to Nita's Hideaway to hear blues before [going to]
the Brass Rail, Warsaw Wally's -- all these other places are all gone or they
don't cater to the blues anymore. Bob [Corritore] used to have blues almost
seven nights a week."
He's
absolutely right, but it's a compromise that Corritore's
had to make to ensure that his venue, the Rhythm Room, doesn't go the way of so
many others. Corritore told me it's working for him, though, and the Rhythm
Room remains the premier blues spot in town, especially to see touring national
acts like Louisiana Red and Pinetop Perkins.
"I
have a lot of outside promoters bringing in their tastes in music during the
week," Corritore told me. "But I've been able to keep the Rhythm Room
as a stronghold for blues on the weekends, which is when the blues crowd at
this point gets out the most. The blues in and of itself, the people that were
involved in the scene 10 years ago, have gotten 10 years older.
"People
don't go out as much. You add to that stricter drinking [and driving] laws, and
what used to be a lifestyle of going to blues bars and hanging out is not as
realistic as it used to be. We're not a town that's set up like
Despite
Corritore's having to scale back the amount of blues shows at the
Rhythm Room, he sees a positive side to it. "The great thing about
bringing in these different shows is that I'm seeing a number of younger people
that I have never seen before coming in regularly to the weekends at the Rhythm
Room because they've seen the club and enjoyed the vibe and wanted to check out
the blues at the club," he told me.
Encouragingly, there is new blood in the
scene that can hopefully be a player in the blues arena. The String Chemistry Café,
which opened in late September in Mesa, is regularly hosting blues artists like
the Rocket 88's, Cold
Shott and the Hurricane Horns, and Big Pete Pearson, as well as local
jazz acts. It's a classy, well-designed club with a brown grand piano to the
side of its wide stage, and an impressive sound system. When I was there
recently and saw part of Rick Jones' set, the attendance was sparse, but the
venue showed incredible potential.
My
advice to Chris Devlin, the owner of String Chemistry, would be to take
advantage of his spacious new club and start bringing national acts to perform.
For east-siders like myself, it's not tough to get
over to his location at Guadalupe and the 101, but for Phoenicians and west-siders, it's going to take more than the locals to get them
out there initially to appreciate what they've got going on at String
Chemistry. After all, Char's in central
Touring
acts aside, though, the talents we've got in this town -- whether it's Big Pete
Pearson, Chico Chism, Sistah Blue, or newer outfits
like Soulful Horizons and Fire in the Sky -- remain strong, despite there being
fewer nights when you can find them out playing. Thanks to them, the blues is
still alive and kicking in the 'Nix, but it just takes some effort to find it.
And it definitely needs a new generation of fans to get it thriving again. With the arrival of String Chemistry on the
east side of town, I, for one, don't have an excuse to overlook the blues any
longer.