Mike Wheeler says he's lined up 16 shows in April at clubs in his hometown of Chicago — a good run, but nowhere near the number he played before the pandemic. “Things are 50% normal,” says the veteran singer-guitarist, who has performed with Buddy Guythe late one BB King and Coco Taylor. “[There are] more clubs open now, but mostly from wednesday to sunday. We're trying to find as many gigs as I can get in town, but in terms of touring and revenue, it's kind of limited.”
Even in a blues mecca like Chicago, the genre has received significant success in recent years. Artists and club owners in music-vibrant cities cite several culprits — rising crime rates, the extended pandemic-era habit of staying home, competition from nearby music festivals, home delivery of booze and the recent news deaths of Lonnie Brooks, Jimmy Johnson, James “Tail Dragger” Jones and members of The Kinsey Report.
“It's sporadic, to say the least,” he says Lisa Pellegrino, who runs Chi-town's famous blues club Kingston Mines. “I don't think anyone has a banner year.”
While Tony Maggiulo, founder and owner of nearby Rosa's Lounge, is more optimistic — “Business is good, that's all you need to know,” he says — acknowledging that the pandemic has changed fans' concert-going habits. “At 1:30, 2 in the morning, people are tired, the musicians are tired and so are we. In the past, you would have people staying late. I really hope we get back to it.”
Through the disorderly constellation of indie labels, roadhouses and juke joints, the blues business is reinventing itself. Its biggest stars have died, retired or scaled back their tours, leaving fewer headliners to carry festivals and weekend club dates. And while artists like Wheeler and clubs like Rosa's keep the lights on with hard-drinking patrons, ticket fees and ticket sales, the pandemic and its aftermath have forced many to rethink their models.
Mangiullo has invested in live streaming and hopes to release live album compilations this fall. Venerable Chicago-blues indie label Alligator Records has partnered in 2021 with a new music label, Exceleration Music — founded by the former CEO of Concord Music Group Glenn Barros — to handle physical distribution and other operations; and a new generation of stars, from singer Shemekia Copeland to guitar hero Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, has expanded the playing field from traditional clubs to concerts at arts centers and festivals, social media networking and satellite radio.
US streaming numbers for the genre have grown 41% since 2020, from 1.7 billion in 2020 to nearly 2.5 billion last year, according to Luminate. (Compared, Taylor Swift she raised 17.5 billion on her own.) But the owners of indie blues labels say the revenue has little impact on their bottom lines. “It takes a lot of streams to make a nickel,” says the MC Records owner Mark Carpentieri says. “Our best-known classic artists like Hound Dog Taylor, Koko Taylor and Albert Collins have a lot of life on streaming services,” says Bruce Iglauer, founder of 53-year-old Alligator Records. “Our lesser-known artists don't benefit much from them.”
The genre is still based on touring, and if blues stars are using social media to market to their former die-hard fans, they're more likely to use Facebook instead of TikTok. They also sell albums and CDs at concerts for autograph seekers, and record labels try to make as many titles available on vinyl as possible.
Ingram, whom Iglauer calls Alligator's “biggest success story,” is a 25-year-old guitar hero who has grown into a top global festival act, even though his most popular album, 2021's 662, has just 9.3 million streams in the United States and has sold 29,000 copies. Many in the blues world point to him as the future, a new talent who can renew the genre. At first, Ingram's friends were into hip-hop and didn't care much for the blues. today, he says Advertising sign“I see a resurgence in young people who like it, especially young black kids.”
Ingram's manager, Rick Whitney, says blues artists broaden their audiences by supplementing club gigs with performances at festivals, art centers and other venues that feature a wider range of musical genres and styles. “There are a lot more places that are open to booking blues talent that aren't necessarily blues clubs,” he says.
Veteran blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassawho estimates his post-pandemic ticket sales are “back and then some,” says he has expanded his marketing efforts to rock fans in attendance Foo Fighters, eagles and red hot chili peppers shows. “We always looked at it from the point of view [that]'If Eric Clapton can draw 15,000 people in a market, there are clearly 15,000 people who like that kind of music,” says Bonamassa. “It's a classic rock/blues based audience and that's where you want to target.”
Bonamassa suggests that artists and clubs determine the demographics of their fan base through Google Analytics and other data tools, then “laser-focus marketing to the people who love that shit.” An effective blues negotiator has been Copeland, who uses her show on SiriusXM's Bluesville channel to promote her albums and do steady weekend touring. “This year is going to be one of the best financially she's ever had,” says her manager, John Hahn.
Others struggle or modify their business strategies. Terra Blues, the 34-year-old club in New York's Greenwich Village that books acoustic locals like guitarists SaRon Crenshaw and Jr. Mack, relies on the indulgence of an owner. “If not for that, we'd probably be closed,” owner Ilan Elmatasays d. “The blues don't tour anymore. It is very expensive. These days, they stay where they are, whether it's Mississippi or Arkansas. There are no blues clubs from Philadelphia to Montreal. We are the only ones.”
The departure of reliable artists from touring, whether they have retired or died, has driven the talent buyer to Austin Jacques Ernst to rethink his approach to booking Antone's Nightclub and the Austin Blues festival. For years, the club's late founder, Clifford Anton, was tight-lipped about traditional artists, but Ernst says he's “lucky if I can do one or two blues gigs a month.” And while blues festivals across the United States once relied on middle-of-the-road artists from Luther Allison to Coco Taylor, the Austin Blues festival has expanded its lineup beyond genre, much like the New Orleans Jazz festival in recent years. years. Headlining this year's festival are Buddy Guy (whom Ernst calls “Chicago's ultimate blues headliner, period”), Brittany Howard and blues-adjacent acts from Big Freedia to Dumpstaphunk.
“Everywhere, promoters are dealing with, 'How do you deal with an aging fan base?' How do you deal with a declining number of headlines that appeal to the baby boomer generation?” says Ernst. “We don't get too strict about explaining exactly what we do. We just say, “Hey, this is great music. Have a great time.'”
This story appears in the April 27, 2024 issue of Advertising sign.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/blues-music-reinventing-fewer-clubs-headliners-expanded-genre/
