Tales from the Front

I just read the piece on David Grazian's, "Conning the Blues," http://www.sas.upenn.edu/home/SASFrontiers/upfront.htm and, as a working musician, have a couple of comments.

First, this quest for "authenticity" leads nowhere. The word, "authentic," means "real" but it has been abused by advertising to confuse the consumer and has lost its meaning. Is Coke the "real thing?" Are Levi jeans "authentic jeans?" Are their competitors not real, or "authentic?" Music, like other arts, is sold as a commodity, that is, it fulfills a need and can be traded, but it requires an audience to complete the experience. Are these experiences not real? I say, they are real, and the only reason the question of "authenticity" is asked is because advertising has made us question the reality of our experiences. It's like the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland; we know there is a "real" Matterhorn somewhere else, but to authenticate the Matterhorn experience we would have to go there and ride the roller coaster down that other mountain, which is, of course, impossible, since that coaster doesn't exist.

Second, tourists are the engine for the entertainment business nearly everywhere. The Saloon and Lou's Pier 47 http://www.sfblues.net are both San Francisco tourist joints; in fact, aren't we all tourists? How many of us walk to the gig in the neighborhood? My guess is almost no one. In the US, think of Branson, or Las Vegas--without tourism, both places would die.

(San Francisco's The Saloon is pictured on the left.)

The question of being "authentic" is a global one. Globalization through the internet is removing barriers to communication. There are rock and hip-hop bands on every continent, for example. Don't Japanese rock and roll bands play real rock and roll, or further, how about European blues bands? Or how about American symphony orchestras playing, say, a Beethoven symphony?

Last, "the set list from hell" is a symptom of people's wants and desires. A similar set list also exists in all music, all styles. People like what they know and know what they like, so I find that you gotta stick the familiar in with the new or you lose the audience. Yeah, I'm sick of Mustang Sally too, but I put my heart into it when I play it. I try to give them an "authentic" experience.