Dear John, We're taking suggestions for a headliner for Blues Blast '19. Please keep in mind we're very limited in our funds so Joe Bonamassa and Elvin Bishop are out. Send your suggestions and ideas to the PBS Facebook page and we'll check them out.
A tad slow through the week this week but still plenty to do. Weather has been beautiful so there's no excuses.
Cool Paul Butterfield documentary coming out. There is a special one-time-only screening planned soon and I'll post details as soon as they become available. Should be good.
Until then, you be good.
Have a week!!
Sincerely,
Jim Crawford, PBS
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Rory II
by Jim Crawford
NOTE:This is the second part of an interview I did for Blues Blast magazine a few years back. Rory had a lot so say and I wanted to hear it.
"I've been discouraged many, many times," she reflects. "Then I have to take stock of things. Wait a minute. There are so many ways to get famous now that bypass the power of work and the route that a lot of us took who are in my age generation. So may artists out there, and I won't name any names, who have worked since the early '60s and have now become well known. And they had to put in all those years. It's not like that anymore. Now we can become an overnight sensation. "I noticed when videos first came out however many years ago that was, that if you heard the song without seeing the video it was one thing, she said. "Then the video changed it completely. The Hollywood image became involved. Things that were not music were used to promote music. I was put out by that. I was like 'Hey, not every one of us has the dollars to put out there to do that stuff.' Unless we could get into the video thing we could get left behind. And there's some truth to that but if you keep plugging and keep doing what you do for the reasons that you do it and you keep faithful in that, it works out. I have to remind myself of that. I have to remind myself,, 'Don't compare yourself to anyone. Just keep doing it the way you do it. Look at the reward you've gotten. Look at the wonderful people that come to your shows. (Look at) the way you feel when you record music. When you play it. When you perform. Do what you do. You're lucky. Don't fret about anything.' That's when I'm better off. Even when you get discouraged, I don't know a better way to keep on keeping on." Rory spent many years with Rounder Records before parting ways with them and now records for Stony Plain Records. She said her years with Rounder were some of her most productive and rewarding, especially in the earlier parts of her career. "Things started to turn around I would say when I got the hit song in Europe," she said. "I was recording for a wonderful label. They gave me total artistic freedom. I had had experience with bigger labels where artistic freedom was severely limited. If I even had any at all. All of the decisions, from the music to the background singers came from the executives of the label. Then I went to Rounder Records thinking 'OK, my career's over.' There's been many times I thought my career was over and that was a biggie. It was way back in the '70s that I thought my career was over but then when I talked to Rounder I said 'Should I give you a radio-friendly album?' They said 'Don't worry about that. We just want an album you think is beautiful. Record whatever you want and hand it in.' And I handed it in and they said 'We love it.' "And I thought 'This is too good to be true. I don't care if I sell two records to have this kind of relationship with my record company.' As it happened, that record did very well. It was called "High Heel Blues." John Sebastian produced it and it got a wonderful review in Rolling Stone. So you just never know what's gonna happen. I just decided I'm gonna do my thing. I'm not going to worry about trying to be this or trying to be that. If I try I probably can't be someone I'm not anyway. I stayed with Rounder and they kept giving me support for giving them artistically honest records. I went back to my roots, back to my Blues. I was happy. "Next thing I know one of my originals got big in Europe, Rory recalls. "And then it was 'Congratulations, you have a gold record.' And that was like, 'I don't believe it." I flew to Europe and did a tour in Holland. When I got there it was like the whole world, the fan base was absolutely wonderful. Respect. And when I came back home everything went up a notch. The record company started selling all of the previous records and we went into the black after we'd been in the red. It's very hard to get into the red when you're on a label and now when you do it yourself at home on the computer that's a different entity. You spend a lot less and you can do whatever you want but we didn't have those options in those days. We had studios that charged you by the hour. It cost a lot of money. People were out there making records and by the time they were done it might have cost them a half a million dollars. And the idea of paying that back was minute even if you had a hit, some of the artists from the '70s or '80s will tell you, you might not pay back the budget of a recording even with a hit. This is the way things were in those days. "When I got back home with my gold record from Holland I got a check from my label," she says now still with a touch of wonder in her voice. "Now that was something, and I had paid back four earlier records. The budget for four in a row was paid back and there was a check. It was like, hard to believe, but it happened. Then I had to keep on keeping on, making more records, I started getting nominated for awards. The record company continued to stand behind me and told me to just keep doing what I was doing. They told me not to change because the music was coming to me. I started getting nominated for WC Handy Awards and then I started winning them. "Over time things just came. And that's what I've learned. Just hang on there and do what you do and do it because you love to do it and the end result will take care of itself. If we made other people happy in the process, that's very, very nice." Currently Rory is working on her fourth installment of a box set entitled "The Mentor Series" where she features the music of some of her heroes. "The first record won Acoustic Blues Album of the Year," she said. "It's called "The Lady & Mr. Johnson". Although I never met Robert Johnson, I consider him a. mentor. I met Son House who was a mentor and teacher to Robert Johnson. With those two you can trace to all of the major types of Blues styles. The first two records planted a seed in my head. My label is really into it. We're working on the fourth CD. "At the time I thought 'Everybody knows Mississippi John Hurt. Everybody knows Skip James.' It became a thank you process that I was embodied with my Mentor Series. And I was also very, very lucky to have known those players. I thought 'this is really my life's work.' It's really a culmination of my life's work. I may never do another CD after my Mentor Series but it feels like a very important completion of who I am and to say think you to Son house, Fred McDowell, Rev. Gary Davis. The latest one I've just started is Mississippi John Hurt. We're about two thirds through that recording. I'd like to get up to about six recordings before we think it's a good representation for a box set." The ever-humble Rory Block said she doesn't think she's qualified to comment on future of the Blues or music in general. "Everything that has happened has been unpredicted change," she says. "I will say this, I decided to do my part into turning Blues into a major revival. It's my own personal motive started way back with the "High Heel Blues" recording for Rounder records. Everybody said 'This is not commercial. You'll never make it doing Blues for Rounder, why don't you do rock 'n'roll?' "I am going to say that this music is in a state of revival,' she declares. "I'm going to believe in this. I'm going to tell people the Blues is experiencing a revival. I'm going to act like a star. I'm going to raise my hands up at the end of the night when I bow. I'm going to make this thing be important. Not just me, but acoustic music. I'm going to do my part. I'm going to say who wrote the song before I do it. I'm going to make this as important as I can to as many people as I can reach. "I will not give up on it...ever. That's the only thing I can tell you for sure." Rory In Concert!!
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| Out & About Tuesday, November 13
JC & The Juke Rockers, 7 p.m., Fuego Bistro, Phoenix Wednesday, November 14 Thursday, November 15 Sugar Thieves, 7 p.m., Culinary Dropout, Tempe JV & The Juke Rockers, 5:30 p.m., The Forum, Chandler Blues Review Band, 12:30 p.m., Mesa Arts Center, Mesa Eric Ramsey Hosts OPEN MIC, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Hans Olson (EVERY THURSDAY), 6 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Arizona Blues Project, 8 p.m., Harold's, Cave Creek Friday, November 16 44 s, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Hans Olsen, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 7:30 p.m., Rags, Youngtown Pop Top, 6 p.m., Mountain View Pub, Cave Creek JC & The Juke Rockers, 6:30 p.m., Taco Guild, Phoenix Sugar Thieves, 8 p.m., Arizona Biltmore, Phoenix Hoodoo Casters, 8 p.m., El Dorado, Scottsdale Blues Review Band, 10 a.m., Wickenburg Arts Festival, Wickenburg Paris James, 6:30 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Mesa Saturday, November 17 Hans Olsen, 6 p.m., Fatso's Pizza, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 7:30 p.m., Rags, Youngtown JC & The Juke Rockers, 2 p.m., River Bottom, Florence Big Daddy D & The Dynamites, 9 p.m., Gopher Hole, Flagstaff Sugar Thieves, 7 p.m., Janey's, Cave Creek BluZone, 8 p.m., West Alley BBQ, Chandler Blues Review Band, 10 a.m., Wickenburg Arts Festival, Wickenburg Paris James, 6:30 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Chandler Mother Road Trio, 2 p.m., Aspen Place, Flagstaff Mother Road Trio, 6 p.m., Mother Road Brewery, Flagstaff Sunday, November 18 Big Daddy D & The Dynamites, 3 p.m., Steel Horse, Phoenix Blues Review Band, 10 a.m., Wickenburg Arts Festival, Wickenburg True Flavor Blues, NOON , Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, November 19 |
Weekly Jams
Sunday
Rocket 88s JAM, 4 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
Sir Harrison, JAM every other Sunday, The Windsock, Prescott
MONDAY
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Weatherford Hotel JAM, 6:30 p.m., Flagstaff
TUESDAY JAM Sir Harrison, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Rocket 88s, JAM, 6 p.m., The Last Stop (Old Hideaway West), Phoenix
Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe
Tailgaters JAM, 7 p.m., Glendale
WEDNESDAY Tool Shed NEW JAM Party, 6 p.m. Gabby's, Mesa
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler
Friday
Saturday Bumpin' Bud's JAM 2nd & 4th Saturdays JAM, 6 p.m., Marc's Sports Grill |
| GOT BLUES? If you are a Blues musician, a group, or a club that features Blues music, and would like to be listed, please send your info to info@phoenixblues.org and we'll be happy to list your event in our weekly Out & About section of the newsletter |
| Moved? Changed email addresses? Please let us know of any changes in your address, email, or phone number so we can keep you informed about the Blues community in Arizona. Email us at: info@phoenixblues.org or write to: Phoenix Blues Society P.O. Box 36874 Phoenix, Arizona 85067 |
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