Re: [Harp-L] Why Blues Jams are Important



On 04/11/2011 01:43 PM, Rick Davis wrote:
A big shout out to my brothers and sisters who host blues jams. It doesn’t
pay much, it is often chaotic, and you have to deal occasionally with drunk
and/or egotistical jerks. But it is service to the blues tradition. It is
helping to keep the blues alive.

nicely put, rick. i applaud you and all the others who take this on. in my experience, the folks who run jams put in a whole lot of effort for little material return; they get to hear every complaint but seldom thanks.

after a rather difficult first year when i started playing at a poorly run jam,
i lucked into another one run by a guy who saw it as his mission to help the
new guys come along. another guy, this young hotshot guitar player, started
around the same time i did. johnny had great technique, but was all technique.
over the next year or so he was turned into a serious blues guitarist. now,
5 years later, he fronts one of the best bands in the area, and i play harp in
one of the others.


the other thing that matters, a lot, is that you are providing an outlet for
all of those musicians out there who *need* to play, but for whatever reason
aren't in a band. how great is it that there's someplace they can go and
find kindred spirits to make music with, even if it's just a couple of songs.


so again, hats off to you and the rest who take this on.  may there always
be people like you, and always be jams.

--
We make a living from what we get,
but we make a life from what we give.
- Kathy Moser





This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.