[Harp-L] Is Blues dying out

[Michael Easton <diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been trying for months to get my 20 and 30 something year old  
coworkers to attend one of my gigs. Their recent response is, "is the  
bar full of old people?"
WTH!  They tend to want to hang with their own kind and consider blues  
the music of their parents and grandparents generation.

In part they are right. I look out on most nights to an audience of  
blue hairs getting into the music like my parents generation of big  
band fans. The only co-workers that said they would come see us were  
in their 50's.

The thing is when we play a bar to an audience of 20/30 year olds they  
tend to really enjoy what we are playing. But unless they are already  
there it's very hard to draw them there.   We wash away their notion  
that blues is just a bunch of old guys sitting around playing old  
timey music on acoustic instruments or that electric blues has  to be  
played by Power trios.

  There are always a few I see move away from their friends to watch  
the band when we play sports bars. We also get good feedback from the  
young staff.  Mind you most of the blues we play is either originals  
or centered around blues performers who became popular in the 60's.   
Even though we are situated in PA. our sound is  what I'd call Texas  
Surfing Chicago Blues.  Dick Dale meets guys with last name King and  
first name Howling.

Blues isn't marketed like other music so it isn't appreciated as much.  
Blues bands generally don't have fog machines or even stage lighting  
at their gigs.
They play to the light coming from the cigarette machine or a half  
rigged flood light the bar installed in the stage area.  Blues band  
generally don't have soundmen
miking drums and amps.  We set our own levels and bitch that the guy  
beside us is playing too loud.  We will book any room that will take  
us at almost any price.

If we marketed/packaged our bands and stage presence  more like  
rockers we could probably play the bigger better paying rooms along  
side them on occasions. My band seems to get booked in smaller and  
smaller upscale rooms despite being a 5 piece band. We end up playing  
background to the diners and sports fans.

My band will finish recording our first cd this weekend. I'm hoping to  
make an in house video for YouTube to feature 1 or 2 of the originals  
that tell a story.  I think it will hold more attention then someone  
holding a video camera in the corner of a dark bar capturing the band  
with unbalanced audio and  background noise. I get bored real quick  
watching bar gig video's on YouTube.



Michael Easton
www.harmonicarepair.com