Feature
Where Do All the Guitars Go? by Chris Robin, President Mazda Midland/Odessa Presenting Sponsor, Tall City Blues Fest 2014 It’s always struck me how guitar sales never seem to slow down. I mean, really, it’s quite extraordinary how many manufacturers of guitars there are, each with a vast selection of models. It’s like the ‘business math’ just doesn’t add up for me. I know many artists amass quite a collection of guitars, but still, haven’t you ever wondered where do all the guitars go? As my years of interest in guitars and Blues music have strummed along, I’ve been lucky enough to be on the ground floor of Tall City Blues Fest. My involvement with the Fest began the first year as a minor sponsor and, over the last three years has morphed into something much bigger. This year, I now have the good fortune of being the presenting sponsor for this 4th annual Fest. In one of my countless conversations with Lisa and Ronn(1) about the Fest, the question inevitably came up about how they acquire the incredible talent they put on at the Fest each year. I learned that one of their secrets of talent acquisition, not surprisingly, is in Memphis, Tennessee, on none other than Beale Street. Annually, there is a ‘not so secret’ International Blues Challenge (IBC), which is essentially a Blues mecca beckoning talent from around the world to come to Memphis and compete for the coveted title of IBC 2014 Winner. As I listened to Lisa and Ronn talk about this annual pilgrimage being a scouting source for the Fest, the root system of my interest in this spectacle began to take form. Before I knew it, our flights were booked and we were heading out. On January 22, the wheels of our plane hit the ground, our bags hit our rooms and we hit Beale. For the next three days, we roamed in and out of clubs listening to the intoxicating elixir of the over 230 bands that had descended on the legendary Beale. The cast of characters in attendance not only included the performers and thousands of Blues enthusiasts, but also Blues purveyors like Don Wilcock, the Don Quixote of roots music and biographer of Buddy Guys’ ‘Damn Right I Got the Blues’; Vinny ‘Bond’ Marini, host of Music on the Couch and with whom Lisa and I got to sit in as ‘couch kids’ and talk about the Fest; and Chef Jimi, Founder of the Blues411.com blog who incidentally drives a Mazda CX-5! 8
Festival Founder, D. Craig Smith(2) joined our ‘line-up’ on this trip, and for Craig and me, this was our maiden voyage. As we embarked on what would turn out to be a 100-hour passage, I later figured out why Lisa and Ronn have become so passionate about the Fest. Being on Beale Street during the IBC is like being at a revival where you get satiated with all the dialects of this musical religion and are still hungry for more. The first thing that struck me about Beale Street is the intimacy of this name that looms so large, yet is so small in stature… just a mere three blocks. We roamed from one end to the other countless times visiting venues with names like the New Daisy, Rum Boogie Cafe, Blues City Cafe, and Silky O’Sullivan’s nestled among classic staples like Hard Rock Cafe and B.B. King’s. The energy of it all made these clubs seem like cathedrals that had been erected like a pulpit for the powerful preaching of the Blues. The set-up for the event is simple. Every club, on this three block stretch of legends, hosts eight acts each night and performers have 25 minutes to wale, bend, face meld and be judged with the hope of moving on to the next round. From the perspective of a Blues lover, IBC is like the promised land. Imagine a wine connoisseur being able to stand in one spot and only feet away, in every direction, there are 20 wineries each serving their best eight wines every night and you have a ticket to them all. And then, incredibly, just as the evenings unlimited tastings are concluding, the best of the best assemble and make a blend that will only ever be poured that night only and never again. This is what it’s like and the best way I know how to describe the after-hours jam sessions. They usually really get cranking around midnight or so, but no one is really keeping time. Both players from the competing bands and the ‘heavy-hitters’ unite, and by ‘heavy-hitters’, I mean the players that are long past competing in their careers and are well on their way. Sometimes there might be a dozen or more of them on stage at one time all playing together, taking cues from one another and taking leads. Watching it all unfold feels like bathing in the foundation of youth. It seems impossible to not get lost in the alchemy of the music and the savory of the moment is made even sweeter by knowing that what you’re witnessing will soon only be a figment of your memory that can never again be re-manufactured. With more than 230 acts competing, it is impossible to see everybody, but there were a few acts that were a ‘must see’ because they were on Ronn and Lisa’s radar screen for the Fest. One such act was Castro Coleman, who performs as Mr. Sipp, because he is a MissisSIPPi native. Sipp was scheduled to perform at Rum Boogie and when we walked in for the show, the crowd was chestto-back. Rum Boogie is bequeathed with a spiral staircase, so we promptly made our way up thinking we might get more breathing room upstairs. We’d been up there earlier when we were interviewed by Music on the Couch host Vinny Marini, who had ‘set up couch’ in Rum Boogie, but now no such luck; it was just as crowded as downstairs. With the emcee already on the microphone, we knew the countdown had begun forcing our anxiety