ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
In the June “Backtalk,” Jan Ramsey asked Neil Portnow about a music museum in New Orleans, and he said, “It has to be well thought out, because frankly, the museum business is a tough business. The Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and Paul Allen’s [Experience Music Project] in Seattle—they’re struggling.”
I can’t speak to the R&R Hall of Fame, but I can sure address EMP, since I live five miles from it.
When it opened six years ago this month, we all had high hopes. We thought we’d finally come up with a place that would serve as a central support facility for the humongous Seattle music community, a prime showcase for local bands, a real base of support that is perennially lacking around here. EMP threw a huge grand opening weekend—several days of big headliners and local groups.
After the buzz began to die down, the holes began to appear. Twenty bucks to get in the door, just as Seattle was hitting the dot-com wall. Little actual support for local bands, cryptic employees running around in black shirts with headsets like Secret Service agents, a rather sterile environment inside the building. In the final analysis, EMP never delivered on its promise. One of the more egregious moves was to eliminate part of the music museum and replace it with a Science-Fiction wing! Bob Santelli, a bona fide blues scholar who was hired away from the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame to run EMP, was more or less “demoted” a couple years ago. Hundreds of jobs have been slashed, and virtually all of the original EMP music hierarchy has either left or been fired.
EMP’s biggest problem is that, for all its pretensions to the contrary, it is fundamentally disconnected from the concept of music as a community resource, and musicians as a resourceful community. So, when Portnow cites EMP as “struggling,” it’s not because it’s a museum. It’s because it never had its act together in the first place. Whatever reservations he and the Grammy people have about New Orleans, it would be inappropriate to cite a “struggling” EMP as a reason why New Orleans shouldn’t have a museum of its own.
—Jeff Jaisun, Seattle, WA
A WISE INVESTMENT
First off, let me state for the record that your magazine is a spiritual elixir! I’m proud to subscribe to help you save New Orleans with music. I have lived in your sister city and Red Stick [Baton Rouge] for 20-plus years and have frequented New Orleans music haunts for all of that time. Through it all, your magazine has been my tour guide. You have enriched me—and now I feel compelled to subscribe for the first time. It’s the best $29 investment I can think of.
—Jeff Hale, Baton Rouge, LA
WE STAND CORRECTED
The Geoffrey Himes article on Bob Dylan states Bob was born in Hibbing, MN. In fact, he was born in Duluth, and moved to Hibbing a few years later. Also Highway 61 continues past Duluth all the way to the Canadian border (another 150 miles). It continues in Canada (another 45 miles) as the “Kings” Highway 61 ending in Thunder Bay, Ontario (where I live). I think of 61 as a river drawing people from the continental interior to the fertile delta of New Orleans much the same way as the Mississippi river has.
I attended Jazz Fest 2006 (first weekend) and had a great time. I hope to return for Jazz Fest 2007.
—Dennis Dacey, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Regarding the Earl Stanley article in your April 2006 issue. Earl Stanley and the Stereos were a legendary combo. The group in the photo with Earl Stanley also recorded under the name the Links and from left to right in the photo are as follows: Earl Stanley, lead guitar; Glen May, guitar; Nicky Bodine, bass; Lloyd Poissenot, drums. I should know because I was there in the Dream Room with them that day. Thanks for clearing this up for posterity.
—Lloyd Poissenot, Fort Davis, TX
We should also point out that in “Back to the Fest,” we inadvertently omitted Dean Shapiro’s name from our list of contributors. In the reviews, there is an awkwardly truncated version of Ruby Masters’ review of Shawn Mullins’ Ninth Ward Pickin’ Parlor. To see Masters’ full review, go to OffBeat.com. Our apologies to Dean and Ruby.—Ed.
