Ramblings On My Mind - Jul 09
Written by Greg Johnson Tuesday, 30 June 2009 16:00
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It’s July!! That means it is time once again for the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, the biggest event in the local blues community of the year, drawing fans from all over the world into our city. If you’re here to experience the Waterfront Blues Festival or if you’re just traveling through town and picked up a copy of our paper looking for something to do, go immediately to the center calendar and check out the listings of live entertainment to be had. Portland has one of the absolute best blues scenes found anywhere in the United States and you should be able to locate blues going on someplace here most every night of the year. There are venues offering blues music in nearly every corner of the city and some of the finest musicians in the world call Portland home, so get out and explore the local nightlife.
If you live here and this news is taking you by surprise because you only think of blues when the Waterfront takes place, shame on you! The blues happens here all year long. And many of the venues where you find it do not charge you a cover to get in. If you frequent these places, however, remember that the economic times are tough for everybody, musicians included. So throw a little something into their tip jar. It’s a lot of work to stand up there and entertain a roomful of people. If the venue does charge a cover, still consider that extra little amount in the tip jar anyway.
And one other thing, as I said Portland is home to some of the best blues artists in the world, so don’t complain if a venue wants to charge you a few dollars to get in the door. A lot of times the performers are playing for only whatever is taken at the door and if they’re a band with several people, sometimes that doesn’t amount to very much when split between them. Many musicians when they travel will let you know cover charges are a lot steeper in other cities, and that person you’re griping about paying $7 or $10 on a Friday or Saturday night just may have a $20 cover in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Chicago or anyplace else. We’re actually rather spoiled by the talent in this city, so it’s high time we recognize it.
Look at the calendar pages, check for acts that you may be unfamiliar with and make a point to go out and see what they’re about. The same for venues you haven’t heard of before. Who knows, you just might find some new favorite players or a happening place that will become a regular haunt for you. This may seem like a familiar theme coming from me, but after all, how else will we ever expect to see the blues or any music to continue if we don’t take that chance. Don’t wait until you’ve heard about somebody from someone else. Maybe you can be that word of mouth that helps get the next local lightning in a bottle star the attention they need. But whatever you do, just get out there and enjoy live music!!
Of course you’ll need a guide to help you find where the music is happening, and the perfect solution to that is a membership in the Cascade Blues Association so you’ll receive the BluesNotes newspaper with the events calendar in your own mailbox every month. If you’re not a member now, think about it? You do love the blues, don’t you?