Re: [Harp-L] Re: Buckeye Cancelled

[Mike Fugazzi <mikefugazzi@xxxxxxxxx>]

I firmly believe your comments reflect the thoughts of the masses.  You have
to tell them a story that is in some part real and relevant to them.  I am
not saying this is the norm, but regurgitating relatively dated music to the
masses is not an effective means to make a connection with music lovers.
 You have to connect with them..."you" as in literally you.  Today's music
audiences want personal connections (see Twitter and Facebook for example)
and/or familiarity.

If you aren't playing music familiar to them, for example playing pre war
blues to teens, then you better find another way to make a personal
connection.  If you are in a band that plays what the crowd wants to hear,
the personal connection is less crucial to the success of that event, but
I'd argue the lack of connection would not net long-term sustainability with
that audience.

In other words, you aren't special to them if you just play what they want
to hear.  You can be interchanged with other bands and modes of
entertainment easily.  To me, that is the difference between an average
coverband and the big-money-crowd-drawing coverbands...the connection.

Locally, bands like Trampled by Turtles, Wookie Foot, Heat Box, and Charlie
Parr have NO business being hugely successful as they play niche music that
parallels the blues and harmonica experiences.  HOWEVER, they are able to
find other ways to engage crowds through personal connections that makes
people want to follow them around and pay money to see them.

There is much more to a great band then how they play.  We all can find
endless examples of band with huge talent that bomb with audiences.  We can
also all list many successful bands with little talent but huge crowd
appeal.
----------
Mike Fugazzi
vocals/harmonica
http://www.mikefugazzi.com
Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/MikeFugazziMusic>
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas
<http://www.mikefugazzi.com/fr_customharmonicas.cfm>



On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 10:50 AM, Jesse <jvboden@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>>
>> >>Bottom line is harmonica is often synonymous with blues...blues is
>> often generalized as a culture that idealizes the past to the point of
>> ignoring the present and future. <<
>>
>
> that's funny, and it is seen all the time - honestly, rather than hearing
> folks playing Juke and singing (usually badly) old Chicago blues standards -
> I'd rather hear the blues the artist is feeling, telling your own story,
> your own emotion - the blues and blues harp playing is not a museum, it is a
> living, breathing reality. and the blues is not all one flavor - not all a
> depressing downer, there are happy blues, ironic blues, frustrated blues,
> work-related blues, my woman's so fine blues, I am the best lover in town
> blues, you bug me blues, recession blues - yep - although most of us,
> including me, like to do the old blues chestnuts, I would rather hear the
> blues of the present and the future from players today for the most part and
> listen to the old guys for the classics. what are you feeling, man - tell me
> a story and make me feel it too. make that harp talk, laugh, cry and moan -
> make it real, not a copy, that's what I'm talkin' about. there are lots of
> cats (and ladies) today who do just that, too many to name - bless them all.
>
>
>