R&R Music Labs

A week-long Blues festival celebrating St. Louis’ Blues heritage! It kicks off with a cocktail reception by the Blues Society on August 26, which is followed by the Bluesweek Festival on the steps of the Kiel, ahem, Peabody Auditorium.  The beauty of this venue is in its historical significance to St. Louis Blues.  Twenty years ago it was the site of the original Blues Heritage Festival and it also has a larger Blues context in that the songs “Stagger Lee” and “Frankie & Johnny” were inspired by events at the auditorium. The event then shifts into its next phase: The “Soulard Blues Cruise” after several workshops and panel discussions.  With the tagline: “Two nights + 10 clubs + 20 bands = musical memories for a lifetime!” this is sure to be a fun time.  Please check out the festival’s website, my source for this last paragraph and picture.

This is truly an exciting moment for St. Louis music; a festival dedicated to the rich history that we all need to be proud of.  I have a feeling this experience will be completely unlike other festivals in that is about more than just music.  This will be a complete experience that cultivates our interest in our past and hopefully inspires the future.  I’ll be there everyday I am able and for as long as possible and I would encourage you to do the same.  I don’t know why the original festival twenty years ago didn’t continue, but we can’t let that happen this time.  It will be a time enjoyed by all so tell your friends!

Until next time, Keep it LOUD!

I had the opportunity to page through the recently published book on St. Louis Blues entitled, Devil at the Confluence and I am happy to have done it.  Besides the excellent history contained in its pages, the book also comes with a CD of pre-war blues music all recorded in STL.  Gold!  It is now on my short-list of things to purchase but since I haven’t read it fully, I will spare you the lame review I could write at this point and instead ramble about the book’s topic: Blues in St. Louis.

Many places claim ownership of the Blues and that topic is one for another post.  For now, we can all acknowledge that St. Louis has an extremely rich history in Blues music, as it does in many things.  I am concerned, however, that this history may be overlooked throughout our lives as St. Louisans, especially in our formative years.  Why didn’t I know until I researched it myself that Miles Davis, for example, grew up in East St. Louis and that he got his first big breaks at the St. Louis Jazz Club?  We need to embrace our musical history and re-think music education in schools.  It would be easy enough to get kids excited about music if they understood the context in which it is made and the history of which they are a part.

I have discussed the idea of forming a music education organization to go into city schools with the goal of giving young St. Louisans the real scoop on their hometown music history and providing the opportunity to turn that excitement into notes on a guitar, piano, horn, or any other of the music makers of the world.  If we want a vibrant arts scene for years to come, then we have to start young.

This project would need several components: grant writers, outreach to the school system, music (instrument) teachers, and so on, but I think it could be done and have a lasting effect.  I would even try to develop an engineering class out of the studio to further music technology and production skills.  There will be more information coming on this soon, but in the meantime if you have something to bring to the table to help make this happen, please contact me.

Besides that, don’t forget about the amazing Blues music to be found every night of the week in our city.  There’s always some great stuff happening in Soulard, especially at The Oyster Bar, BB’s, and The Beale: I would recommend checking out Brian Curran, Marquise Knox, and Kim Massie for Starters- openers or closers for them will never disappoint either!

Keepin’ it LOUD!

Yeah.  That’s right, a street festival centered around competition between street musicians.  September 11, 2010.  Along Tamm Ave. in Dogtown.  More info soon!

Every institution needs a plan; plans provide direction and a means to the established goal(s).  Our goal is two parts: first- create a sustaining music and arts scene in St. Louis where local artists can thrive on what they do best, second- establish St. Louis as a destination point for artists regionally and nationally.  Declaring goals is easy, implementing them will be a long road.  So here’s the plan:

The established musicians St. Louis now enjoys are a class group, diverse and talented they do a great job providing the soul-fortifying music we all need.   They will be an important part for obvious reasons: if they stop doing what they do, we won’t be having this conversation.  There is a great support network for these artists; blogs and calendars all over the web and in print in St. Louis pointing fans to all that is LOUD is STL.  I will leave the promotions to those who can do it better and I will focus on the strategy for the long-range.  So first, there needs to be an effort to discover and nurture those artists who are not yet established in St. Louis.  The original plan for STL LOUD was a compilation album to be recorded and distributed for free featuring local, undiscovered artists who need to be heard.   We will begin recording the first volume in the Fall after we finish the several awesome projects we are currently working on.  In order to truly make this project successful, it needs to have community support- if you know of a band or an artist who is flying under the radar now and needs a recording to get them going, please contact us and we will get them on the list.  I have heard of a similar project that was just started, which involves showcasing young bands’ performances.  It’s called “Terrible Sound” and its just the kind of thing we need to get behind.

The next phase of the plan needs to involve more large-scale productions featuring local music.  The goal of this, besides getting to attend awesome festivals in our city, is to get St. Louis pumped about local music.  It is often discussed in many circles that there is a lack of civic-pride in St. Louis; we’ve all seen it and it applies to music as well.  I would like to point out a few great examples for anyone still feeling let down with our scene…In March, I had the pleasure of helping to organize City Sound Tracks, the first multi-stage, mass-transit music festival in the country.  We had the privilege of inviting 27 local artists to perform close to two MetroLink stations and give St. Louisans the opportunity to experience great local music and experience their city in a new way.  We are currently looking into a date sometime next Spring for the next one, which will be announced soon.  Another festival that I am excited for is LouFest, a large-scale music festival taking place next month in Forest Park.  This festival aims to be an awesome nexus between national and local artists with an emphasis on sustainability.  I have also heard rumors of a new Blues Heritage festival, but its details remain a secret.  Festivals are a great way to develop community pride in a scene and with these and others that are sure to spring up, we should be headed in the right direction, but there’s always room for more.  For now, the best way to advance this segment of the plan is to support these events and any others that support local music in St. Louis.

The last phase is advancing institutional support, i.e. St. Louis needs legitimate record labels.  This is the least developed part of the plan, because it depends completely upon the other parts’ success.  This is, however, the point of transition from developing a sustainable St. Louis arts scene into the overall goal of establishing St. Louis as a destination city for artists.  The difficulty of this is that the old model for the music industry is dead and a new one hasn’t quite been realized yet, so it will take some creativity and hard work to come up with a new model that will work.  Sometime in the next year, we will begin to make our transition from studio to label, but it doesn’t have to stop there and we’re certainly up for any input that can be given.

There seems to be a lot of energy in St. Louis for just about everything right now and it is a very exciting time to be here.  I am thrilled with the response I have gotten so far regarding STL LOUD and hope that we can together make a difference in St. Louis.  Have a great weekend everyone, and by the way…I heard of some kind of awesome event happening tomorrow night at Off Broadway…something involving Crawfish, boiling water, and awesome music!  It might get LOUD!

I have never wanted to be a blogger.  I’m a St. Louisan who loves his city.  I’m a musician who loves music.  A student of life, and a self-proclaimed old-soul who is tired of not seeing things happen as they should and it is from this corner that I come to you now.  I am here to start a conversation, a loud bar-brawl of sorts in the spirit of local music.  Welcome to STL LOUD!

Having been intimately tied with St. Louis music for the past six years or so, and in the business for the past two, it has become all too clear to me that there is a need for organization and leadership in the music scene here.  Like is the case in many other St. Louis institutions, our fragmented city reflects upon the things we do in life.  It is time for that to come to an end.  Too many musicians leave this city for other “major” arts centers: LA, New York, Chicago, Nashville…the list goes on.  Just like we are challenged to keep college grads in our city in order to improve our future economy and creative potential, we must find a way to keep music and art in this city as well.  The solution to the first issue is attracting firms, which bring jobs to employ the college grads.  In order to do that it is becoming more and more apparent that a city must first attract residents, who are followed by firms thus perpetuating the cycle.  So how does a city attract residents?  I think it comes down to livability.  Yes, the buzzword of urbanism today, but we all want to live in a place where life can be enjoyed.  For some that means yard and garage in the suburbs, for others that means historic building in a walkable neighborhood with transit access.  Aside from that, however, the other consideration is what there is to do.  This is where a strong arts scene is key; it is the ying to the yang of the workplace, the light at the end of the work-week tunnel.

By all accounts, St. Louis’ scene does pretty well to provide us with a buffet of entertainment options, not just on the weekends, but every night of the week as well.  This is, however, somewhat of a skewed perspective.  It is great that there are so many things going on everyday in St. Louis; it almost feels like something huge.  Unfortunately, musicians in St. Louis are all too accustomed to performing for only a handful of people and many feel they’ve reached all the audience they can by remaining in St. Louis.  We cannot accept this, but what’s to be done?  First, let’s celebrate what we do have here, which is truly an amazing music and arts scene, with great people, great places and great art!  Recognizing our strengths, we can be more effective at overcoming our weaknesses, but it won’t be easy and it will take some real collaboration to get things moving.  I am and we are committed to this idea.  So what do you think it will take to groom our music scene into its true potential?  What do we, as purveyors of the arts, have to do to in order to not only keep music loud in STL, but also become a destination for artists?  Will we as a city step up to the mic?

There are several new ideas that I am aware of that seem to share my sentiment.  I will be looking into these and other things happening around town and also presenting ideas of my own on this subject.  I have always been an advocate for the arts, and I really feel that a city cannot grow in one direction without growing in the other too.  STL LOUD is my platform for that advocacy and I hope to start something new in St. Louis.  A movement away from the old ideas of what an arts scene should be, and into a new idea that fits our city and our time.  I hope you are ready.