The Blues in black and white

At stake is a music that gave rise to jazz, gospel, pop, rock, rap and hip-hop – the pillars, really, of the American sound.

If the blues subsists in a few saloons on the South and West sides, if a generic version proffers T-shirts and such in rooms downtown and on the North Side, you have to wonder how the music stays connected to the community that created it.

The clubs, after all, always have been the lifeblood of Chicago blues. And in more ways than one, they’re failing.

To understand how far the scene has fallen, you need to understand how high it once soared. From the 1950s to the ’70s, blues joints lit up the night in the city’s African-American neighborhoods. Practically every saloon had someone playing in the back of the house, the electrified music beckoning people off the street.

“There were so many places on the West Side and South Side that some nights we would just drive around with the window down and listen for the music coming out of the clubs,” remembers Jim O’Neal, a founder and former editor of Living Blues magazine, who began exploring the music in Chicago in the 1960s.

“There could be as many as 30 bands playing on a weekend night in Chicago, up until the ’70s,” recalls Bob Koester, founder of the Chicago blues and jazz label Delmark Records.

“Back in the day, you could go to 10 or 15 clubs a night, all along Madison Street, Roosevelt Road, 43rd Street, King Drive, 47th Street, 39th Street,” says veteran bluesman Eddie Shaw.

“These were neighborhood bars that had world-class blues bands playing,” observes Bruce Iglauer, founder of Chicago’s Alligator blues label. “I could sit 25 feet away from Howlin’ Wolf.”

The list of blues joints seemed almost endless: the Checkerboard Lounge, Theresa’s, Pepper’s, the Rat Trap, the 1815 Club, the 708 Club, Castle Rock, Big Duke’s Blue Flame, the High Chaparral, the Burning Spear, the Seeley Club, Turner’s Lounge, Florence’s Lounge and dozens more.

“On Roosevelt Road,” says Shaw, “you could go from door to door for blocks and blocks.”

But it wasn’t just the sheer number of places that nurtured Chicago blues – it was what happened inside those oft-dilapidated but sacred spaces. A cultural tradition was communicated not only from musician to listener but, equally important, from elder to apprentice. In these barrooms, young artists learned from the masters a music that to this day cannot be fully written down or taught in conservatories.

“In 1972, ‘73, I would see Billy Branch _ before he became a major musician – sitting in with Lefty Dizz,” remembers Sterling Plumpp, the prominent Chicago blues poet. “I would see these older musicians show him things on harmonica.

“That kind of thing happened in the African-American community all the time. ...

“They were all hanging out.”

And they were transmitting a cultural heritage.

Times and tastes naturally change, and a litany of well-documented developments battered the neighborhood blues club: the aging of the audience; the economic decline of the South and West sides; the businesses destroyed in rioting after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; the rise of rock ‘n’ roll and, later, rap and hip-hop.

As if in response, a North Side blues scene took hold in the 1970s and ‘80s, dramatically altering the musical equation. Long-gone rooms such as Mother Blues, Wise Fools Pub, Biddy Mulligan’s and Blues Etc. – and still-lively clubs such as Kingston Mines, B.L.U.E.S. and Blue Chicago – gave musicians better pay and exposure to a new audience of tourists and affluent locals. To this day, the major rooms offer musicians first-rate production values and a steady calendar of engagements. Behemoths such as the House of Blues, a chain operation on North Dearborn Street, and Buddy Guy’s Legends, a powerhouse in the South Loop, present a mix of Chicago and touring bands seven nights a week.

The music lives.

Yet the nature and purpose of these places are far different from the rough-and-tumble spots – the “bucket of blood” joints, as poet Plumpp calls them – that gave the world electric blues in the mid-20th century.

“Nowadays a lot of Chicago blues clubs feel like Hollywood movie sets,” observed David Grazian, author of “Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs,” in a 2003 interview with the University of Chicago Press. “On the surface, they feel ramshackle and rusty – the bar stools are worn out, the plaster is falling off the walls, and the floor seems barely mopped.

“But if one pans across their ... dimly lit rooms, one begins to notice the bouncers with their headsets; the souvenir shops loaded with T-shirts, trinkets and other tourist trap fare; and the well-heeled out-of-towners who arrive by limousine and tour bus, oblivious to the fact that many of these seemingly dilapidated clubs are located in some of the richest neighborhoods in the city.”

Surely the faux roadhouse ambiance of the House of Blues, Blue Chicago, Kingston Mines, B.L.U.E.S. and others have been designed to evoke – or impersonate – an earlier, earthier incarnation of the classic Chicago blues club or Southern juke joint. At their best, these rooms present top-flight artists, such as Branch, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater and Vance Kelly. At their worst, they serve up endless repetitions of “Sweet Home Chicago,” “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Got My Mojo Working” – a pileup of musical cliches that Iglauer calls “the set list from hell.”

Which is precisely what the tourists expect.

“When a lot of people come to Chicago, they want to get pizza, see Michael Jordan and hear the blues,” says Brian Fadden, manager of Buddy Guy’s Legends. He hastens to add that the club draws locals as well as out-of-towners, and presents both touring stars and homegrown talents.

Even so, Chicago blues now “can become like a tourist music, like Dixieland is in New Orleans, where people go to Preservation Hall to see the old musicians playing the same old songs over and over again,” says former blues editor O’Neal. “A lot of people who come to those clubs downtown or the North Side want to hear that. It provides work for the musicians. ...

“But I think it’s important that the blues keeps in touch with its roots.”

Right now, though, it’s the tourists who keep the major rooms humming.

“If you took the out-of-towners from all the clubs, we’d all be in trouble,” says Blue Chicago owner Gino Battaglia.

Artistically, though, the trouble already is here. The recycled repertoire deadens the art form. The repetition of the same bands as weekly attractions freezes out young musicians, further calcifying the blues in Chicago.

“I’m not sure where the good young artists are going to come from,” says Iglauer.
They’re out there, but they’ve got their own challenges navigating the clubs.

For whites, it’s one thing.

“There’s a stigma, a bad idea about how a bluesman must speak a certain way, sing a certain way, smoke a certain way, drink a certain way,” says Guy King, a 34-year-old musician who was born and raised in Israel and migrated to Chicago.

“That stigma is not correct. It’s not fair to the people who play this music and sing it well. I’ve tried to perfect my craft. ... Let people enjoy it for what it is.”

For blacks, it’s another.

“When you’re a younger musician, a lot of older people don’t take you seriously in the blues,” says Chicago guitarist Eric Davis, 39. “There’s a stereotype that’s placed on younger musicians ... and it affects how you’ll be accepted by the club owners and the audience.

“I don’t really have as much of a problem with it now, but five or six years ago I sure did.”

In the end, it’s not only the musicians who suffer; it’s the blues, as well.