It’s been a long hard road indeed for the New Orleans Blues Project. The music economic development project, headed by the tireless efforts of Sally Stevens, has been attempting for years now to both provide social services to local bluesmen and foster a greater recognition of the blues in the rest of us. And, until now, it’s been rewarded with a firewall of indifference and poverty that any bluesman could relate to.
In the words of the project’s own mission statement, “The New Orleans Blues Project employs a two-pronged grass roots approach by providing Louisiana’s ‘unrepresented’ artists with much needed artist support services ranging from clerical and graphic support, contact support, artist development, audience development, publicity and promotion, tour management, and a variety of other services to further their careers and enhance earning power.” In other words, a local resource for blues musicians, cool water in a desert of apathy.
And, for the first time, it appears that the Project has scored a major victory: the project recently received notice from the White House Millennium Council that their application for a Millennium Trail designation for the famous “Blues Highway” has been granted. The Blues Highway received the designation of a Community Millennium Trail “in recognition of efforts to bring the community together to ‘Honor the Past and Imagine the Future,’ by developing a trail that connects people to their land, their history and their culture.”
For the uninitiated, the Blues Highway is a “physical and conceptual heritage trail” linking American communities with a common blues heritage. According to Project Director Stevens, “it traverses the Mississippi River and the old Highways 61 and 49 from New Orleans to the Mississippi Delta to Memphis, St. Louis and Kansas City to Chicago…. and points east to Detroit, Philadelphia and the Piedmont region of the Carolinas; points west to Houston and the Deep Ellum section of Dallas/Fort Worth–the routes traveled by blues men and women from the turn-of-the-century, by modern day touring blues acts, and the communities and cities where blues was born, nurtured and still thrives today.” The New Orleans Blues Project will function as the managing organization for the Blues Highway Millennium Trail, and in doing so will work closely with the White House Millennium Council, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, the National Park Service, and the National Endowment of the Arts, among others.
The launch event for the trail is scheduled for Labor Day weekend, and we’ll have more details here as we get them. The Project’s not stopping there by a long shot, however: the recently formed Dillard University New Orleans Blues Project Collaboration, for example, is looking to implement an academic program to train college interns, community interns, and high school interns to provide support services for local blues artists. Interested in being a part of this development? Contact the Project directly at 1112 Ninth St., New Orleans, LA 70115, or e-mail Sally Stevens herself at [email protected].
Another tribute in the works for early September: specifically, Brint Anderson’s Smiley Lewis concert at Mid-City Rock ‘N’ Bowl on September 8. Anderson, who at this point could be considered one of the blues’ main curators, organized the show to “feature all Smiley Lewis material done as authentic as possible.” So far, we know that Joe Krown will handle the all-important piano work, with the horn section consisting of Chucky Elam, Kevin Clark, and Jeff Albert, and a rhythm section helmed by Mike Barras, Jimmy Messa and Anderson himself. The task of recreating Smiley’s rich baritone will fall to Anderson collaborator Tommy Elskes, an Austin vet who wrote Anderson’s song “Breaux Bridge.” Anderson wants to add that “we will all be dressed appropriately in suits, too.”
Sadly, there’s not a whole lot of blues going on THIS month in the area, what with Jazz Fest, Essence Fest, and the French Quarter Fest all come and gone and Baton Rouge Blues Week not quite here yet. Still, that makes the stuff we do get that much sweeter, doesn’t it? Mem Shannon and the Membership cruise to Samuel’s for two performances on the 11th and the 25th, while Kim Carson pulls double duty as well, gracing the small but spirited stages of Kerry’s Irish Pub on August 7th and Vic’s Kangaroo Café on the 12th. Rockabilly vet and famously reconstituted legend Ronnie Dawson will be rockin’ the Rock ‘N’ Bowl (Mid-City Lanes) on the 19th; be sure and see him now, because this will be his last tour as a rockabilly performer. Ominous. Frustrating News Of The Month, has to go to the Son Seals concert on the 19th; we know that the torrid Chicago bluesman will be in town, but just not where. Even his website hasn’t gotten the news yet. (My guess would be House Of Blues, if I were a betting man.)
Blues NetWatch: Southernmusic.net invites you to view their concert “A Tribute To Sam Phillips,” recorded June 8th at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis (and also recorded for posterity by the A&E television network). Do yourself a favor and check out the amazing RealVideo featuring performances by Ike Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Billy Lee Riley, and Jim Dickinson, not to mention backstage interviews with Sam’s sons Knox and Jerry, as well as Peter Guralnick, and vintage interviews with Sam himself. Musician/Artist DC Langer has several wonderful and colorful blues-themed paintings on her site at www.extracoolart.com: titles like “Nothing But The Blues” and “Southbound” only hint at the dark beauty in her art; be sure and check it out. Website Of The Month Award goes to Tipitina’s official site at www.tipitinas.com. Fabulous design, calendars for both venues, a special webcast-only set of performances, and a couple of “Fess-cams” that show streaming audio and video action from the stages as they happen! The future of local websites? Very probably.
