BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
info
A few weeks ago I attended a concert in the park. Right smack dab in the middle of my hometown of Huntington Beach lies the city's Central Park. That was the site of a two-hour, rhythm & blues fandango which featured Jamie Wood on vocals, and Martin Gagnon on piano and vocals. They were joined by bassist Hank Van Sickle, drummer Ed Mann along with saxophonist Al Floyd.
Several hundred people spread out over the mostly shaded park grounds and enjoyed two hours of the quintessential American music. Everybody from octogenarians to infants felt the groove. Parents brought the kids, grandkids, old dogs and puppies. They also brought some pretty elaborate spreads as well. A concert in the park is in some ways just a civilized tail gate party…with better music. In this case live blues.
What was very cool, from my point of view, was I didn’t recognize a single person in the audience. That’s not to say that some of the blues club regulars didn’t come out to the show. I just didn’t run into any of them.
The fact of the matter was that most of these folks had a blast and yet had no idea that they were enjoying some of the very best musicians that this tiny sub-genre of traditional music has to offer. Most didn’t know the musician’s resumes or discographies. Throw away the labels…blues, rhythm & blues, jump blues, swing and on and on. That doesn’t matter to most people anyway. They were there to have a good time. They also got to hear music with which they might not otherwise be familiar. They dug it. This, in and of itself, was heart-warming to me.
In talking to Jamie Wood, the Monday after the concert, she said “Many people have come up to us over the last five years we have been doing these shows here in Huntington Beach and have said, this music is great! What do you call it?” She went on to say that she doesn’t know how to answer that question. I suggested that she doesn’t have to ever worry about that, as good music speaks for itself.
There was very little (if any) of the 'Look at me…I’m at the (fill in the blank) and here is my selfie with (fill in the blank). Hey musician performing on my behalf, I’ll be with you in a minute, I just have to post my immediate whereabouts on Facebook.' On Sunday afternoon it was just folks listening, dancing and having a good time…what a concept.
I bring this up as many people are obsessed with making this music more popular. My insecurity isn’t so acute that I care what others listen to in great numbers. I like what I like and really don’t give a damn about anybody else’s musical tastes. I’m certainly not interested in bastardizing and compromising this music so that it gains a wider following and has a better “Q” rating. Watering down this music with an attempt to make it sound more like rock music has been the “go to” move by every dumb ass for the last half century. How is that working out for you? The music that is passed off as blues in so many cases is so-far off the mark that it is unrecognizable to large segments of our society. Listening to just a few minutes of XM Satellite Radio's Bluesville is just one example of this.
Not everybody is inclined to enjoy this music in a bar or nightclub where this music is traditionally performed.
I say, if you can’t bring people to the juke joint, bring the juke joint to the people. That’s exactly what Jamie Wood, Martin Gagnon and this band did on that glorious afternoon in Huntington Beach. Jamie Wood sang songs about inside activities that take place in the middle of the night to steal a line from an old Johnny “Guitar” Watson tune that the band played in the light of day. While writing this piece in a coffee shop, a hip hop or rap (or whatever you call it) tune came on the music stream that was playing. I leaned back from my laptop and listened, as if I had a choice. The themes in this modern music were the same ones that Jamie Wood addressed on this Sunday afternoon…adult relationships.
The difference was that blues music always used an ethnicized, coded language that was designed to get by radio censors. Before that, this music was sung by laborer’s in our country's agricultural industry, who didn’t want their boss to know what their call and response incantations really meant. This constitutes a clever, if not downright sophisticated and often humorous use of the English language. I admire and love this aspect of blues music.
At the park this adult material was kid friendly without changing a thing. The same percentage of children were in the coffee shop which is only a couple of miles from the Central Park. Those children got to hear a man singing (rapping/talking) about “f*cking a bitch” whose only redeeming quality was the prodigious size of her “booty.” Our coffee shop protagonist explained that the “booty” was driving him to madness and the only remedy was to drive the woman in question crazy by “f*cking her brains out.” Nice!
The blues, as it turns out, is infinitely more complex and mature than many forms of entertainment, much of which is passed off as music today. This is not to say that blues music doesn’t have a long history of misogyny…it does. At least it isn’t (for the most part) as blatant and gender specific as the “music” I heard the other morning in that coffee shop.
Jamie Wood and her band proved what I have always contended; the straight-ahead natural blues can have a broad appeal. Just give this music to the people sans any hand ringing or a primer. One doesn’t need to be an ethnomusicologist or blues nerd like me to enjoy this music. One thing that is often overlooked by those that can’t see the trees from the forest, is that this music is just plain fun.
There are programs like this in towns across America. Virtually every hamlet here in California it seems has similar events. Just a few weeks ago in the north Orange County city of Fullerton, their park service offered up an early weekday evening of music. The show featured guitarist Tommy Harkenrider’s band, The Memphis Kings with special guest, long time Fullerton resident and internationally renowned guitarist, Kid Ramos.
I found a website, Summer Concerts in the Park, which has listings of over 200 cities in the state of California alone that play host to free summer concert in the park programs. By clicking on any of the communities listed you will receive a performance schedule along with all the other pertinent information. Not much in the way of blues is being presented. This represents a great untapped market for our music.
I might suggest that if you are a blues musician look up what is available in your home town. These concerts in the parks often have pop orchestra’s, big bands, lots of classic rock tribute bands and other offerings. If they don’t have blues on the program…change that. As this summer draws to a close this is the time to begin contacting your town's liaisons for such events. I’ll bring the cooler and picnic basket.
- David Mac
Copyright 2022 BLUES JUNCTION Productions. All rights reserved.
BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
info