Fading blues and closing cafés

Like most of us, musicians are severely impacted by the downturn in the economy when venues go out of business and disposable income drops.

By Bhuchung D. Sonam

Visits to cafés and lounges that host blues music shows in Boston may give the impression that the blues may be flourishing. But then impressions can be deceptive.

"The blues scene in Boston has been diminishing over the past 10 years. There was a time when you could go see a great blues band seven nights a week. There has also been a general decline in talent pool," said Ryan Fardy, 23, a young local favorite who opened for the legendary Chaka Khan, Leon Russell, Snoop Dogg and others.

John Parnaby, a blues man who has played pop to art rock, Brit Rock, R&B, and funk is more optimistic.

"Boston has a very vibrant blues scene," he said. "The number of blues jams in the greater Boston area, especially on the South Shore where I'm based, seems to have grown in just the past two years."

However, the fundamental impact of the dot-com era of the 1990s and the advancement in digital technology has affected the way people enjoyed and shopped music. Avid bluesman Scott Lerner, 27, maintained that digital copying of music killed whatever small market there was for local blues musicians. It also changed social habits.

"When is the last time that you heard a live band at a wedding party, or a high school prom? The tradition of inviting musicians to social events is fading. DJs and Top-40s punched in iPod replaced live bands," Lerner said.

While some are quietly optimistic about the present scene and the future path for the blues in Boston, others are scathingly skeptic.

"There are already more bad harmonica players and way too many loud guitar players than the world needs or can tolerate," said Bruce McGrath, 53, a musician since the age of 15, who currently plays with local blues singers like Diane Blue, Bellevue Cadillac and Ryan Fardy. "A lot of people in this business are fueled by ego and testosterone, not creativity and musicianship," he said.

Lerner also has a grim outlook on Boston blues. "It's a general trend because even in cities like Chicago there is slowdown," he said.

But almost everyone agrees that blues music, like most forms of entertainment, has taken a severe beating due to the current economic downturn.

"The present state of the economy is devastating on musicians as the public has less or no disposable income to spend on entertainment," McGrath said.

Parnaby said that if clubs are not making money and venues close, both musicians and listeners suffer. "It seems to me that the pay scale for bands these days isn't much different than it was 25 years ago... not a very positive thing for today's musicians unless they have something else to fall back on," he said.

Fardy echoes the general sentiment that the economic downturn forced people to spend less on live music and visiting bars. "Blues bands are losing work as a result," he said.

Boston's blues music scene saw better days in the 1940s and 50s. It experienced a revival in the late 1960s when many of today's elder bluesmen moved in from places like Mississippi and Chicago. In the ensuing decade, the initial euphoria slowed down and many musicians who had enthusiastically embraced blues moved on.

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But musicians take nothing for granted, as most of them have day jobs and play at night or during weekends. Many, such as Fardy, teach music on the side.

"I come from a professional background. Our drummer Jon is a successful attorney, Dave's an IT guy and Scotty has a degree in accounting," Parnaby said of his band Sokinwet.

A positive outcome of the slump in economy, according to Parnaby, may be that people stay closer to home. They still need to socialize and live life and hence, he feels, the number of people coming to blues jams and cafés has not decreased visibly.

The blues has survived previous bad times and some the music will do the same now. During the Depression, many blues singers found it difficult to make a living as the recording industry cut back on signing blues musicians. But then the 1940s and 50s were golden era for blues music. Michael Bunchie, 68, a life-long blues fan, said there is hope that the blues will sail through this difficult time.

The larger question, perhaps, is whether the blues will be vibrant enough to strike a chord in the younger generation.

Though blues music traditionally has never been the most commercially viable, its expression of human emotions ranging from loneliness to freedom is universal. Audiences' reactions in some cafés and lounges in Boston make this clear. Moreover, its influence on many other forms of music like rock & roll, jazz, hip-hop and rap is a testimony to its depth and class.

Parnaby summed it all up: "My hope is that this recognition helps the blues continue to flourish as an art form and, of course, commercially!"