Let’s hope we can put the “middle-class” of music back to work……
Put on a little Gurf Morlix as I’m writing this blog/column….and I am reminded of all the tremendous singer/songwriter/musician-type people I’ve had the huge pleasure to meet over these past many years. Of course, I met Gurf at the Kingsville Folk Festival a couple of summers ago where he was performing and I was fortunate enough to be Writer in Residence. I fell instantly in love with his totally and absolutely honest, sincere and straightforward approach to his tunes. It’s something I’ve always tried to do with my writing.
Most of the musical acquaintances I’ve made over the years have been through either my years as a musician or promoting shows for the Wallaceburg Arts Council….which has been a really big privilege over the years. Still remember when I first approached the Arts Council about doing a show. It started when I wanted to meet some musicians in the Wallaceburg area and possibly get a band together. I ran an ad in the old Wallaceburg News asking for “old washed-up rock ‘n’ roll musicians interested in starting a blues band”. I got enough of a response that a blues band did ensue and in the end we were looking for somewhere to play and I wondered if the Arts Council would sponsor a blues night at the theatre in town.
They did and the rest is sort of history. That first blues night was hugely successful and gave me the courage to try something else and it sort of grew from there – one show led to the next show until, finally, I got brave enough to try a series. Called the series the “Glass Onion Folk Club” and it ran for quite a while for sure, featuring shows mostly at the Jeanne Gordon Theatre and here at 201 Margaret Avenue….brought many, many Canadian musical luminaries to Wallaceburg over the years….a sort of who’s who there for a while. Ended up settling in to mostly blues because it paid the best over the years. And I ran all of my shows without benefit of any arts grant. If I didn’t think I could make a show pay for itself, I wouldn’t book it.
My musical go-to guy over the years was a gentleman by the name of Rick Fines and I brought his trio to town a whole bunch of times and sold the show out most of those times. And when I describe Rick as a “gentleman”, I mean it in the truest sense of the word. He is, indeed, the consummate gentleman. And I must say that in all my years of promoting shows, I’ve not met any performer who wasn’t just totally professional at all times. They have been a wonderful group of people to deal with to a person.
One thing running all these shows taught me as well is that there is a tremendous amount of “luck” involved in whether an artist of any sort “makes it” or not. I have told people many times that I have had musicians in my living room that can play better than most of the big music stars, writes great songs and is just the whole package. But instead of playing at Massey Hall or the Hummingbird Centre for big bucks, they are playing in my living room for a few hundred dollars and scraping to get by. My friend, Rick Fines, recently called this group of hard-working talented musicians as the “middle class” in the music industry. And these are indeed the folks I am most worried about during the pandemic. And while I thought my show promotion days were sort of behind me, I am now thinking that perhaps I should be considering running one more series – just to make sure there are places for the “middle class” to play when this dreadful disease is finally defeated. Anyway, just a thought. Not sure I have the nerve for it any longer.
I’m really hoping that when we do finally get the pandemic under control people will be glad to get back out and get going again. There is some fear that people may have gotten comfortable sitting home watching Netflix and they may decide to keep doing that. I know for my generation of folks getting out to big, crowded events may be gradually starting to come to an end. And it’s been mostly my generation that has been the main source of audience for both folk and blues festivals over the last 40-50 years – we have grown old attending these types of events. But that age is ending.
Still, I’m really hoping for a big music comeback….let’s all get out there and support our “middle class” of musicians and remember they’re all first-class talents and worthy of our support. If I do decide to run one more series, I guess I’ll be checking to see what Mr. Fines and the boys are up to….for sure.