March 2010
WHIRL Features > Pittsburgh Blues Festival 2009
Steve Berlin has a voice almost as smooth and as smoky as his saxophone when he calls one afternoon from Portland to talk about Los Lobos’ upcoming visit to the Pittsburgh Blues Festival, to gloat about how great his fantasy baseball team is doing — thanks to Pittsburgh Pirates’ Nyjer Morgan — and to talk about the band’s latest album, The Town and The City.
The newest release from the legendary blues-rock band starts with “The Valley,” a tune that begins with the tripping of a tired and hollow tap of a drum. David Hidalgo’s guitar answers, with its crestfallen signature scribbling electricity across the track in woeful, whining wattages. And then the singer purrs, rasps, grieves the lyrics.
To a place so far away
Across the land
Where the earth was
As tough as clay…” — “The Valley”
It is an album that was written as an ode to East Los Angeles, where Los Lobos guitarist Louie Perez grew up and struggled in the face of immigration as an outsider. The themes echo the earliest foundation of the blues, a genre of music that rose up from the oppressed south, born when men dragged knives across guitar strings in Memphis and slaves were celebrating their newfound freedom. It was historian Lawrence Levine who said, “There was a direct relationship between the national ideological emphasis upon the individual, the popularity of Booker T. Washington’s teachings, and the rise of the blues.”
Before the rock n’ roll of the 1950s and the English invasion of the 1960s dominated Pittsburgh radio, the blues bled onto our airwaves, like muddy waters from the south, bringing with them the sounds of Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, and George “Harmonica” Smith.
WYEP 91.3 FM’s Wrett Weatherspoon remembers the early days. “Pittsburgh had and has a rich bed of music, period — but blues especially. They are emotional songs with sad messages — ‘you done me wrong’ and ‘I did my best’ and ‘come back home’ — but as despairing as they sound, they are alive and vibrant.”
Witherspoon has produced his own radio blues show in Pittsburgh for 20 years — “It keeps me off the street on Saturday nights,” he says with a laugh — and is credited for not only keeping independent radio alive in Pittsburgh, but with keeping the tradition of the blues alive.
He’s watched local greats come through the ranks, favoring Billy Price and Jill West. “When I play a Pittsburgh artist, I very rarely say it’s a Pittsburgh artist; they stand toe-to-toe with national artists.”
“...Looked at their handsLooked all around
And they seemed pleased
At what they had found…”
Standout artists in the region inspired the beginning of the Pittsburgh Blues Festival, which, this year, celebrates 15 years. Ron “Moondog” Esser is the chair, in charge of booking, and owns the Blawnox blues club that shares his nickname.
Esteemed blues artist Robert Cray, who is headlining the festival with Los Lobos, worries that blues clubs like Esser’s are disappearing. “There just aren’t as many clubs offering it,” Cray says. “But blues has always been the kind of music you had to search out. You have satellite radio now, but college radio and independent radio, those stations you really had to find, were the places that kept the blues alive.”
Cray also says that radio is responsible for diversifying the music. “Blues has changed a lot,” he says. “It encompasses a whole lot of different music. The festival’s diversity shows that.”
Cray, the most classical blues performer on the bill, will share a stage with Eric Lindell, Cyril Neville, and Deb Callahan, illustrating variation within the genre.
“I think we have fans who understand and appreciate our diversity and our approach,” Berlin says, whose band has been classified as everything from blues to rock n’ roll to R & B to Tex-Mex. “They’ll definitely get the bluesy side of us; we tend to amp that up for blues festivals. But they appreciate the fact that we try to change it up and do different stuff.”
Cray relates to his friend in Los Lobos. “We all came around in the ’80s. It was an American roots movement. And, in the early days, we were all fans. We were enraptured by the band names and dug the grooves, but we write our own music now. And, I think our songs are getting better. I think we know a little bit better what we’re talking about.”
Life experience is the key to creating and playing the blues, according to Cray. “You always hear about a youngster, a prodigy guitar-player,” he says, “but just because a kid knows a great lick doesn’t make him a great blues player. You just need the life experience to make your music come across.”
“...Here in the valleyBread on the table
Work through the day
For as long as we are able…”
In Pittsburgh, proceeds from the Blues Festival benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. “It’s our biggest event of the year,” says Food Bank CEO Joyce Rothermel. “In these times, of course, it is a critical fundraiser. But it’s also our way of repaying our community’s support with what we hope is a wonderful affordable way to spend a summer weekend.”
Chair Ron Esser notes the journey the Festival has taken, from losing money on the first event, to last year making $223,000 for the Food Bank. “While other festivals are canceling because of the economy, ours is just getting stronger, and that’s honestly because the people from the Food Bank and the people in this city are so committed to its success. The people of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh get behind us, and it’s just incredible,” he says.
The festival also echoes a tradition of music in Pittsburgh and a pastime shared by everyone.
Linda Kubas, manager at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg, says people are still investing in entertainment. “This is what they’re doing instead of taking a long vacation. They’d rather spend $80 for an evening of entertainment than $800 to go away for the weekend.”
Concert promoter Mike Elko says, “Everybody’s in the same boat with the world economy; even big cities are hurting a little bit.”
Elko Productions books many of the shows for the Palace Theatre, which is welcoming George Thorogood and Jonny Lang on August 7, and the Rex Theatre, which has Ani DiFranco on the bill July 8.
Still, he says Pittsburgh supports its music scene, especially in the blues genre. “We’ve had a great year,” Elko says. “Pittsburgh is a hard-working steel town. Anytime you have a working class environment, blues does well.”
“...Green is the valleyBlue is the night
Out of the shadows
Into the light…”
Elko recognizes it’s a new era in the music industry. “You can’t judge success the same way anymore,” he says. “You can’t book shows the same way. You can’t go by what records sell in stores. It’s what you see on the Internet and MySpace now.”
Berlin has kept up with the online revolution, thanks to his teenage daughters. During his call, he browses the computer to see what they’ve been listening to and notes The Decemberists — and Paradise Boys.
He says he becomes a cool guy when he produces music his daughters have heard of, like the recent Lily Allen record and a new album from pop jazz artist Raul Malo. “There’s a song on Malo’s record called ‘Moonlight Kiss’ that my girls love, which makes me happy. They actually called me and said, ‘Dad, there’s this really cool song and somebody said that you produced it.’ So, that’s really cool. I mean that doesn’t happen a lot, but when it does, it’s very gratifying.”
Dad also scored major cool points when he threw an impromptu benefit concert as a fundraiser for his daughters’ public charter school with his friends from REM and score of other bands. “Neko Case, Elvis Costello, and G Love couldn’t make it, but they sent a bunch of stuff for us to auction off, which was incredibly cool.”
Los Lobos has been incredibly cool for longer than some editors of this magazine have been alive. The three-time Grammy Award-winning band put out its first LP in 1978. They famously scored the film Desperado and even more famously — La Bamba, whose title track earned them a spot on every wedding reception soundtrack in North and South America for the last 20 years. The band has toured with Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, and U2 — with whom they played a show at Three Rivers Stadium on October 13, 1987 — groups now considered their peers.
Los Lobos’ The Town and The City was written for East L.A., but it could be about Pittsburgh: anthems of hard work, heartache, love, loathing, and lament in a town and a city that symbolizes who we are and how we feel. The sun rises (or sets, depending on your perspective) over our three rivers and our blue collars. And maybe that’s why Pittsburghers are the toughest critics of the blues: We live it.
As for the value of the band’s experience, perhaps Steve Morse explained it best in The Boston Globe, more than 15 years ago:
“When club owners talk about not hiring musicians unless they have at least 10 years of practice on their instruments, they’re often talking about blues acts. Experience may not count for much in today’s hurly-burly pop world, where trendy bands crop up overnight through MTV videos and fickle radio airplay. But experience rules in the blues, where you’re laughed off the stage if you’re a Johnny-come-lately without serious musical chops.”
The band that’s been playing music together for more than 30 years fits the bill.
“We’re the same five guys playing the same five instruments,” Berlin says. “I think we’re getting the hang of it.”
The 15th Annual Pittsburgh Blues Festival comes Hartwood Acres July 24-26. For more information, visit PghBlues.com, or call 412.460.BLUES. Also visit PittsburghFoodBank.org and LosLobos.com.
To purchase the rights to reprint this article, please email Jennifer Diamond.