BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
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A few years ago I received a submission from a musician who wanted me to review her album. The CD had sophisticated packaging and was accompanied by a professionally designed “one sheet”. The submission came from a woman who, after years of attempting to break into other fields in the music and entertainment business, decided that she was suddenly a blues diva.
I was new. Please don’t misunderstand me. I wasn’t new to listening to blues music. I wasn’t new to writing. The marriage of my two great loves was still enjoying a honeymoon. That torrid passion continues to this day, but this particular early awkward fumbling left an impression on me. I listened to the CD and was mortified. It sounded like it could have been a skit from Saturday Night Live. Now what do I do? Should I tell her the truth? On the other hand who am I to trample on someone’s dreams? She seemed so earnest.
Before there was a BLUES JUNCTION, I had always enjoyed music on my own terms and sought out the finest recordings I could get my hands on based on recommendations of like minded individuals. Sure there were some hits, along with a few misses, as I began to explore this vast landscape, but I had no idea that this weird blues underworld existed where people actually made records that were this bad. What was even more disturbing was finding out that my fellow scribes were celebrating this God awful music. I thought to myself (and probably said out loud) "What in God’s holy name is going on around here and what have I gotten myself into?"
I shared this particular recording with a trusted friend who has a rather sophisticated aural palette. I did this without any editorial commentary on my part. Upon hearing the first few notes my friend burst out laughing. He asked me where I found this CD. I was honest and told him, it found me. He then said, “That’s the problem. Blues music is like any other art form, the bad will find you all day long.”
As far as this artist is concerned I soon realized she was not alone out there. What this particular “singer” has in common with other aspiring blues divas are a few things. For starters they typically have some seed money that came from a source outside the blues field. They also have virtually zero self awareness, humility or objectivity as it relates to their own talent. In addition they are relentless and shameless self promoters. They will do anything to be heard. They will pay venues to put themselves on a stage. They will pay publicists to hustle for them. They will pay blues societies to do the same. They will pay publishers, editors and writers to write about them. Also they are likely to try and discredit anyone who is seen as a roadblock to their success. They seem to possess this insufferable sense of entitlement. They have this kind of sad, pathetic desperation that they often try to mask behind a facade of toughness.
Also, sadly enough, the blues represents their last hope, the only hope left to fulfill their apparently powerful need to stand in front of a crowd of people and hear their applause. There are lots of these, what I call, Divazillas out there.
When I ask someone in any town in America who is the best up and coming blues musician is their community, if it is not some kid whose parents think he is going to be the next Stevie Ray Vaughan, it is this, “incredible female vocalist who can really belt.” These “singers,” by the way, come in all races, ages, creeds and colors. Typically their interpretation of blues sounds like Janis Joplin trying to pass a pine cone while riding on a roller coaster at high altitude.
They service every song with the same over the top, in your face histrionics that make their male, strat slinging counterparts just as annoying. Tone, timing, taste, subtle phrasing and nuance are not part of their vernacular. For some reason, many aspiring blues divas seem to fall into a couple of predictable clichés that include this bawdy, novelty style material that seems in this day and age really silly. It is 2013 lady. Thanks for letting us know you are sexually liberated. Please excuse me while I throw up.
That still leaves me in a dilemma because now I have to decide how I am going to handle this caterwauling Divazilla. Do I want to go along to get along? Do I want to be liked? Do I want to be the champion of mediocrity? I mean why worry about this stuff? How hard would it be to lie and write a positive review of this horrific recording and get her off my back? Everyone else did.
On the other hand, I could tell the truth. Maybe I could be a humanitarian and save others from having to hear these sounds which, believe me, are as unpleasant as anything any human should have to endure. I guess in the end, I didn’t have that kind of courage. I made a decision that there are two things I never want to do: 1) Hurt someone’s feelings and 2) Listen to bad music...If I was to review this CD for instance, I would have to listen to it more than once to give it a fair assessment. Since our time on this planet is limited, I don’t want to spend any of that precious time listening to bad music. I mean where would it end?
This became a very early career defining moment for me. It turned out she didn’t want my opinion she wanted my blind (or on this case deaf) loyalty to get behind her dream and march to her same drummer, who by the way doesn’t know any blues shuffles.
The blues business itself has created this monster. I am sympathetic to a point, as my long track record of being able to say “no” to a woman about virtually anything is abysmal. This phenomenon of the Divazilla also speaks to the larger problem that plagues our industry and that is the people who, by and large, are the impresarios of the blues world are ridiculously inept. Let’s face facts. How can it be possible that so much great music is being heard by so few? Somebody should accept responsibility for this ass backwards reality.
The prevailing wisdom is that if someone utters the word blues, has blues in the name of their band or identifies themselves as a blues musician, regardless of what type of music they play, they should be promoted with great zeal regardless of the quality of the product they produce. As journalists we are really expected to be publicists, who work for free or for small bribes and kickbacks.
These lemmings think that there is no such thing as a bad blues album or a sub standard live performance. The thought process, if any thought went into this at all, follows that by sticking to this ethos they somehow are doing this music a favor and therefore will help (all together now) “Keep the Blues Alive.” In this bizzaro blues world all things are relative. Everything is just a matter of opinion. If an artist isn’t talented enough to play blues then they tell the public it is their “personal interpretation of blues.” And no one argues the point. There is another word for all of this and that word is, “nihilism.”
This nihilism is not of course limited to the Divazillas out there. It applies to everything in the blues world. It is however the Divazillas that may be the most visible for another reason. They often feel, and perhaps rightfully so, that they have to try harder to get their music heard as the blues world has traditionally been a somewhat misogynistic, male dominated field. So I get that. It still doesn’t make any of this shrill, self promotion any more pleasant.
There isn’t a single concept that I have discussed here in this missive that I haven’t discussed many times with a lots of people, for many years. Most recently I spoke with Michelle Siedman who is the administrator of a Facebook page called, Women in Blues. I told her I was writing this piece and I shared with her several of the themes that have ended up here. During our lengthy and hopefully enlightened exchange of ideas, she asked me the very salient question which is why these things are happening in this new blues world in which we find ourselves. I told her, “It is because the blues world in this day and age is made up almost entirely of people who view this music through the prism of what is called classic rock.”
Rock, classic or otherwise exists in the pop world. Pop being short for popular. Blues has never been mainstream music. Blues has always been outsider music. It is the first “alt” music to use an expression from the parlance of our times. This is where insecurity comes into play. Many of us want others outside this little blues community to like what we like. We want our friends whose careers we are promoting in various ways to “make it,” to crossover and be liked by a large mainstream audience. The likelihood of this happening with a straight ahead blues artist is practically nonexistent. Yet that remains the goal of the majority of the people who champion this music.
In short, the blues community doesn’t even understand its own product. They continue to try and repackage blues for mass consumption. So this blues music which so many claim to love is remolded, reshaped, watered down and redefined almost out of existence. Has it ever occurred to any of these misguided, self-proclaimed “do-gooders” that making blues popular and saving this music might be antithetical?
I am also convinced that many of the loudest proponents of blues don’t even care for this music all that much. They certainly don’t understand it. Believe me, it is true. I talk to these people all the time and their disdain for blues music can barely be covered up by their parrot like mantra, “We’re Just Keepin’ the Blues Alive, Dave.” How? “We’re Keepin’ the Blues Alive."
There is an old saying that I thought about when I first heard that horrific recording by the first Divazilla I encountered. “We are destined to kill what we love the most or be killed by what we love most.”
I was truly afraid that my love for this music could be assuaged by having to be in the business and hear music like this. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened. In fact the opposite is true. By having to hear recordings of this nature, it helps me enjoy the truly great music that is being made by some very talented, hard working, dedicated musicians from all over the world.
I admit the Divazillas out there still scare me a little. Those of you who don’t have my fortitude to stand up to these monsters, I can’t blame you for wanting to warm your biscuits by their fire. I understand that you created this monster and now you have to keep feeding the beast or be chewed up and spit out. I also understand why it is comforting to want to be surrounded by others who share your insecurity.
There is a way out of this mess you created. It is the truth. It will as they say, set you free. I welcome you to this road less traveled. It was a little lonely at first, but believe it or not there are others who see right through your phony hyperbole. There is a large audience who, like me, loves this music for the simple joy it brings. There are others out there that aren’t trampling on this art form and using it as a vehicle to elevate their own social profile. I know it sounds a little strange, but it’s true.
If nothing else you might even enjoy being reunited with your dignity and cahones. In the process you will find some wonderful music. You will discover that the greatest musicians almost always exhibit the greatest humility. You will see with great clarity that the opposite is also true. People are not stupid. Quit treating them like children. They are just often misinformed and who should we blame for that?
My question to my fellow scribes is this: You folks came to this endeavor for the same reasons I did presumably. You wanted to flex your creative muscles a bit and share your views with a large audience. What happened? You surely don’t want to slave behind a laptop just to be a lap dog for bad musicians. Granted, I know many of you charge money to write a positive review. I know many of you are up front about this, as it is written right into your advertising rates. I know many of your publishers charge money for an artist to appear on the covers of your magazines. Don’t you think that this might call into question the validity of your publication and the writing that is contained in your magazine? Does that not make everything you write suspect? Does that not tell anyone who is trying to make an informed CD purchase that your words are now meaningless? Are the artists who are willing to pay up, the best musicians this art form has to offer? Is it more likely they are the worst? Is this really what you want to do with your talent? Come on people. You are embarrassing everyone who loves this music not to mention the English language. You are better than that. How does this corruption and silliness help the blues? These are not rhetorical questions by the way. I truly want to know. What am I missing here? I don’t have a monopoly on wisdom or good taste. Help me out here.
The blatant attacks that blues music is taking from the people who have the audacity to say they are trying to keep it alive is a little hard to take sometimes. If your goal is to “keep this music alive” and pass it on to future generations, what are you handing them? I can’t blame young people for rejecting this pathetic, plastic, watered down, commercialized, homogenized, blues light that is being celebrated by so many people in this bizarro blues community.
Remember that before the attack of the Divazillas there was a rich tradition of great female blues artists starting with Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Ida Cox. These three woman were the first and biggest stars of the blues. Instrumentalists and vocalists such as Memphis Minnie and Sister Rosetta Tharpe like Rainy, Smith and Cox continued the tradition of showing folks just how large and how much diversity can fit in the blues tent. This grand tradition continued in the 1950’s with artists whose approach to this music is as varied as Big Mama Thornton and Dinah Washington. There was also Little Esther Phillips, Sugar Pie Desanto, Victoria Spivey, the great Etta James and many others who had true talent and deep soul. My generation is fortunate to continue to hear singers like Lou Ann Barton and Janiva Magness for instance. There is Rory Block who just released a CD this past June, the forth in a series of records where she pays tribute to one of her mentors. You have Barbara Morrison in Los Angeles and Jewell Brown of Houston, Texas, who are two standard bearers and represent the old guard. They are still making compelling music.
The true blues artist who is studying this illusionary art form and trying to hone his or her craft has the courage to accept the fact that they will never be popular in the sense that we define that word in modern pop culture. Great art is timeless and this music’s beauty lies in the fact that it doesn’t try and pander to the flavor of the month.
There are lots of very talented musicians coming through the ranks. Whitney Shay from San Diego, California, Jai Malano of the Royal Rhythmaires out of Fort Worth, Texas, Nikki Hill of Saint Louis, Missouri, are just three very exciting young performers who come immediately to mind. I know there are more talented musicians I am leaving out here. Please excuse me for that. There are hopefully many others who I haven’t heard yet. I look forward to hearing their music and what they have to say.
The future of this music, it seems, is in some very talented young hands. If those greedy, insecure, corrupt, misguided old hands can find something else to do with their spare time and their lap tops the blues will do just fine.
Your thoughts on any and all of this are not only welcome but encouraged. An intelligent dialogue as it relates to this music can only lead to positive changes as to how this beautiful art form is purveyed.
- David Mac
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BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
info